These days, the 8th international exhibition of arms is being held at one of the Ural training grounds not far from Nizhny Tagil. A countless number of releases were released for this exhibition, a great many presentations were prepared, and indeed, there was a lot of talk about the exhibition as something grandiose. Literally through every word in those media that published preliminary data on preparations for the exhibition, the concept of “innovative”, which has set the teeth on edge in recent years, flashed through. Apparently, the word “new” no longer suits our gunsmiths, and not only gunsmiths, so to attract mass attention it was necessary to invent something “such”.
However, with all due respect to the ongoing, as we are assured, modernization of the armed forces, weapons that are being prepared for a demonstration in Nizhny Tagil can hardly be called innovative. Certainly, at the Ural EXPO, some samples of armored vehicles will be presented, for example, the modernized T-90S - T-90AM tank, as well as the Terminator BMPT (Tank Support Vehicle), which can be called new, but the vast majority of military equipment is far from innovative. This is either something that everyone has already seen for at least the last 8-12 years, or a small, as it is now fashionable to say "upgrade" of something that has already proven itself. In connection with what, then, is the situation of the resulting stagnation in the production of new ground weapons connected?
One of the answers to this question is what has been happening in our country for a number of years: the customer cannot decide on the equipment he needs. At the same time, the contractor wants to receive for the execution of the order much more than this very customer can offer him. Again, it turns out that "our desires do not coincide with our own capabilities." Well, how is the leadership of the defense department going to solve this difficult task? So far, high-ranking officials are holding a somewhat wait-and-see attitude, but it seems that no one intends to make clear and verified decisions.
Incidentally, there is one more reason that is an obstacle to the modernization of this industry. It lies in the fact that according to the results of the global monitoring of the armored vehicle sales market, an unusual pattern was revealed. It turns out that more than 80% of all global income received from relevant transactions is attributed to the secondary market. In other words, there are many people in the world who want to purchase the same T-80 and T-90 used tank, well, or the one that has been in the hangar for 10 years and has not been fully exploited. Perhaps this suggests that the conjuncture of the conduct of modern combat operations as self-regulation ceases to present massive armored vehicles as the main means of achieving military goals.
If we consider the recent world conflicts, one of which is the war in Libya, it turns out that only Colonel Gaddafi's side fought with the help of armored vehicles. Moreover, this armored vehicle was still of Soviet production. After the airstrike, heaps of burnt metal remained from the armored vehicles. Is the world really at a new stage in military history, when tanks and other ground armored vehicles are gradually fading into the background. The situation in Afghanistan also confirms such thoughts. American troops are no longer trying to take risks, moving in organized columns of armored vehicles across the mountainous landscape. Today, such movement can be called a real suicide. Indeed, any tank or armored personnel carrier will always find its own ATGM, which endangers the existence of both the armored vehicle itself and its crew.
Surprisingly, even a few years ago, the idea of abandoning the use of tanks in the conduct of hostilities may have seemed strange. Today, however, the situation is stubbornly moving in this direction.
However, the Nizhniy Tagil arms exhibition remains very attractive for many specialists. But this attraction is more and more similar to the interest in the show itself, and not in the technical samples presented on this show. The organizers of the 8th Expo show promise. Now Russian "drones" will patrol the training ground, which will be able to transmit a picture of a demonstration battle to special monitors. This will allow you to track the degree of accuracy of the shot, the maneuverability of the tank in certain areas of the range in conditions of intense shelling. In general, for fans of military "action", an exhibition of weapons in Nizhny Tagil is a suitable option. Well, for specialists, the exhibition is rather a demonstration of stagnation in the development of land weapons.
