During his speech on March 15 at the Federation Council, the Commander-in-Chief of the Ground Forces of the Russian Federation, Alexander Postnikov, attacked the Russian military-industrial complex with rather harsh criticism. According to him, most of the samples of manufactured equipment are seriously lagging behind many foreign analogues, and in addition to this, they are sold at clearly inflated prices. As an example, Postnikov cited the T-90, the most modern Russian tank serially produced by the military-industrial complex. As it turned out, in fact, it is not so modern and is the 17th modernization of the T-72 tank. If we consider that the numbers in the names of the tanks correspond to the year of their creation, it turns out that for almost 40 years the domestic tank building has been in place.
Postnikov also said that the price at which the T-90s are being sold (118 million) is several times overstated, and for this amount three German Leopards can be purchased. The commander-in-chief said this, apparently in a rage, since the price of the Leopard is not that much different from the price of a Russian tank, but this does not change the essence of the fact that the T-90 is being sold for a clearly inflated amount.
Naturally, representatives of the military-industrial complex did not postpone the matter indefinitely, and the very next day the press service of Uralvagonzavod, which produces the T-90, reported that the Ministry of Defense itself chose the path of modernizing old tanks, and not developing and purchasing new samples … The Ministry of Industry and Trade, represented by Igor Karavaev, also did not stand aside, reporting that during trials in Saudi Arabia, the Russian tank showed itself much better than all foreign analogues, including the Leopard mentioned by Postnikov. Thus, the T-90 tank hit more than 60% of distant targets, showing the best result in this test. However, for some unknown reason, Karavaev forgot to clarify that after such a "furore" not a single new contract was signed for the purchase of Russian tanks.
The reason for this is not so difficult to understand if you look closely at the shortcomings of the T-90. So, in our most "modern" tank there is still no protection of the crew from the explosion of ammunition, as well as no automated transmission. By the way, this has long become the norm for foreign analogues. There is no onboard system (BIUS) on the T-90, reporting the situation on the battlefield and showing the location of other armored vehicles of its unit. And the commander's sighting and observation complex (PNK-4S) T-90 does not meet any modern requirements at all.
Interestingly, a little over a year ago, Oleg Sienko, the general director of Uralvagonzavod, called the products manufactured by his own enterprises nothing more than "UVZ carts" and said in an interview:
Therefore, it is not so surprising that the T-90 is not in great demand in the world market. It is also clear that the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation is not eager to give big money for a tank that is not so much different from the available T-72s. If we consider that today there are about 20 thousand T-72s in the troops, and according to the plans of the Ministry of Defense, this number must be reduced to 2-4 thousand, then we can understand that the military-industrial complex is very worried about this situation. By and large, nobody in the world needs their products, the Russian army is not interested in it either - it will be much cheaper and easier to upgrade the T-72 than to buy the T-90.
Of course, this does not suit officials from the military-industrial complex, especially after the latest government announcements that 20 trillion rubles will be spent on the purchase of new equipment by 2020. Their appetites have played out, and they will fight to the last to get the state order. So, next week, a rally of workers of the military-industrial complex will take place in front of the building of the Ministry of Defense in Moscow, at which they will demand an increase in the order for their enterprises. It is likely that the Ministry of Defense will yield in the year of parliamentary elections, and instead of our military-industrial complex finally beginning to produce modern and cheap equipment, the troops will begin to receive outdated and useless samples.
