Russian forces rely on armored vehicles from storage, but they won't last long - ISW
The Russian army will not be able to compensate for armored vehicle losses for long (Illustrative photo: t.me/suspilnechernihiv)
Russian forces heavily rely on repaired tanks and armored vehicles pulled from storage to replace their losses in equipment. However, likely, Russia will not be able to sustain these losses in the long term, reports the US Institute for the Study of War (ISW).
The report cites Ukrainian Center for Defense Strategies expert Viktor Kevlyuk, who on November 13 noted that Russian forces continue to produce and repair about 150-160 new tanks per month - approximately 1,920 tanks annually. This roughly matches the current rate of replacing Russian tank losses.
According to the Dutch open-source project Oryx, Russian forces have lost around 3,558 tanks since the beginning of the full-scale invasion in 2022.
Kevlyuk also mentioned that about 30% of all Russian tanks produced in a year (around 567 out of 1,344) are newly manufactured, while the remaining 70% are pulled from storage. He pointed out that, based on recent British intelligence estimates, if Russia continues to withdraw tanks and armored vehicles from storage at the current rate, its stockpiles could be exhausted by autumn 2025.
The British International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) in February 2024 estimated that Russian forces could likely endure up to 3,000 annual losses of military vehicles over the next two to three years, reactivating stored equipment.
Ukrainian military observer Kostyantyn Mashovets had earlier estimated that Russia’s defense industry could produce around 250-300 new tanks and repair another 250-300 annually.
Frontline situation
The situation on the frontlines of the Russian-Ukrainian war remains tense.
One Ukrainian soldier pointed out that the Russian army has accumulated a significant amount of armored vehicles and is now actively using them in assaults on Ukrainian positions.
Due to heavy losses, Russian forces are redeploying a division to the Kursk region to replenish their losses.
Over nearly three months of fighting in the Kursk region, the Russian military has lost about 20,000 soldiers and over 1,100 units of military equipment.
