In July, Uralvagonzavod deputy director general Vyacheslav Khalitov claimed that Russia’s latest Armata T-14 was the only main battle tank in the world that could compete with the American M1A2-Abrams. Uralvagonzavod is the Russian company that designed and developed the Armata Universal Combat Platform. Is Russia’s Armata really the world’s only tank that can survive a modern warfare?
Armata focuses on crew survivability
The Armata is a multipurpose platform on which will be based a battle tank T-14, a self-propelled artillery platform, a combat engineering vehicle, and an infantry fighting vehicle. The Armata platform can also be used as air defense and nuclear-biological-chemical (NBC) defense systems. The T-14 battle tank is a departure from the Soviet-era tanks as it focuses on crew survivability.
What differentiates Armata T-14 from other tanks is that it has an unmanned remotely-controlled turret armed with the latest 125mm smoothbore cannon 2A82-1M. The 2A82-1M gun offers 15-20% more accuracy than the 2A46M cannon in T-90 tanks, reports Sputnik News. Armata is equipped with reactive armor, passive laminated armor, and the Afghanit active protection system to detect, track, and intercept incoming rounds.
Russia’s Armata weighs just 40 tons
Armata’s turret also carries a 30mm machine cannon that can neutralize low-flying aerial objects such as drones and helicopters. According to Russia’s TASS news agency, Armata weighs just 40 tons and has a maximum speed of 50 miles per hour. It can fire 12 rounds per minute. By comparison, M1A2 Abrams weighs 62 tons and has a top speed of only about 40 mph.
What’s more, Russia plans to give autonomous capabilities to Armata T-14, allowing the tank to fight by itself with little assistance from the crew. National Interest defense analyst Dave Majumdar says it’s quite difficult to say which tank is better. The Russian tank has all the modern warfare capabilities, but it isn’t yet proven in the battlefield. The Abrams boasts of a proven, reliable design. The U.S. tank is being upgraded to M1A3 variant that will be lighter and more mobile.
