ISW report: Russia deconserves up to 40% of tank reserves

The American Institute for the Study of War (ISW) details this in their recent report.

Carnegie Endowment for International Peace’s Russia and Eurasia Program Senior Fellow Dara Massicot suggests that Russia likely extracted the best equipment from the strategic reserve, leaving “worse” or “unsalvageable” equipment in warehouses.

Massicot estimates that “remaining inventory will dwindle in the next couple of years” if Russia maintains its current operational pace.

ISW experts, while unable to independently verify the report at present, point out that recent reports of Russian tank “production” often involve refurbished and modernized tanks from storage rather than newly produced ones.

These analyses indicate that the Russian military is primarily relying on stockpiled equipment for ongoing combat operations, rather than compensating for battlefield losses with new production.

The Institute for the Study of War highlights that “Russia may face equipment shortages in the next several years if Russia’s current loss rate remains the same or accelerates and Russia’s current level of new vehicle production remains the same.”

• It was reported recently that the long-developed Russian tank, initially expected to deploy thousands of units to the troops by the early 2020s, will not be deployed on the Ukrainian front.