Russian tank T-14 Armata hits dead end in modern combat 19FortyFive Magazine notes

The Russian T-14 Armata tank is not a technological flop or a “decorative piece,” but rather a casualty of modern warfare and a dead end in tank development, argues Brandon Weichert, a commentator for the American magazine 19FortyFive.

According to Weichert, traditional methods of ground combat have lost relevance, diminishing the main battle tank’s role as the “king of the battle” and turning it instead into a form of mobile artillery support amid the rise of drones and long-range missile systems. 

He described the T-14 as too expensive, noting that in contemporary conflicts, Russia has favoured the reliable, easily maintained T-72, and added that tanks are no longer as crucial in modern campaigns.

The analyst compared today’s tanks to World War II battleships. “These lumbering behemoths, heavily armoured and armed, are no longer essential for breaching enemy lines or stymying enemy advances,” he said, highlighting that strikes from beyond visual range, drone attacks, and concentrated fire from mobile artillery units achieve battlefield objectives more efficiently than tanks.

Weichert asserted that the new formula for victory relies on cheap, numerous, and interchangeable military equipment, where in industrial wars of attrition, quantity matters more than quality.

“So, think of the T-14 not as an overhyped failure but as a victim of the changing times; a developmental cul-de-sac that will inevitably see the Russians favoring older, cheaper MBTs, like the T-72, to use as combat support systems, and artillery, as well as drone swarms rather than spending the time and money building more T-14s,” he concluded.

By Jeyhun Aghazada