Russia announces delivery plan for first batch of Armata tanks

[Zarvan]

T-14 Armata MBTs roll across Red Square during this year's 9 May Victory Day military parade in Moscow marking the 72nd anniversary of the victory of the 'Great Patriotic War'. Source: M Metzel/TASS/PA

Russia's ground forces have announced that the next-generation Uralvagonzavod T-14 Armata main battle tank (MBT) will enter into initial operational service with the 1st Guards Tank Regiment within the 2nd Guards Tamanskaya Motor Rifle Division, Izvestiya reported on 12 May. The report cautioned, however, that the new tanks would not enter service before 2020.

The announcement was made the week following the end of the Russian May holiday period that begins with the May Day parade at the beginning of the month and ends the day after the 9 May Victory Day parade in Moscow's Red Square.

Placing the Armata in service with this famous military unit is a particularly high-profile move by the Russian Ministry of Defence (MoD) and is intended to generate positive repercussions in more than one sector of Moscow's military machine. The 1st Guards Tank Regiment is a legendary unit that was one of the Soviet units that entered Berlin in the last days of the Second World War.

The placement of Russia's newest tank with one of Russia's most legendary military units is intended to do more than create positive images and "postcard moments" on Victory Day. The Russian MoD is also hoping "to stimulate a general upgrading of the educational level and the ability to operate more sophisticated types of weapon systems among the rank-and-file of the armed forces", read one Russian publication's commentary on the day of the announcement.

Until recently the T-14 would not have found such a prestigious unit to equip.

"Until 2009, the 1st Guards Regiment was part of the Tamansky Division, but during the reform of former defence minister Anatoly Serdyukov the regiment, together with the division, were disbanded. Their regalia and battle standard were then transferred to the 8th Mountain Motorised Rifle Brigade," Izvestiya reported, "but at the end of last year the Ministry of Defence decided to re-form the legendary regiment."

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