Russian Armed Forces

[Khafee]

Russia Develops Radar to Detect Miniature Drones
October 11, 2019

Radar developed to detect tiny drones (image: Ruselectronics)

Russia’s Ruselectronics Group has developed a radar station that can detect miniature drones measuring one square foot at a distance of up to 7.5 km, Defence holding company, Rostec said.

Called the target illuminating radar, it can detect and track small-size targets with a radar cross-section of 30 and more square centimeters (one square foot), flying at a wide range of speeds at low and ultra-low altitudes.

"The traditional methods of radar-based detection fail to reliably detect unmanned aerial vehicles with a small reflection surface. The device developed by our Ruselectronics Group successfully accomplishes this task," said Oleg Yevtushenko, Rostec Executive Director.

The radar station has been jointly developed by the Salyut Research and Production Association (part of Ruselectronics Group) and the Fakel Design Bureau of Machine-Building. The radar was made using solely Russian components. The first models of the new radar have already undergone field trials, Rostec said.

The station consists of a compact Ka-band multi-channel radar, a rotating device to provide for a panoramic view and a control notebook. The radar can be operated manually and in the automated mode. Upon detecting a target, the station transmits data to an operator’s post or a control center.

Russian anti-stealth aircraft radar: image for reference

The Russian air base at Hmeimim in Syria has come under repeated attacks with small drones. In one incident during early 2018, a swarm of tiny drones numbering over a hundred were launched at the base with more than three fourths of them falling prey to Russian Air Defences.

Since then, the base has come under repeated drone attacks which the Russian MoD claims it has successfully repelled in all cases. It is quite likely that the new drone-detecting radar was developed in response to the Russian Army’s field experience in Syria and may have been tested there too.

Small-size drones may pose a serious danger as they are capable of conducting surveillance, reconnaissance, carrying explosives or other armament and serving as an attack weapon. They can operate on their own or as part of a whole swarm of drones, Yevtushenko said.

 

[Khafee]

Russian Navy MiG-29s conduct deck-landing training in Crimea
18 October 2019

Russian Naval Aviation MiG-29 fighters have deployed to Crimea for deck-landing training at the service's purpose-built Nazyemniy Ispitateiniy Treynirovochniy Kompleks Aviatsii (NITKA) or Ground Test Aviation Training Complex carrier operations facility.

The landing training drills at Saki airbase by the Northern Fleet's 100th Separate Shipborne Fighter Regiment started in September, the fleet's press office announced on 11 October.

It said the regiment's pilots were improving their "skills in taking off from and landing on the deck of an aircraft carrier. So far, 11 flights, 37 flights on a simulator of the deck of an aircraft carrier, and 23 landings have been completed".

 

[Khafee]

Russia’s Il-76MD-90A Completes Initial Tests
October 18, 2019

Russia’s Il-76MD-90A transport plane has completed logistics tests and initial factory flight tests, state-owned UAC announced on Friday.

The aircraft will be flown to the base in Zhukovsky after undergoing remaining factory flight tests, where second round of testing will commence, UAC said in a statement.

“This year, the plant put into operation three serial aircraft. The 2019 production program provides for the construction and transfer to the customer of two more machines,” UAC said.

In late 2012, Russia signed a contract worth 140 billion rubles ($2.1 billion) with the United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) for 39 Il-76MD-90A military transport planes to the Russian Armed Forces. The Defense Ministry announced its plan to place an order for 100 additional Ilyushin planes in March 2019.

The Il-76MD-90A is an upgraded version of the IL-76MD, which is based on the IL-76 cargo aircraft platform. The aircraft is developed to transport a range of military equipment, armed personnel, heavy and long size vehicles and cargoes. The latest modification is distinguished by new equipment, including a glass cockpit, modern PS-90A-76 engines, a modified wing and reinforced chassis. Il-76MD-90A is used to develop Il-78M-90A air tanker.

 

[Fafnir]

Russian Navy flotilla interdicted by the Norwegian Navy and Air Force during transit.

 

[Khafee]

Almaz Antey Delivers New Set of S-400s to Russia
20 Oct, 2019

Russia’s Almaz Antey has completed shipment of the second batch of S-400 air defense systems to the defense ministry, the company announced Monday.

"Almaz-Antey Group has transferred the second regiment set of S-400 ‘Triumf’ surface-to-air missile systems to the Defense Ministry of Russia this year. The delivery ceremony took place at the Kapustin Yar training range in the Astrakhan Region," the defense contractor said in a statement.

The S-400s passed a “verification test” with “real air targets” before being accepted by the ministry, the statement read.

 

[Khafee]

Russia's defense chief: U.S. targets Moscow, Beijing with INF withdrawal
Oct. 21, 2019
By Elizabeth Shim

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu spoke at the Xiangshan Forum in Beijing on Monday. File Photo by Dumitru Doru/EPA-EFE

Oct. 21 (UPI) -- Russia's defense minister said Monday the United States is targeting China and Russia in its unilateral withdrawal from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty.

Speaking at the Xiangshan Forum in Beijing, Sergei Shoigu said the United States is seeking to limit China and Russia's deterrence, South Korean news agency Yonhap reported.

The Xiangshan Forum is hosted by the Chinese government and is similar to the Shangri-La Dialogue, a defense forum held annually in Asia.

Shoigu also said major powers are attempting to undermine the "legitimate interests" of other nations in an attempt to achieve their "narrow national goals."

The Russian defense chief added international relations are deteriorating and that some countries are "persecuting trade and intellectual property exchanges" and discriminating against other countries.

On the U.S. decision to withdraw from the INF Treaty, Shoigu claimed the U.S. "premeditated" the decision, as the Chinese and Russian militaries strengthen their forces.

Shoigu warned the U.S. withdrawal from INF increases the likelihood of deployment in Europe and the Asia Pacific.

"This will create an arms race and increase the likelihood of conflict," Shoigu said, according to Yonhap's Beijing correspondent. "Not only is the United States' Asia-Pacific strategy unclear, but its strategic goals are also very vague."

Russia and China have heralded closer ties in 2019. Both countries have expressed strong distrust of the United States and its allies.

Japan's Jiji Press reported Monday the Japanese government confirmed China has detained a Japanese man in his 40s.

The man, a professor at Japan's Hokkaido University, was an expert in Chinese politics and has previously worked with Japanese government agencies. The man may have been arrested on charges of spying, according to Japanese press reports.

China began arresting Japanese citizens in 2015 on charges of espionage, arresting a total of nine Japanese nationals.

 

[Khafee]

Russia’s Ka-52M combat helicopter to receive AESA radar
Piotr Butowski, Gdansk
21 October 2019

Russia’s Ka-52M combat helicopter is to receive the V006 Rezets AESA radar.
Source: Piotr Butowski

Russia's new Ka-52M combat helicopter will receive new targeting sensors instead of upgraded versions of present systems.

The new V006 Rezets (Cutter) active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar is being developed by the St Petersburg-based Zaslon company for the modernised helicopter. The test version of the radar installed in a Ka-52K helicopter was shown at the MAKS aerospace show held in Zhukovskiy close to Moscow on 27 August-1 September.

The Rezets radar for the Ka-52 has a fixed 900×300 mm AESA antenna with 640 transceiver modules. It can detect a group of tanks from 45 km, a railway bridge from 100 km, and a destroyer-class warship from 150 km, according to the manufacturer. In the air-to-air mode, it can detect a fighter aircraft with a radar cross section of 3 sq m from up to 50 km head-on and a hovering helicopter from 20 km. The Rezets radar weighs 130 kg, 10 kg less than the current Ka-52's FH01 produced by Phazotron-NIIR of Moscow, and is air-cooled, with an air scoop for cooling seen on the helicopter's nose fairing.

The OES-52 developed by Moscow-based NPK SPP will be the Ka-52M's new electro-optical sight; present helicopters have a GOES-451 turret from UOMZ of Yekaterinburg. According to Russian media, the OES-52 is modeled on the Safran Strix targeting sensor for the Tiger attack helicopter. The OES-52 performs similar functions to the GOES-451 and houses five sensors: a thermal imaging camera, TV camera, laser rangefinder/designator, laser beam riding for anti-tank guided missiles, as well as a laser spot tracker. However, it weighs 177 kg, compared with the GOES-451's 220 kg.

 

[Khafee]

This Is the Robot Tank Russia Used in Syria
October 21, 2019
(But it didn't fight well.)
by Sebastien Roblin

Key point: Moscow's new tank was supposed to be a leap forward, but it has a lot of problems.

In May 2018, the Russian military revealed it had combat-tested its Uran-9 robot tank in Syria. The diminutive remote-control tank is noted for its formidable gun and missile armament.

However, just a month later Defense Blog reported that Senior Research Officer Andrei Anisimov told a conference at the Kuznetsov Naval Academy in St. Petersburg that the Uran-9’s performance in Syria revealed that “modern Russian combat Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGVs) are not able to perform the assigned tasks in the classical types of combat operations.” He concluded it would be ten to fifteen more years before UGVs were ready for such complex tasks.

This stands in contrast to a source which told Jane’s that the system had “…demonstrated high performance in an operational environment.”
Robotic armored vehicles are in development across the world, with the U.S. Army planning for its Bradley fighting vehicle replacement to be “optionally-manned.” However, Russia arguably has more aggressively moved towards combat-deploying UGVs. In 2015 Russia’s Military Industry Committee announced its objective of deploying 30 percent of Russia’s kinetic weapons on remote-control platforms by 2025. Current projects include the MARS six-seat infantry carrier, the robotic BMP-3 Vihr (“Hurricane”) fighting vehicle, robotized T-72 tanks, and tiny Nerekhta UGVs that can evacuate wounded soldiers, fire a machine gun or kamikaze charge enemy positions.

The Russian Army reportedly procured twenty-two Uran-9s in 2016 from the JSC 766 UPTK company. The robo-tanks are apparently attached to support infantry and engineer units by engaging in reconnaissance and fire support missions, rather than being concentrated in independent maneuver formations. The Uran-9 is also being offered for export by the state-owned Rostec Corporation, and was photographed being inspected by General Min Aung Hlaing, commander of Myanmar’s armed forces.

The first UGVs were developed a century ago during World War I. By the 1930s the Soviet Union deployed two battalions of remote-controlled “Teletanks” armed with flamethrowers and demolition charges which saw action during the 1939-1940 invasion of Finland. Today, UGVs such as Russia’s Uran-6 have are being successfully employed to clear mines and IEDs in the Middle East and Central Asia. However, few UGVs have been operationally deployed for such complex tasks as detecting and engaging enemy forces.

The rhombus-shaped Uran-9 weighs twelve tons and measures five meters long, one-fifth the weight and just over half the length of a T-90 tank. A diesel engine allows the vehicle to accelerate to twenty-two miles per hour on highways, or six to fifteen mph off-road. The robot’s steel armor plates reportedly protect it from shell splinters and small-arms—though implicitly it may remain vulnerable to other relatively common weapons such as RPGs or heavy machine guns.

Two Uran-9s are transported to the battlefield by a large truck, and then radio-controlled by an operator and commander in an armored 6x6 Kamaz truck. Thermal and electro-optical sights and sensors mounted atop the turret allow the operators to “see” through the tank. There is also a hand-held control unit option.

A “Skynet” Unified Tactical Management system allows up to four Uran-9s to network together, either spread out up to four miles apart or strung together in a column formation. The robo-tanks do have some limited autonomous capabilities if they lose their signal—particularly for maneuvering around obstacles when moving along pre-programmed paths. Some sources claim the Uran-9 may also be able to detect, identify and engage enemy forces without manual human direction.

The robo-tank’s turret mounts a rapid-firing 2A72 30-millimeter autocannon that can blast light-armored vehicles and infantry to deadly effect, as well as a 7.62-millimeter machine gun. Furthermore, a firing rack can extend from the turret to launch two or four 9M120-1 Ataka anti-tank missiles which can spin away to bust tanks up to 3.7 miles away while guided by a laser. And top that off, a further six to twelve Shmel flamethrower rockets with air-combusting thermobaric warheads can be mounted on two rotating launchers on top of the turret to flush out entrenched infantry up to a mile away. If there’s a threat from low-flying aircraft, those rockets can be swapped out for Strela or Igla short-range anti-aircraft missiles.

You can see the Uran-9s moving about and shooting in one of several music videos.

However, all that impressive firepower is only useful if the Uran-9 and its operators can actually detect enemy forces and fire accurately at them—and that turned out to be a problem when field-tested in Syria.

To start with, according to Anisimov, they Uran-9’s thermal and electro-optical sensors proved incapable of spotting enemies beyond 1.25 miles—one-third of the 3.75-mile range in daytime or half that at night officially claimed. He also stated, “The OCH-4 optical station does not allow detecting optical observation and targeting devices of the enemy and gives out multiple interferences on the ground and in the airspace in the surveillance sector.”

Furthermore, the sensors, and the weapons they guided, were useless while the Uran-9 was moving due to a lack of stabilization. When fire commands were issued, on six occasions there were significant delays. In one case, the command simply didn’t go through.

The Uran-9’s tracked suspension also was reportedly frequently bedeviled by unreliable rollers and suspension springs, requiring frequent repairs that effectively limited the duration of any deployment.

Arguably most problematic of all, however, was the discovery that the remote-control system, which officially had a range of 1.8 miles, only proved effective up to 300 to 400 meters in a lightly urbanized environment. Over such short distances, the control vehicle is likely to become exposed to enemy fire.

Unlike high-flying drones, remote-controlled vehicles are susceptible to having their control signals disrupted by hills, buildings and other terrain features. During field-testing in Syria, this caused Uran-9s to suffer seventeen lapses of remote control lasting up to one minute, and two events in which they lost contact for as long as an hour-and-a-half.

The problem grows more acute when considering that modern war zones like Syria already experience extraordinary electromagnetic activity from communication signals and drone-links—as well as extensive jamming, spying and other forms of electronic warfare. The bandwidth consumed by the Uran-9s might not only limit how many can be deployed in a given sector but may make them a conspicuous target for hostile electronic attacks, despite manufacturer’s claims that the data-links are hardened against such interference.

According to Jane’s, Rostec is still working to improve the Uran-9’s range, response-time and data-bandwidth. During the huge Vostok 2018 military exercise, the robot-tanks were reportedly deployed to provide overwatch fire support for Uran-6 de-mining UGVs and combat engineers while they cleared simulated defensive obstacles.

Theoretically, the Uran-9 could be useful at reducing the risk of losing human lives in high-risk operations such as scouting out the location of concealed enemies or providing covering fire for assaults on well-defended positions. However, unless reliability can be improved and the “tether” distance between the robo-tanks and their command vehicles can be extended, the Uran-9s would be of limited military use except in static, set-piece scenarios.

In a sense, the underwhelming combat test in Syria highlights why robot tanks haven’t shown up on the battlefield sooner, despite the component technologies having been available for decades. Developing reliable long-distance communication links, sophisticated autonomous operation algorithms, and well-integrated sensors and targeting systems to allow a distant operator to identify and engage targets all pose significant practical challenges.

Thus, the Uran-9’s unflattering debut will serve as a valuable, if cautionary, learning experience for engineers working to perfect forthcoming robotic ground warfare systems.

 

[Khafee]

Meet the S-8OFP: The Anti-Tank Rocket Russia Has Tested in Syria
A deadly new weapon.
October 21, 2019
by Mark Episkopos

Key point: Russia wants a better weapon to use against enemy tanks and Syria was a perfect place to test its S-8OFP.

Russian arms manufacturer Techmash has announced that its S-8OFP unguided air-to-ground rocket will finish testing and enter into military service by the end of the year. As Techmash general director Vladimir Lepin told Russian news, “we aim to wrap up [testing] and to begin taking orders from the military, if all goes according to plan.”

The S-8OFP "Broneboyschik" (Russian for “armor piercer”) is the latest entry into the S-8 family, originating as a 1970s series of Soviet rockets with a wide range of warheads from fuel-air explosives (FAE) to flares.

Though virtually indistinguishable from the outside, the S-8OFP brings several key internal improvements to the S-8 system. It houses a smaller but more powerful engine, which gives Techmash engineers room to install a much larger and heavier warhead. The result is a rocket that boasts not only more firepower but a more sophisticated payload delivery system.

Whereas previous S-8 series rockets only went off within a set distance from a target, Techmash states that the S-8OFP has an intelligent proximity fuse that can explode in front, within, or behind a target to maximize impact against heavy armor and clustered groups. That is, the S-8OFP can be calibrated to penetrate certain surfaces prior to detonation.

This newfound flexibility in target acquisition is supposed to translate into exponential performance gains: “in combat capabilities, it [the S-8OFP] exceeds the old model by several times,” says Lepin. It also abandons the S-8’s old ballistite propellant in favor of a new composite fuel that allows for increased effective range, estimated at 6 km as compared with the 4 km of its predecessor.

The S-8OFP’s high-explosive anti-tank warhead excels against armored, relatively stationary targets. As military expert and insider Alexei Leonkov put it to the Russian Federal News Agency (Riafan): “this armor-piercing weapon is designed to work against columns of enemy armored vehicles. The S-8OFP missiles will be very effective against tanks, whose armor will be shredded by pieces by our barrage.”

The Russian Ministry of Defense believes that this unguided, anti-tank rocket has a wide application in asymmetric conflicts, particularly in Syria where the S-OFP has likely already been tested. “By the way, I would posit that “Broneboyschik” has already undergone testing in Syria where it was deployed to attack columns of militants, who often use jeeps. This is an excellent, and long overdue weapon,” concludes Leonkov.

Like Russia’s recently-released “Drel” bomb, the S-8OFP was not made to operate within the radius of dedicated anti-missile systems, conflicted airspaces, and other high-intensity theaters. It is unknown whether or not the S-8OFP can be modified with a guidance system, and whether there are plans to do so.

In any case, the clear target-acquisition benefits of guidance technology have to be balanced against increased production cost and vulnerability to electronic countermeasures (ECM) such as jamming. In addition to these technical and financial obstacles, a guidance-enabled S-8OFP may overlap too much with the Drel bomb already being used by the Russian air force.

The S-8OFP was designed to be compatible with a wide range of Russian mid-tier jets; these include the Su-24, 25, and 27, as well as the MiG-23, 27, and 29. In keeping with its low-intensity use case, it is also compatible with the Ka-50 and Ka-52 attack helicopters.

In what could be a foreboding of Russia’s export plans for Broneboyschik, an early prototype of the S-8OFP was unveiled at IDEX 2013 in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, and exhibited at India’s 2014 DefExpo.

 

[Khafee]

Three US Navy Ships Monitored Russia's Maritime Activity in Arctic
22.10.2019
by Tim Korso

View attachment 11375

The US vehemently opposes any extension of Russia's activities in the Arctic region, regardless of their nature, and has even considered building a military base there to have a continuous presence.

The US 6th Fleet has reported that its Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Donald Cook (DDG 75) completed its latest mission on 16 October, which took place in the Artic. According to a 6th Fleet Public Affairs office statement, the destroyer was conducting a routine maritime security patrol to "monitor Russian maritime activity" above the Arctic Circle.

Along with USS Donald Cook, another destroyer of the same class, USS Farragut (DDG-99) and guided-missile cruiser USS Normandy were patrolling above the Arctic Circle in September this year. Vice Admiral Lisa M. Franchetti, commander of the 6th Fleet noted that such patrols allow the US Navy to be prepared to "deter and […] defeat aggression" if needed without specifying by which state or actor.

"The US 6th Fleet must be ready to conduct the full range of naval operations throughout the EUCOM and AFRICOM areas of responsibility. This includes being prepared at the operational and tactical levels, in concert with our allies, partners, and joint forces to deter and, if necessary, defeat aggression", Franchetti said.

Washington has long opposed Russia's efforts to expand its activities, both scientific and military, in the Arctic region, despite Moscow's request to the UN to extend the borders of its continental shelf in the north, which is successfully navigating the approval process. Russia seeks to explore the Arctic's gas and oil reserves, as well as to turn it to a major trading route, possibly connecting it to China's Belt and Road initiative.

The US is considering building a military base in the far north of Alaska to counter Russia in the Arctic under the 2020 National Defence Authorisation Act. However, the US lacks icebreaker ships to freely operate in the Arctic's waters, with only one functional at the moment.

 

[Khafee]

German Newspaper Acknowledges Superiority of Russian T-14 Armata Tank over Domestic Leopard-2
22.10.2019

View attachment 11377
The T-14 Armata is a new generation battle tank fitted with a 1500 hp diesel engine and equipped with Malachit dual-explosive reactive armour. According to The National Interest, the combat vehicle has been deemed as "potentially the most dangerous tank in the world".

Russia's cutting-edge T-14 Armata battle tank with its 125 mm calibre cannon eclipses the German Leopard-2 in a number of its characteristics, Die Welt reported.

The daily mentioned the Russian tank in relation to joint attempts by Germany and France to develop a new combat vehicle that will replace their Leopard and Leclerc tanks, respectively.

According to the author of the article, their joint cooperation could be overshadowed by a disagreement on the installation of a cannon that the new tank will be equipped with.

German defence contractor Rheinmetall has developed a 130 mm calibre weapon to replace the old one with a smaller calibre.

Similarly, French weapons manufacturer Nexter announced successful tests of a 140 mm calibre cannon.

Both companies argue that their weapons are the most suitable for the jointly-developed German-French tank.

 

[Khafee]

Russian Tu-160 Strategic Bombers Conduct Night Flight Over Indian Ocean as Part of South Africa Visit
October 26, 2019

Two Tupolev Tu-160 supersonic strategic bombers of the Russian Aerospace Forces (VKS) have performed a night flight over the Indian Ocean as part of the visit to South Africa, TAS reported Saturday citing Russian Defense Ministry.

“The Tu-160 strategic missile-carrying bombers performed a night flight in the airspace over the Indian Ocean as part of the international visit of the Aerospace Forces’ air group to the Republic of South Africa,” the ministry said.

The Russian bombers reportedly took off from the Air Force Base Waterkloof on the outskirts of Pretoria and arrived back at Johannesburg Airport.
“The flight was performed in strict compliance with the rules of using international airspace,” the Defense Ministry added.

Two Tu-60 bombers arrived at Air Force Base Waterkloof in South Africa on Wednesday, Oct. 23, in a rare display of cooperation between the two countries.

The Russian air group also included an Antonov An-124 Ruslan heavy airlifter and an Ilyushin IL-62 aircraft which arrived earlier at the base. The An-124 is carrying support equipment and spares while the Il-62 passenger aircraft is carrying support, diplomatic and media personnel.

“The purpose of the visit is the development of bilateral military cooperation and the development of issues of interaction between the Russian Aerospace Forces and the South African Air Force”, said a Russian Ministry of Defence statement.

Tupolev Tu-160
Tupolev Tu-160 (NATO reporting name: Blackjack) is a supersonic, variable-sweep wing heavy strategic bomber designed by the Tupolev Design Bureau in the Soviet Union.

Tu-160 is the largest and heaviest Mach 2+ supersonic aircraft ever built and second only to the comparable American XB-70 Valkyrie (not operationalized) in overall length. It is the largest and heaviest combat aircraft, the fastest bomber now in use and the largest and heaviest variable-sweep wing airplane ever flown.

The Tu-160 is powered by four Kuznetsov NK-32 afterburning turbofan engines, the most powerful ever fitted to a combat aircraft. The bomber can carry cruise missiles with conventional or nuclear warheads.

Entering service in 1987, the Tu-160 was the last strategic bomber designed for the Soviet Union. As of 2016, the Russian Air Force, Long Range Aviation branch has at least 16 aircraft in service.

The Tu-160 active fleet has been undergoing upgrades to electronics systems since the early 2000s. The Tu-160M modernization program has begun with the first updated aircraft delivered in December 2014. The upgrades integrated the ability to launch two new conventional versions of the long-range Kh-55 nuclear cruise missile — the Kh-101 and Kh-555.

 

[Zaslon]

Tu-160M with it's Kh-55SM and Kh-101 cruise missiles

 

[WuraidKhan]

Russian Helicopters in Action

 

[Falcon29]

Russia’s Military to Receive First Batch of 12 T-14 Main Battle Tanks in Coming Weeks

The first 12 T-14 main battle tanks will reportedly be delivered to the Russian Army in late 2019 or early 2020.

The Russian Ground Forces (RGF) will receive their first batch of 12 third-generation Armata T-14 main battle tanks (MBT) by the end of 2019 or in early 2020, the head of Rostec, Sergei Chemezov, told reporters at the Dubai Airshow 2019 exhibition on November 19.

“Currently, work is nearing completion to prepare the production facilities and an experimental batch has been manufactured,” Chemezov was quoted as saying by TASS news agency. “It will be delivered to the Russian Army in late 2019 – early 2020.”

According to sources within the Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD), 12 T-14 MBTs and four T-16 armored recovery vehicles, also known as Armata ARV or BREM-T, are expected to be delivered to the service by the end of 2019.

In January, the MoD put out an official statement announcing the delivery schedule: “The T-14 tank, which has been created on the universal Armata platform and developed for the Ground Forces, is completing the manufacturer’s trials. The fighting vehicle in 2019 will start undergoing state trials in the Russian Defense Ministry’s scientific and research institutions.”

The MoD signed a contract with Russia’s main tank manufacturer Uralvagonzavod (UVZ) for the production of 132 T-14 Armata MBTs, T-15 heavy infantry fighting vehicles (IFV), and T-16 tank recovery vehicles in February 2018. The Russian Army was initially expected to receive around 100 T-14 MBTs by the end of 2020. However, it is unlikely that UVZ will be able to fulfill the order in that timeframe.
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Russia’s Military to Receive First Batch of 12 T-14 Main Battle Tanks in Coming Weeks

The first 12 T-14 main battle tanks will reportedly be delivered to the Russian Army in late 2019 or early 2020.

thediplomat.com