Instead of refurbished tanks leaving the facility, analysts increasingly observed support vehicles built using old T-80 hulls, including armored recovery vehicles and heavy weapons platforms. This may indicate that many remaining hulls are too degraded to restore as operational tanks.
The trend, according to the researcher, could signal that Russia’s remaining T-80 reserves are no longer viable for combat
The T-80 is a piece of shit tank. The reverse speed sucks which makes it a deathtrap and also the ammo and propellant is stored close to the crew making it a deathtrap when it cooks off from a hit.
Still, this was one of the better tanks russia had given their bar is so low. It is pretty amazing how terrible russia is at making tanks and how much they refuse to accept their tank design lineage is a dead end.
edit as a reminder -> No tanks are not obsolete because of drones.
Before diving into the analysis of this matter, it is important to note that armoured forces and heavy armoured vehicles have proven indispensable in all recent armed conflicts since 2020, despite the changing and increasingly hostile conditions on the battlefield. Armoured forces continue to play a critical role in modern ground warfare, while many militaries across the globe plan to expand and further develop this branch of service. The tank is not dead, and armoured forces are not going to go extinct in the near future.
Undoubtedly, armoured forces and armoured fighting vehicles (AFVs) have to adapt to the new combat environment – technically, tactically, and doctrinally. However, this has been a normal part of their evolution since the beginning of the 20th century.
https://euro-sd.com/2026/01/articles/armed-forces/48794/countering-the-drone-threat-to-heavy-armour/
Yes, tanks are so completely useless that Ukraine wants them more than anything and Russia is spending million refurbishing even shitty ones and China keeps hundreds of them to stockpile on top the thousands they already have.
Surely, if all of these would only listen to you! How foolish they are.
Or maybe they realize that a highly mobile, well-protected, highly accurate source of firepower is an immense asset in a war. The reason Russia keeps losing SO many tanks is because they’re very very bad at combined arms. Russia isn’t making progress with an army of tanks, Infantry, trucks, helicopters, IFVs, planes and drones, but you’re only saying tanks are obsolete. Why?
I said I’m no expert. Why? Because like I said, they are expensive, easily countered by all other arms groups and they don’t seem to accomplish much but be expensive targets. Your argument about Russia refurbing more speaks more to my argument here than yours. They are out of them, because they are so easily destroyed and expensive, time consuming to produce and have seemingly poor survivability.
As to Ukraine wanting them and not having them, that too speaks to my point. Very very expensive to produce and don’t last long. They may be somewhat tactically useful, but strategically worthless, doubly so in a war of attrition. The sheer brilliance of Ukraine’s world leading droneworks is the other side of this coin. Cheap, easy and effective. Tactically useful and Strategically useful.
If you are in the biz, I would appreciate any facts or real world stats on survivability of tanks in war vs what they take out. I don’t know what militaries call cost/benefit analyses, but they must exist. Bang for your buck so to speak. Heh.
As for China and the like stockpiling, militaries are both innovative at times and traditional. The tradition is that tanks had proven themselves in WWI and II, but that combat environment doesn’t exist anymore in an era of Javelins and drones. Like I said, there are many many ways to destroy an object that reported costs $2.5 to 4 million up front, plus the fuel, munitions and logistical dependencies, let alone a skilled crew of 4 or so with things that cost thousands and can be deployed at scale.
The taliban won a war of attrition in Afghanistan against Russia and then the US who had M1A Abrams with every conceivable advanced doodad and are experts in combined arms. Great tacticians, shit strategists. They lost to goat farmers. Vietnam comes to mind too.