"All of Vlad's forces and all of Vlad's men, are out to put Humpty together again." (2 Viewers)

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Admiral Beez said:
How long before they run out of tanks?
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[WARNING: THE FOLLOWING IS OPINION BASED ON OPEN SOURCE DOCUMENTATION. IT'S AS ACCURATE AS I CAN MAKE IT GIVEN LIMITED, CIVILIAN RESOURCES]

At current loss rates (circa 12 per day), a LONG time. Open source documented Russian losses are ~700 tanks. Ukrainian claimed Russian losses are 1285 tanks. Halfway point there would be a little under 1000 tank losses in 88 days of fighting.

Based on open source figures, Russia had about 2800 to 3300 tanks that were in a state that could be considered ready for combat deployment. These are a bit of a mix of older T-72s and T-80s that have been rebuilt and modernised (at a rate of about 200-250 a year) and new production T-90s (built at a rate of about 75-150 a year, although slower in recent years).

Another 1500 to 2000 'modern' tanks - mostly T-80Us and T-72Bs built in the 1980s and into the 1990s - were in storage and could (theoretically) be made combat ready in fairly short order (a number of weeks) with 'light' maintenance and some other work. This assumes that they've been stored properly, haven't been stripped for parts to keep other tanks running and that the stores/parts needed to put them into service are available. I'm not sure how compatible they would be with existing Russian equipment, without proper factory-level modernisations.

A further 5000+ older tanks were in long term storage (mostly T-72As). These would take major modifications and maintenance to put on the battlefield, a process likely taking six or more months. A fair chunk of these would need new autoloaders, for instance, as their old ones aren't compatible with current ammunition types.

That means Russia still has ~1800 to 2300 combat capable tanks, with likely another 1500 to 2000 in reserve that could be fielded with some effort. It's was also replenishing its stocks of 'modern' tanks at a rate of roughly 300 tanks per year (not a given though, as there's lots of variables to consider given Russia's new trade/economic situation).

TL;DR on all this - Russia can probably double its total tank losses before it really starts to notice a shortage in the heavy armour department.
 
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