Russia’s new T-14 Armata battle tank debuts in Ukraine: Report

The T-14 has an unmanned gun turret and the crew controls the armament remotely, but Western intelligence says there are problems.

Russia has started using its new T-14 Armata main battle tanks to fire on Ukrainian positions “but they have not yet participated in direct strike operations,” the state news agency RIA reported.

The tanks have been fitted with extra protection on their flanks and crews have undergone “combat coordination” at training grounds in Ukraine, RIA quoted an unnamed source close to the matter as saying on Tuesday.

The T-14 tank has an unmanned gun turret and the crew controls the armament remotely from “an isolated armored pod at the front of the hull,” RIA reported.

The tanks have a maximum highway speed of 80 kilometers per hour (50 mph), the agency said.

In January, British military intelligence reported that Russian troops in Ukraine were reluctant to accept the first installment of the tanks because of their “poor condition”.

It also said any deployment of the T-14 would likely be “a risky decision” for Russia and would be made primarily for propaganda purposes.

“Production is probably only in the low tens while commanders are unlikely to trust the vehicle in combat,” the British Army said. “The program has been in development for 11 years and has been plagued by delays, a reduction in planned fleet size and reports of production problems.”

The T-14 was first unveiled in 2015. The Kremlin ordered production of 2,300 of the tanks by 2020, but this was later extended to 2025, according to Russian media reports.

NATO countries are sending dozens of state-of-the-art main battle tanks to Ukraine, a move Russia has described as a dangerous escalation of the conflict.