If you can make steel, you can make machinery. And Russia already has plants for making tanks,
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If Russia could churn out more tanks, other than the occasional T-90M, it would be fielding T-14s which it is not.
Plus, Russia has sent a good portion of its manufacturing workforce to the meat grinder and they won’t be returning to the workforce ... ever.
[If Russia could churn out more tanks, other than the occasional T-90M, it would be fielding T-14s which it is not.
Plus, Russia has sent a good portion of its manufacturing workforce to the meat grinder and they won’t be returning to the workforce ... ever.]
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/russian-tank-parade_n_7235228
It might be a prototype more than a production tank. I’m not sure they need anything fancy, just armored vehicles to provide direct fire support for the infantry, and howitzers so the Ukrainians have to keep their heads down. The massed howitzers work - they just need to get back to their prior rate of fire. If the West provides more than a trickle of equipment, that could change, and Putin would need more than just tanks and artillery.