Before the invasion of Ukraine, Russia’s army was considered the second best in the world. There isn’t much left of this reputation – partly because of disappointing “miracle weapons”.
Russia is the second largest arms exporter in the world after the USA, but the reputation of Russian arms manufacturers has suffered enormously. In the war against Ukraine, not only export hits such as the S300 and S400 anti-aircraft systems regularly fail – the regime’s “miracle weapons” celebrated by propaganda can hardly live up to expectations.
The T-14 “Armata” main battle tank is considered one of the biggest flops in warlord Putin’s arsenal. Presented for the first time at the Victory Parade on May 9, 2015 in Moscow, the latest Russian development should easily compete with the latest generation of Western tanks. NATO military officials were alarmed after the demonstration and feared that the “Armata” could be superior to their own tanks. There is not much left of this fear now.
So far, probably no T-14 “Armata” in Ukraine
By 2020, the Uralvagonzavod defense company was supposed to deliver 2,300 Armata units to the Russian army, enough to replace the aging Soviet-era tank fleet. But it was already clear in 2018 that nothing would come of it. At the end of 2021, the manufacturer announced that 40 T-14s would be delivered by the end of 2023, but that also seems like wishful thinking.
In April, Russian propaganda claimed that the first T-14s were already in service in Ukraine. According to the Ukrainian army, not a single one of them has been seen on the battlefield so far. At the end of August, the Kremlin claimed to have withdrawn the “Armatas” from Ukraine in order to make “improvements” to the vehicles.
Su-57: Putin hides his high-tech bomber
What the T-14 is to the Russian land forces, the Su-57 is to the Russian Air Force. According to propaganda, the multi-role fighter aircraft can compete with Western fifth-generation fighter jets such as the F-35. Moscow recently claimed to have developed a new cruise missile that could be hidden in the fuselage of the stealth bomber. This type of armament allows stealth aircraft to remain undetected by radar. However, there are considerable doubts about the actual capabilities of the Su-57, which was introduced in 2010.
In terms of speed and maneuverability, the Su-57 is inferior to its Western counterparts, writes the Ukrainian newspaper “Kyiv Post”. In addition, the Su-57 is easy to detect in the infrared and radar range and cannot meet the requirements of a latest-generation fighter jet in terms of communication and data exchange capability, automatic flight control and target detection. It was a “dirty aircraft” whose many errors made the enemy radar shine brightly, the business magazine “Business Insider” quoted a US aeronautical engineer in 2017.
The report states that the Kremlin was aware of the Su-57’s flaws and had therefore drastically reduced the number of units ordered: “Regardless of its dubious capabilities, the low order numbers from Moscow show that the Su-57 is already a flop “, said Business Insider at the time. According to Ukrainian information, Putin’s troops are now even refraining from using the Su-57 in areas where they could be hit by Ukrainian air defense.
Supersonic missile “Kinshal” fails in endurance test
Warlord Putin is also likely to be disappointed by the effect of his “dagger,” as the Kh-47 “Kinschal” hypersonic missile is called in German. At the beginning of the war in Ukraine, the Russian Air Force hit targets with “Kinshal” several times. However, contrary to what Russia claims, the Western Patriot air defense system appears to be quite capable of intercepting Kinschals. At least that’s what the Ukrainian army announced after a Russian rocket attack on Kiev in May. The myth that “Kinschal” cannot be intercepted, which many NATO experts had warned about, would then be gone.
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