Das Ende einer ganzen Panzerfamilie: Russland scheint seine Reserven an restaurierbaren T-80 erschöpft zu haben

For context: Covert Cabal and their contributors (especially Jompy) have tracked Russian tank reserves via satellite images since the 2021 invasion, and are pretty much the authoritative source on the remaining reserves at storage bases.

They counted 1679 T-80 at storage bases in 2021, down to 134 now.

Omsktransmash has another 253 T-80 stored at the factory, but it appears that they have switched from restoring T-80 as tanks to converting them into utility vehicles, likely because the last remainig ones are in too poor of a condition to restore them properly.

The fact that almost 400 remain on paper may sound like they haven’t ‚exhausted their reserves‘ then, but it was always known that some percentage of the stockpiles would be in unrestorable condition. So the apparent change of procedure at Omsktransmash, the only facility that used to restore T-80, indicates that the supply of actual T-80 tanks has truly finished now.

This leaves an estimated 400-500 in active service, which can now only become fewer over time.

Russia had to reduce tank operations over 2025 since they reached the limits of their stockpiles and can not sustain their crazy loss rates, leaving ancient T-62 as the most numerous type in reserve. The end of T-80 restoration, which used to make up some of the most capable tanks reaching the Russian forces, is another milestone in this process.

Always loved the T-80, its definatly the best lookign of the T-series tanks and interesting with its turbine.

However under the circumstances of the last 4 years im ok with it dying out.

Maybe we see a few more Oplots one day, they are a worthy sucessor, however it might be lot smarter to produce something western

If the US invaded from Alaska right now they’d push 1000km in a few months.

Oh dear, how sad, never mind.