Russian well-known military expert Alexey Khlopotov refutes media allegations about that America and its partners should fear Russia’s Armata main battle tank.
According to Vestnik-rm.ru, citing the Alexey Khlopotov, appearance In Russia, a new generation of tanks was met fairly calmly in the US and NATO.
According to him, dealing with numerous experts from Western countries, he didn’t hear from them any concern about the new Russian Armata tank.
“Manipulation in the media is created only in order to pressure taxpayers so that they calmly perceive the increase in defense spending.” – noted Alexey Khlopotov.
To date, the Armata’s programme having faced a number of difficulties. More than three years after Armata tank made it’s widely touted, the country has made it clear it has no plans to launch mass-production, first of all, because of the higher cost of Armata tanks in comparison with existing combat vehicles.
Many experts from the very beginning voiced doubts and concerns as to the possibility of Russian next-generation tank mass production.
“At the same time, it must be said that by NATO lead nations is considerable potential to eliminate the “Russian threat ” quite quickly, for example, powerful 130-140-mm tank guns, and there are a lot of very good developments that they quickly, if necessary, can be resuscitated. Therefore, the Western military is not particularly strained,” – also said Alexey.
For example, German defense company Rheinmetall has unveiled a prototype of a 130mm smoothbore gun for a future main battle tank (MBT) at the at the Eurosatory 2016.
According to the Defense News, the French and German ministries also announced developing a joint combat vehicle as a successor to their respective Leopard 2 and Leclerc fleets. It’s possible a new tank program could be launched by the two European nations sometime between 2025 and 2030.