Russia has just one tank factory churning out 20 tanks a month, with demand outstripping production by a factor of ten, says report

Joshua Zitser

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In the 1940s the Soviet Union was able to produce 1,000 tanks a month. Today, Russia can produce just 20, with a single factory struggling to keep pace with outsized demand caused by the war in Ukraine, according to The Economist.

The British publication reported that Russia now has just one tank factory, UralVagonZavod, a massive 1930s-built industrial complex in eastern Russia.

It may be one of the largest tank manufacturers in the world, with Fortune estimating that it has 30,000 employees, but each month it is only able to produce tanks in the double digits, The Economist said, citing liberal Russian media outlet Novaya Gazeta.

That's nowhere near demand: one Western official told the publication that demand is outstripping supply by a factor of 10.

Russia is losing around 150 tanks a month in Ukraine, according to an analysis by open source intelligence platform Oryx. It has lost 1,779 tanks since February 2022, Oryx reported.

Tank production is harder than it was in the 1940s, when the Soviet Union was churning out vehicles, largely because modern-day tanks are more complex to build and far more sophisticated, according to The Economist.

But other factors are also involved.

A shortage of parts, particularly semiconductors, has hampered Russian production, The Economist reported.

And UralVagonZavod hasn't been properly modernized because of financial mismanagement and significant debts, it said.

As a result, Russia is becoming increasingly reliant on restoring older tanks, which it has in the thousands in storage.

UralVagonZavod is refurbishing about eight old tanks a month, with three other repair plants in Russia rebuilding another 17 or so monthly, The Economist said. Two more plants are due to come online in the coming months, per the media outlet.

Russia may soon be able to resurrect around 90 tanks each month, in addition to the 20 new ones being built, but even this would fail to match its estimated losses.

Ukraine has also struggled to produce new tanks, with its only tank factory destroyed at the start of the war. But Western allies are now providing it with tanks.

The US is gearing up to send 31 Abrams tanks to Ukraine, though The New York Times noted this month that some European countries are struggling to deliver on promises to send it Leopard 2 tanks.