Russia's elite tank unit was meant to get its most advanced armor. Instead, it's fighting with obsolete Soviet tanks from the '60s, UK intel says.

Joshua Zitser

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Russia's military is fighting with 60-year-old T-62 tanks, having been forced to bring the retired vehicles out of storage to the front lines in Ukraine in response to heavy armored-vehicle losses, the UK's Defense Ministry said Monday.

The ministry said in an intelligence update that even the 1st Guards Tank Army, which has long been considered an elite Russian unit, was being reequipped with dated Soviet-era T-62s.

The 1st Guards Tank Army was due to receive next-generation T-14 Armata main battle tanks — Russia's newest and most powerful — starting in 2021, the intelligence update said. The T-14 is a high-tech vehicle said to have defense systems capable of shooting down anti-tank rockets, as well as sophisticated sensors, onboard drones, and a high level of automation.

Instead, it's receiving T-62 tanks, which were first adopted by the Soviet Union in 1961 and ceased production in the '70s, according to the UK's Defense Ministry.

T-62s, 19FortyFive reported, would be at a "grave disadvantage" in a head-to-head fight against Ukrainian tanks because of their inferior sensors, fire control, armor, and armor penetration. The UK's Defense Ministry also noted the absence of modern explosive-reactive armor as a vulnerability.

Some of Russia's T-62s have been retrofitted with sighting-system upgrades, the intelligence update said.

Russia's tank force, which consists of several powerful divisions, has suffered heavy losses in the war in Ukraine. It's lost at least 1,780 tanks since the outset of the conflict in February 2022, according to an analysis by the open-source intelligence platform Oryx.

The invading country's tank force, once seen as formidable, is being torn apart by the Ukrainian military. US officials have said on more than one occasion that Russia has likely lost as many as half its main battle tanks while fighting in Ukraine, if not more.

Russian tanks have fallen prey to Ukrainian soldiers' use of anti-tank Javelin missiles, with military experts telling Insider that Russia is experiencing heavy losses because it doesn't know how to use its tanks properly.

Since summer, about 800 T-62 tanks have been retrieved from Russian storage, the intelligence update said. Speculation that Moscow has tapped into its reserve of T-62s has been around since spring, with videos apparently showing the armored vehicles in Ukraine.