The photo shared on social networks shows that the Russian army has sent to the front a new version of an old tank, modernized with components that half a century ago would have been considered state-of-the-art.

This is an old T-62 tank, which was photographed by the Russian military, and whose combat mechanism was modernized by installing a 1PN96МТ-02 infrared targeting device. The Russian army will call this new version of the tank “T-62M arr. 2022”.

Forbes notes that while this modernization at the Uralvagonzavod tank factory is an improvement on the original T-62 tank guidance system, the 1PN96МТ-02 system would have been considered advanced in the 1970s.

This allows the gunner to hit targets at a distance of up to two miles (3.21 kilometers), which is only two-thirds of the maximum distance possible with the more advanced Sosna-U system installed in the latest generation of Russian T-90 military tanks, such as in some advanced T-80 and T-72 combat vehicles.

But Forbes says the main problem with the Sosna-U system is that it requires high-quality French-made electronic components that Russian industry seems unable to reproduce and that Moscow can no longer import because of Paris sanctions against illegal annexations. Crimea in 2014.

Under these conditions, the 1PN96МТ-02 system began to be installed on more and more tanks that Russia had in long-term storage in its military warehouses, including variants of the T-72 and T-80 tanks.

“It is clear that the Russian industry cannot reproduce the Sosna-U so quickly as to keep up with the restoration of old tanks. The best jet T-62 would be the T-62MV with dynamic armor and the 1PN96МТ-02 sighting system. It is called T-62MV Rev. 2022 or Reg. 2023. This “new” T-62 sees a little further than the “old” T-72, and is a little better at resisting explosive shells. But it’s still T-62. And for the most part, it remains only a training facility for Ukrainian troops,” Forbes scoffs at the situation.

But the photo of this T-62, which appeared on social networks, shows that it was not even modernized with dynamic armor, which is also noted by the administrators of the Ukraine Weapons Tracker page. The T-62 tank entered service with the Soviet armed forces in 1961, more than two decades before dynamic armor was tested on the battlefield during the 1982 Lebanon War.

Russia boasts of its military production

Ironically, the photo appeared on social media on Saturday, the very day that former Russian President and Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev announced that Russia had increased its military production “tenfold”.

“We are not only expanding production, but also introducing the latest technologies, improving them literally on the fly,” he said, adding that Russian experts are carefully studying the weapons that Ukrainians use to strike Russian-controlled territories in the context. At the same time, Kyiv received several of Western weapons systems after, as well as before the start of the “special military operation”.

Medvedev, currently the vice-president of the Security Council of Russia, was also appointed by Putin as the first vice-president of the Military-Industrial Commission, a permanent body created by Moscow to organize state policy in the field of the military-industrial complex, military-technical defense support. , national security and law enforcement.

The Kremlin published a decree appointing Medvedev, one of President Vladimir Putin’s staunchest allies, on December 26 last year.

The creation of this body was announced after numerous Russian recruits complained on social media about the quality of the weapons and equipment they received.

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