Russia is removing from storage Soviet T-54/55 tanks, which were produced back in the late 1950s. A group of researchers Conflict Intelligence Team (CIT) notes that this is recorded for the first time.
Tanks were seen on trains in the city of Arseniev, Primorsky Krai, where the Central Reserve and Storage Base for Tanks is located. Last summer, T-62s were sent from it to the front.
Radio Liberty showed satellite images of this reserve base taken on July 12, August 19 and October 2, 2022. On them you can see how the base is being emptied. In autumn, there were almost no tanks left in its open areas.
The reopening is out of control, according to the CIT team.
Analysts received a photo of a train transporting military equipment from the Far East.
We recognized it as Soviet medium tanks of the T-54/55 family: in the same echelon there were both T-54 tanks and tanks that could be late T-54s or T-55s. As we have learned, this echelon has recently departed from the city of Arsenyev in the Primorsky Territory, where the 1295 Central Base for the Reserve and Storage of Tanks is located. Previously, we have already recorded the dispatch of equipment from there: for example, in October, a train with T-62M (V) tanks was removed from Yekaterinburg, also departing from Arsenyev. It should be noted that the facts of sending and using the T-62 tanks by the Russian Armed Forces during the current invasion have been recorded since the summer, but the removal from storage of the T-54/55 was recorded for the first time, according to the SIT information.
Analysts analyzed satellite imagery of the base and found that between June and November 2022, at least 191 tanks (probably mostly T-62s) left it. In fact, this number can be much higher, since the most combat-ready vehicles, as a rule, are in hangars and it is impossible to record their dispatch.
The first modifications of the T-54 were adopted by the Soviet army in the second half of the 1940s, and the T-55 in 1958. Even an outdated tank can be more useful than its absence, but the SIT considers the lack of rangefinders to be the key disadvantages of these models. and ballistic computers (not to mention the fire control system), primitive sights and (in the T-54) inferior weapon stabilization.
Analysts believe that this fact, together with the removal of the BTR-50 from storage and the installation of naval anti-aircraft guns on the MT-LB, clearly indicates serious problems with the provision of the RF Armed Forces with armored vehicles.
Source: Racurs
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