Footage Shows Russia’s Most Advanced Tanks Being Withdrawn for Repairs After Frontline Combat Damage

Footage circulating on Russian social media has shown several damaged T-90M main battle tanks being transported by rail to facilitates of Russia’s leading tank manufacturer, Uralvagonzavod, in Nizhny Tagil, where they are expected to be repaired and returned to the Russian Army. The firm has been taking on repairs outside its core manufacturing role, while also carrying out overhauls of Soviet era tanks in storage. The T-90M has benefited from significantly higher levels of armour protection and crew survivability than other Russian main battle tanks, which has reportedly allowed a higher portion of the vehicles damaged on the frontlines to be returned to service. 

Uralvagonzavod has previously publicised its ability to return damaged vehicles to service, and in 2024 said it had restored a T-90M in four weeks after the tank had been struck by 26 drones. Such work highlights the importance of repair and refurbishment to Russia’s wartime armoured vehicle supply, although the time and resources required for individual repairs can vary considerably according to the severity of the damage and the availability of replacement components. Uralvagonzavod has continued to announce deliveries of new and upgraded vehicles despite the additional repair workload, and in September delivered another batch of T-90M and modernised T-72B3M tanks to the Russian Army.

The repair of damaged tanks has become increasingly critical as Russia has faced a growing short age of main battle tanks, largely due to the depletion of Soviet era stockpiles. Preceding the outbreak of full scale hostilities in February 2022, Russia had for decades maintained by far the world’s the largest reserves of main battle tanks, which by several estimates stood at over 20,000 vehicles inherited from the Soviet Union. These reserves were drawn down significantly in the 2010s, however. The most recent available satellite imagery indicates that the Russian Armed Forces retain only 2,088 tanks in storage across nine identified facilities. This depletion is a particularly serious development when considering that these likely represent some of the most severely deteriorated and least usable vehicles from reserves, as the tanks in better condition that required less refurbishment were removed from storage first.

The experience of the Ukraine war has substantially altered the configuration of Russian tanks, with first-person view drones and other unmanned systems have made the upper surfaces, rear sections and engine compartments of tanks particularly vulnerable, with vehicles having consequently appeared with increasingly elaborate roof protection, additional armour and electronic warfare equipment intended to interfere with drone attacks. It is likely that when being repaired, T-90M tanks will also benefit from enhancements including the integration of their own first-person view drones, and of Arena-M active protection systems, which are some of the latest features that have enhanced the vehicles.