Russia appears to be sending World War II-era T-55 tanks into battle in Ukraine. CNN's Clare Sebastian explains why these relics are being pressed into service. #CNN #News
Russia turns to 80-year-old tanks to replenish forces
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The Russians are pulling tanks from the museums for the front, not the parade. Slava Ukraine 💙💛
Slava to Russia and Putin
@Kulia Sharma Wrong way to use the words traitor.
“Ukraine doesn’t stand a chance!” one year later: Russia: “Deploy the 1950s garbage tractors!”
DING!
😂😂😂😂😂
@Dittz. Todays news : Syria has been re- admitted into the Arab league . Dittz. You probably don’t know of this and , therefore , you don’t even know what this means . Just focus on “Russia is loosing “. Don’t pay attention to fact that Russia is manufacturing over 1,000 tanks per year . Using old tanks is a weakness ? Pathetic hoping here.
@Dan Wright Because the International embargo Russia doesn’t have the high technology like microchips, etc to produce high quality tanks.
The sheer amount of approving and cheering comments by ordinary Russians under videos about the atrocities committed against civilians and prisoners of war in Ukraine were no less shocking to Ukrainians than the war itself.
We somehow got used to the war, but the realization of who we have been living next to all this time without even knowing it is still terrifying.
Those barbarians called themselves our brothers.
Imagine what they would do to you, who they call their enemies, if you let them.
Not supplying weapons to Ukraine under the pretext of achieving an early peace would be like allowing a violator to violate his victim in order to end the violence as soon as possible.
*You are welcome to share this message if you agree.
As I understand it Ukraine for the vast majority of it’s history been an integral part of Russia. Which leads to the question is there such a thing as a Ukrainian?
@Brian Jones Ukraine is independent, comrade! But cute 2 year old Kremlin Gremlin account 😉 Slava Ukraine!
@Brian Jones There is a free course on Ukraine’s history from a Yale university professor Timothy Snyder on YouTube. Go educate yourself.
@Nick Lindberg Lol 😆 😂 🤣 facts are facts
@Brian Jones yes when the soviet union fell apart in the 80’s or 90’s. Ukraine became a sovereign state.
I’m sure many of us have imagined what it would be like to take today’s technology such as Apache Helicopters back in time and into a battlefield such as WW2, well there you have it..
That won’t work cause they wouldn’t have the technology to maintain it.
@TRE45ON is Bat5hit Crazy by Ulysees S. Grant*SS$! {insert “whoosh” meme here}
They did have helicopters in ww2 they where just used in medavac with high altitude and wasn’t look at as a weapon suck as the prop plane and German new jet plane. Germans where very high tech than any nations. Look who help put us in space a German.
@Jeremy Salter The Germans did build a prototype helicopter, that’s true. But it was never put into production and never used in action. The first use of helicopters on the battlefield was by America in the Korean war.
For 20 years Putin boasted about Russia’s armed forces now we know it was all a lie. 😂
it is not a lie.
@Steven Attila it’s not a lie, it’s entertainment!
@Steven Attila Yeah we can all tell how formidable Russia’s military is by its inability to capture the Donbas 14+ months in despite it being a few hours by car from Moscow.
@Steven Attila The bit where he claimed his super duper army would take Ukraine in 3 days, certainly was a lie…… Putin also claimed his army could put boots on the ground in 6 major European cities within 48 hours. I’m not sure quite how he might do that, with the armed forces of 31 NATO member nations opposing him……
*RUSSIA FEB. 2022:* “We’re taking Ukraine in 3 days!”
*RUSSIA MAY 2023:* * needs 80 yr old tanks and air defense to protect Moscow *
*years
False….the American and British intelligence agencies said that, not Russia.
@OrkBoyz 95 Not true. The paratroopers that were send to Kiev had plans with them, showing a takeover within a couple of days and even their parade uniforms for victory parade.
@IG.. Like Russia was super successful in Afghanistan…
Kind of ironic if the Russians parade T 14 Armatas and sends T 55 to the front. Well, they only have 8 of them.
except they don’t hold up too well to parade duty either!
That’s what the always do the last 50 years – it’s a photo-op. Similar to the SU-57 story. The last, really groundbreaking designs come from Soviet times, Su-27 and siblings and the MiG-31. The rest is 50/60ies tech, if at all.
They’ll be okay as long as they don’t hit a pothole.
This only reinforces the need for continued support for Ukraine
@Valery Ferry lol not really.. makes it hard to justify sending all that equipment if russia is truly doing so poorly..
Thank you for your coverage
More please
🇬🇧🏴🇺🇦🏴🇺🇦🏴🇪🇺
Take thar Union Jack away from that saltire
There are two essential problems with fielding the T-55 – apart from the fact they belong on Antiques Road Show rather than a battlefield. The first is that while they are tanks, yes, a tank is useless without a good crew, and the losses Russia has so far suffered means the T-55s will be crewed with green soldiers who will not live long enough to gain experience. The second problem is the same problem with the massive mobilization – logistics. So what if they’ve got numbers if you can’t get ammo to those numbers? Maybe they’ve got warehouses full of spare parts, but you’ve got to get those spare parts to the tanks. You’ve got a crew for the tanks, but you’ve got to feed them. And once you’ve got that supply chain in place, you’ve got to make sure the supplies get from A to B, which creates opportunities for the Ukrainians. Or your supplies start at A, and along the way to B, items fall off the back of the truck and find their way to a black market.
Russia is going to loose. It’s just a question of how many Russians need to die before that happens.
very inaccurate as well, it cant hit crap whilst moving
@Nakor LovesOranges Yep. The optics are also really poor by today’s standards. The Yom Kipper war in the 70s proved they were outclassed then. My guess is that these are going to be setup as stationary gun emplacements with some basic camouflage, hoping to take out light armor and troops on foot. Hell, they’d be lucky if they can get any of the engines to run well and long enough to retreat.
Exactly. Doesn’t matter how many or whatever kind of tank you have, if you don’t have skilled Crews you got nothing
Russia will do what America did in Vietnam and Afghanistan, seek an end with honour instead of admitting defeat
On the flip side the T55 ( and T62 and early T72 variants) were designed in the heart of Cold War to be easy to operate by conscript armies.
Individual quality was less important than sheer weight of men and machine being thrown at
the enemy.
Russia has plenty of manpower and plenty of obsolete tanks to cram them into.
It’s just a question of can Ukraine generate 10-1 kill rates among Russian tank crews to break that armored force before being overwhelmed.
My dreams of seeing a T34 or IS2 tanks in actions. It’s like a WOT games. thank you putin!
Imagine a T-50-2 speeding around the battlefield
There will be a blanket ban on filming these old tubs on the battlefield, because these won’t last very long…….
Tank-fried Orc’s in vintage tanks. Perfect!
Show me som old Soviet knockoff FT-17s and I’ll be happy.
They have to throw in a some Abrams, Leopards and challengers into that game once a year to show us how powerful Modern tanks are.
If i was a horse in Russia I would be getting very nervous right now
🤣🤣🤣🤣👍
Lol
If I was a window cleaner in Russia right now, I’d be fearful of losing my life. A General or some Oligarth might knock me off my ladder on his way down……
Lolll😂😂🤣
Once, everyone thought the Russian military was an invincible steamroller. Now we realize how wrong we all were 😂
Who would have thought US would run way from Iraq, Lybia and Afghanistan like the way they did. US hasn’t really fully won for a long time.
More like a lintroller
@Adi B who would have thought ussr/Russia would lose 11k orcs to Afghanistan 😂😂
@Adi B Troll? Troll.
Russian generals and Putin skimmed off the defense budget for their own bank accounts for years and years. Now it’s come back to bite them. 🤣
Putin has many beautiful thing, 800 sq foot apartment a trailer and many cars, Putin is the wealthiest man in the world with assets totaling up to $200 billion. Putin sure did skim off the defense budget.
Pretty soon the Ruzzkis are going to bring out the trebuchets and armoured cavalry.😮
They will fight hand-to-hand🤣
Voices of Ukrainians: “I am defending my country, I am protecting my family, women, children, those who are defenseless,”. “My conscience is completely clear.”
“I will stay here while my heart beats. I will fight to defend Ukraine.”
“And when we have defended Ukraine, I will liberate my country.”
Voices of Ruzzies: “Why are we here? What are we supposed to be defending? How do these people have inside toilets and working TVs? What am I supposed to do? How are they bombing us from the sky? Will I get all of that money I was promised? How come my friends never returned from the special military operation? Where is my Lada? Where is the wodka we were promised? I am hungry, cold, sad, desperate, lonely – viva Ruzzia!”
@JK Clark 😂😂
@JK Clark we see a huge difference between Russia and Ukraine not only on the front but also in ideologies, if Ukraine lives by the laws of democracy, and defends its freedom, Russia attacks because Putin ordered it
AMERICA LOVES UKRAINE 🇺🇦 ❤️
The issue for the Russians with the T-54/T-55 series is less that it is wholly inferior to any western Tank in active service or storage, not to say that this isn’t an issue, but tanks can be deployed in non armor vs. armor situations, the much bigger issue is that absolutely EVERY SINGLE infantry-mobile anti-tank weapon designed since the middle of the Cold War is capable of penetrating a T-55s armor even at its thickest spots. We are not talking about FGM-148 Javelins here and not even it’s predecessor, the M-47 Dragon, but cheap and very easy to carry RPG-7s, M-72s and RPG-18s.
doesn’t matter, that tank cost less than an FGM-148. in fact, you can buy four T-55 for the price of 1 javelin, and those tanks are helpful in attacking Ukranian trenches because, unlike Western tanks, Russian tanks are designed with HE shells included. in an attrition war like Ukraine, anything that could stand 50BMG is an excellent deal.
I will rather be in a T-55 than in a heavily armored Mercedes van.
@tommy tomas Doesn’t matter? A T-55 requires a crew of four, a T-55 is incapable of night-fighting, a T-55 will have very big problems even coming close to a trench if the smallest, lightest AT launcher Ukrainians have can still penetrate it’s frontal armor. Most modern MRAPs are better protected and are more combat effective than those old tanks. A tank’s worth in a fight is not only determined by the millimeters of steel it has and the size of its gun, but how much the crew can actually do with the tank, and as a tank, not as a static gun or improvised artillery piece, this tank is much more of a trap for it’s crew than anything else. A particular problem is that a T-55 would be extremely vulnerable to FPV drones strapped with RPG warheads, and those have become pretty common in that war. If you would rather be in a clunky, slow steel hull that offers no protection against the weapons that will be specifically aimed at the tank, that allows for only very little visibility for any crew member, that lacks any modern weapons guidance systems etc. etc. than sit in a highly mobile vehicle equipped with modern active and passive protection systems and weapons systems that can accurately operate during the day and night and in any weather, I’d suggest you look more into what makes tanks effective and what does not. In today’s world a slow tank is a dead tank, a tank that has to expose itself for a fairly long time to fire, because it’s optics, loading- and guidance systems are wholly outdated, is a dead tank. A tank that has no means of registering incoming threats until they actually hit and most likely penetrate the tank, is a dead tank. Considering that those vehicles require a lot of resources to keep on running, a four-man crew and have, for today’s standards, very limited combat capabilities, pulling these relics out of storage may very well be a net negative for the Russians, especially since they have shown themselves to be far from brilliant tacticians making the absolute best out of anything they get.
Although T55 might be ok in closer quarters or to create firm points in infantry defensive lines the hidden problem with all of this old equipment are things like oil seals in the axles, transmissions and engines. They are built deep into the machinery and hard to get at but they perish over time, especially in harsh winters. These seals protect the all important bearings.
I use to work on tanks for 4 years I know what you mean.
I was wondering what impact dry rot and lengthy storage in warehouses that probably have a wide degree of temperature shifts over the years would cause on tanks.
Their newer tanks were never maintained now imagine ww2 tanks
Excellent point, pbrin. You can’t tell me those 80 year old seals are not all cracked and dried out and can withstand the pressures of battle. What about engine compression? The rings are likely “rust welded” to the cylinder walls. Those tanks may be 100 times simpler than the modern tanks but once you start tearing them down to do a simple repair, you create several more problems. That is, replacing one part means replacing 15 parts – if you can find them. The only way those tanks would be battle ready is if they had been started a few times per week since they were stored after WWII AND serviced on a regular basis. I’d say only a fraction of those tanks will be usable. More Russian bull****!!
@Acre Guy I know how those tanks feel. I am the same age, built in the 40s and my seals are a bit dodgy too! 😂
Imagine being a young Russian soldier being proud that you are following in the footsteps of your great grandfather in serving your country by driving a tank as he did 70 years ago
and then finding out that you are going to be literally driving
the exact same tank that he did when he was young.
nostalgia?
Family activity
Retro hits harder
Be proud russia be proud 👏
The supposed expert didn’t talk about night fighting capability which is almost absent in these tanks. Worse yet, what they have is active IR which means they light themselves up like Christmas trees for the drones.
Also not mentioned is that far less expensive and complicated anti-tank munitions are fine to take these things out.