Russia Is Planning To Sell It's Newest Tank To Foreign Buyers

© Sputnik/ Mikhail Voskresensky

Leonid Bershidsky, Bloomberg: Russian Tanks Roll Into a Marketing War

Russia's new supertank, the T-14 Armata, is getting its first taste of battle -- against two virtual rivals on the global market: China's VT-4 and Ukraine's BM Oplot.

Russia has more than 15,000 tanks, more than any other nation, but the vast majority of these are ancient T-72s and T-80s. These tanks have apparently been supplied to the rebels in eastern Ukraine, not least because Russia doesn't have much use for them. Among other problems, they are death traps: A direct hit on the manned turret often causes the shells within to explode, killing the crew. That's why the Soviet army, famously unconcerned with personnel losses, needed so many of them.

WNU Editor: The Chinese are already starting to "trash-talk" this new Russian tank .... China Battle Tank Maker Trash Talks Russian Rival Online (Bloomberg).