Russian Army Receives Enhanced T-62 Tanks From Deep Storage: Armour Shortages Worsen

The Russian Army has reportedly received a new batch of modernised T-62 main battle tanks, after the vehicles were withdrawn from storage and refurbished. Images have shown the vehicles being transportedfrom storage depots and industrial plants, apparently in preparation for deployment. It remains highly uncertain how many T-62s are currently in Russian Army service, although footage has confirmed that the tanks have taken significant losses in the Ukrainain theatre, and that several dozen of the vehicles have been captured. The Russian Army has previously quickly retired its T-62s in the 1990s and early 2000s, standardising its fleet around the T-80 and T-72, as well as the enhanced T-72 derivative that was renamed the T-90 for marketing purposes. Unlike the newer and more capable T-64s, however, much of the T-62 fleet avoided being scrapped, as the tanks were prized for their ease of use and low maintenance requirements, and reportedly had some advantages for city fighting.

T-62s first began to be withdrawn from storage in 2016 to be supplied as aid to the Syrian Arab Army, although all remaining Russian armour in Syria were captured by Western and Turkish backed Islamist militias in December 2024. T-62s began to be brought out of storage to equip the Russian Army’s own units in May 2022, after T-72s used in initial offensives into Ukraine suffered extreme losses. The T-62M variant used in both situations is a variant developed in the 1980s with enhanced armour, more powerful engines and new fire controls, although the tanks still lacked key features such as thermal sights seen on all Russia’s current frontline vehicles. These have needed to be installed during more recent refurbishment. Tanks brought out of storage more recently have been seen integrating anti-drone cages, and in some cases explosive reactive armour.

Although the T-62 has advantages in terms of simplicity and ease of maintenance, the decision to bring the vehicles out of storage is thought to largely be motivated by the serious shortages of more advanced classes of main battle tanks. While the USSR was able to produce main battle tanks at rates of around 4000 per year in peacetime, Russia produced only around 100 tanks per year in the years preceding the war, and is expected to produce between 400 and 600 in 2025, which is considered far from sufficient to replenish ongoing losses. As reserves of T-72 and T-80 tanks are increasingly depleted, the T-62 is expected to be relied on increasingly heavily. Russia’s adversaries in the Western world have themselves suffered from severe tank shortages, leading them to equip Ukraine with obsolete Leopard I and T-55 tanks that are less capable than the T-62M, while supplies of the more capable T-64 and T-80 tanks, and increasingly the T-72 as well, run low.

A significantly advantage of the T-62 is that the class is widely operated by the Korean People’s Army. With North Korea having been by far the greatest supplier of armaments to Russia, supplies of 115mm munitions and various upgrade packages and spare parts are likely to be readily available from the country. The T-62 was two decades ahead of Western tank designs in integrating smoothbore guns and armour-piercing fin-stabilised discarding sabot (APFSDS) rounds, meaning that despite its age, it remains much more viable than Western tanks of its era when properly upgraded particularly for anti-armour roles. The Leopard I and Challenger 2 tanks supplied to Ukraine, by contrast, rely on obsolete rifled guns, which have much lower muzzle velocities and penetration capabilities. A primary drawback of the T-62 is its requirement for four crew rather than three due to its lack of an autoloader, which is an issue currently faced by all Western tanks developed outside France. The tank’s 115mm gun is considerably less powerful than the 125mm guns used by all subsequent Soviet Russian tank classes, while its armour protection is also far inferior to modernised T-64, T-72, T-80 and T-90 variants.