Russia has taken the best out of its stockpiles, but it still has resources for two more years of war. What was left of the Red Army stocks

Although Russian officials praise domestic armaments and military equipment factories, old armored personnel carriers or infantry fighting vehicles are increasingly appearing at the front.

An account on the X social network called Jompy published photos of Russian equipment depots and also listed the number of equipment that was in the bases before the war and what is left now.

Most of the armored personnel carriers (MT-LB, from the 1960s) have been removed from storage. Thus, out of the 2,527 units, only 922 would have remained in warehouses. The rest are in Ukraine, and some were destroyed.

The Oryx server, which records Russian and Ukrainian losses based on photographs, shows that at least 722 carriers were destroyed, and also records as destroyed a number of 69 MT-LBVs modified to carry rapid-fire guns and other weapons. Another 203 similar MT-LBVMs were also destroyed.

Photo: Soviet armored MT-LB, “modernized” with A22 Ogon naval missile launchers

As for the light armored combat vehicles of the BDM infantrytheir stock in storage fell from 637 before the war to 244. Also, of the 125 tracked BTR-50 carriers from the 1950s, half are still in storage.

However, the stock of 708 more modern wheeled vehicles (BTR 60, BTR-70 and BTR 80/82) was completely depleted, to make up for the losses at the front. Of the 3,300 pre-war vehicles, 2,600 remain, apparently deployed in Ukraine.

As expected, the Russian Ministry of Defense did not respond to the American magazine Nesweek’s question about the losses and the use of old equipment.

Huge losses, but stockpiles of old equipment will run out in 2-3 years

Last year alone, Russia lost over 3,000 armored fighting vehicles of all types. During the entire war, they lost 8,800 armored vehicles, according to the analysis published by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS).

Despite the current high rate of Russian losses, the old technology will still be available for at least two years, and Russia still has enough resources to conduct a ground operation, IISS assesses. At the same time, the industry produces new weapons and ammunition.

However, we can assume that Russia removed from the warehouses the equipment that is easier to re-operate, the remaining ones being in a more advanced state of degradation.

Last year, about 1,180 – 1,280 tanks and about 2,470 infantry fighting vehicles and armored personnel carriers were returned to service. The figures are higher than those reported by the Ukrainians, who were talking about Russia’s ability to produce or modernize 250 to 300 tanks and repair another 250 to 300 annually.

Russia also emptied its artillery depots

Howitzer 2S19 M1 MSTA

The Russians took about 60% of the howitzers from the depots – all 24 howitzers 2A65 Msta towed 152mm and all older 66s 2A36 Hyacinth of the same caliber, but also two thirds of the old howitzers D-1 and D-20 of 152 mm, as well as 80% of those D-30 of 122 mm.

The Institute for the Study of War has pointed out that about half of the artillery systems remaining in storage are likely unusable due to degradation during storage and because many of the remaining systems are World War II-era artillery systems incompatible with modern ammunition.

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