T‑62m tanks and Russian desperation on the modern battlefield

Russians are desperately trying to form forces to halt the Ukrainian advancements. To this end, everything that can shoot from the vicinity is being brought to the Kursk region since gathering forces from other front sectors in Ukraine will take at least a few days. As a result, even antiques like T-62M tanks are appearing in the suburbs of Kursk. We present how valuable they are on a modern battlefield.

Ukrainians totally surprised the Russians, attacking with forces significantly larger than the Russian ones designated for this region. This forced them to pull equipment and forces from the whole vicinity or from the northern offensive areas of Kharkiv.

Due to the high activity of Ukrainian air defence, the Russians have issues using aviation. The well-tested method of using guided bomb family FAB with UMPK modules isn't quite effective for attacking moving targets, and helicopters fall, victim, not only to handheld anti-aircraft systems like Stinger or Piorun but even FPV drones.

This means that the only form of action remains ground forces, with which the Russians also have a problem. Ukrainians strive to attack convoys, for example, with GMLRS M30A1 rockets, and photos of tanks abandoned by crews appear on the web. It can be assumed that, upon reaching the battle region, the crew of the T-62M visible in the photo below might decide similarly.

Due to limitations in production and refreshing newer types from stocks, the Russians had to resort to older machines to make up for equipment losses. It is worth noting that initially, the Russians pulled mainly tanks from the T-80 and T-90 families from storage rather than T-72s, which might be a result of the popularity of the third family worldwide.

Considering the massive corruption in Russia, most likely the real state of the T-72 had the least in common with the documents. However, in the course of the war, the supply of operational T-80, T-90, and T-72 tanks suitable for quick repairs dwindled, so they resorted to the T-62 family, which is an evolution of the T-54/55. These were not exported and, due to their simpler design, were easier to renovate. Additionally, Russia gained access to a vast supply of spare parts thanks to North Korea, speeding up repairs.

As a result, a significant number of these machines have appeared on the front, which are increasingly destroyed. It can be said that their only advantage nowadays is that they exist and have a 115 mm smoothbore cannon capable of firing high-explosive shells for a few kilometres. Alternatively, it is possible to fire 9K116-2 Sheksna anti-tank guided missiles.

Their advantages end there, as their armour, even with the addition of composite armour blocks on the turret and hull and Kontakt-1 reactive armour blocks, does not provide sufficient protection against modern anti-tank weapons.

The same applies to situational awareness since most machines, except for a few, lack any passive night vision or thermal sight. Considering the high saturation of Ukrainian infantry with modern anti-tank weapons and the activity of FPV drones, the T-62M stands no chance.