Originally Posted by
Wokkafans
Russia modifying 800 T-62 tanks, some probably more than 50 years old, for its war in Ukraine. This probably means it has run out of all of its modern (relatively) T-64, T-72 and T-80 tanks, and can’t manufacture new ones quickly.
I'm not convinced. First of all I am in doubt they have 800 left of those in working order good enough to make an upgrade. As second, pre-war Russia was able to modernize maximum of 100-200 T72's per year, now they are claiming to modernize 800 even older tanks from storages sealed even longer time ago for war in Ukraine.
They might pad them with some extra sheets of metal but thats about it. There is no point trying to modernize the T62's if you are out of modern sights and such for the newer ones.
Then comes the issue of bore, 115mm smooth bore gun. Everything else uses 125mm. Russian mllitary seems to be a logistical nightmare already even without that hassle, if they even have the munition in stock anyway.
Last but not least, that is a four crew MBT. They are already struggling to find crews for their 3 crew mobik toasters, theyd need 33% more incompetent and untrained grunts to drive those 60 yo "Czechoslovakian liberators" in untrained tight columns into unfriendly places.
There's been T62M's already in the eastern front in limited quantities, but I am quite sure that the Z team is incapable of modernizing the old original versions and absolutely not in those quantities in such a short timeframe.