MOSCOW (Sputnik) – On Tuesday, Deputy Defense Minister Yuri Borisov said that the ministry and the Russian Uralvagonzavod machine industry company signed a contract for the supply of over 100 T-14 Armata tanks to the Russian army.
"State tests will be completed next year, they will be put into service afterward," Alexander Shevchenko, head of the ministry’s main vehicles and armor department, told RIA Novosti.
The Russian Defense Ministry unveiled its next-generation Armata tank at the May 9 Victory Day military parade in Moscow in 2015.
The tank's turret is unmanned and is operated by the crew located in an armored capsule at the front of the vehicle. Its main armament includes a 125-mm smoothbore cannon and a 7.62-mm remote-control machine gun.
Five-percent cuts in state defense orders will not affect Russia’s advanced combat vehicles built on the Armata platform, the Russian Defense Ministry’s chief of main vehicles and armor department told Sputnik on Friday.
"The main armored vehicle department is primarily financed by long-term research and development programs. Perhaps the reduction in funding will affect something else, but not in the development of weapons and military equipment," Shevchenko said.
Shevchenko noted that work on the Armata, along with the Kurganets and Bumerang armored personnel carriers, are prioritized because they form the "basis for the future."
