Russian ground troops will receive over 450 tanks and armored vehicles in 2019.

Russian ground troops will receive over 450 armored vehicles under the State defense order in 2019. Russian defense plants and enterprises will hand over modern pieces of tanks and armored vehicles to the Russian Defense Ministry after testing them in various climatic zones, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

T-72B3M (Picture source: Vitaly Kuzmin)

"The units will receive upgraded T-72B3M tanks and the T-90M tank. The ground troops will also receive BMP-3 infantry fighting vehicles and the BTR-82 and BTR-82AM armored personnel carriers," the ministry said. The rearmament rates make it possible to bring the proportion of modern weapons and hardware in the Ground Troops to 70% by late 2020.

The T-72B3M also called T-72B4 is an upgraded version of the T-72B3 which is the latest modernized version of the Russian-made main battle tank T-72. The T-72B3M project was unveiled for the first time to the public during the Final of International Russian army Tank Biathlon competition in October 2014. According Russian military engineers, the T-72B3M will be comparable to the more advanced T-90, but with much lower costs. In March 2016, it was announced that Russia is planning to modernize its 150 T-72 main battle tanks to the T-72B3M version. Russia will spend 2.5 $37 million to upgrade 150 T-72Bs to the advanced B3M standard. Since 2017, tank units of Western  and Southern military district of the Russian army have received T-72B3M. In June 2017, it was announced that the first modernized T-72B3M main battle tanks have entered service with the Belarus army.

The T-90MS is the next step in the development of the Russian-made main battle tank T-90. The new T-90MS was presented for the first time to the public during the defence exhibition Russian Expo arms in September 2011. This new tank is a complete modernization of the T-90 by touching all the characteristics of the basic variant to increase its operational capabilities in combat and against modern threats of the battlefield. The weight of the T-90MS has increased of 1,500 kg, compared to the basic model of the T-90 to reach 48 tons, but it remains significantly lower compared to the German main battle tank Leopard 2A6 and the American M1A2 Abrams.

 
T-90M (Picture source: Vitaly Kuzmin)