According to documents leaked from Russia’s sole tank factory, the Kremlin aims to field over 1,000 T‑90 tanks in the next three years, largely through refurbishing older models rather than building new ones.
Russia’s Three‑Year Tank Delivery Goals
Documents leaked by a Ukrainian intelligence group indicate that Russia intends to bring more than 1,000 T‑90 tanks into active service over the next three years. The plans rely heavily on older vehicles pulled from storage and subjected to varying degrees of modernization rather than on new builds. In addition, the long‑term plan calls for approximately 2,600 tanks over the coming decade, with nearly 200 older T‑72s slated for overhaul.
Sources and the ‘Wagonka’ Leak
The information comes from Frontelligence Insight, a Ukrainian group that publishes under @Tatarigami_UA on X. Their claims are based on internal documents allegedly obtained covertly from ‘Wagonka’—the only tank factory in Russia, located in Nizhny Tagil. During the Soviet era, the plant produced the T‑72 family with the factory’s main output coming from the Ukrainian town of Kharkiv after the USSR’s collapse.
Sensor Orders Clarify Production Mix
The earliest document details orders for 10 IS‑442 sensors in 2026 and 31 in 2027, intended to monitor engine revolutions on what the documents refer to as product 188M2—a T‑90M2 variant. The same sensors are listed for the still‑in‑production T‑90M and for upgraded versions of older T‑72s. An official letter from a Wagonka director to a sensor manufacturer further enumerates how many and which tanks the plant plans to produce over the next decade.
New versus Rebuilt T‑90s
According to the documents, only a few dozen new T‑90M units are slated for production each year—between roughly 60 and 100—while the majority of the planned output will consist of upgraded older T‑90s marked A or S, which undergo extensive modernization or rebuild after long storage or battlefield damage. The difference between new construction and refurbishment matters because the latter is faster and cheaper but results in shorter‑lived machines.
T‑72 Modernization Plans
The plan includes significant modernization of the T‑72 line as well. While data for 2026 are missing, the documents project the delivery of 255 T‑72B3M tanks in 2027, 172 in 2028, and about 50 per year thereafter until 2036, for a total of 828 T‑72s in that period.
Absence of the T‑14 Armata and Economic Rationale
The documents do not mention production of the T‑14 Armata, the most advanced Russian platform that has only a few dozen prototypes. Their omission likely reflects the armament’s entirely different powerplant and designation, which excludes it from the current sensor and production plans. The Kremlin’s focus on the cost‑effective T‑72 and T‑90 is seen as a pragmatic response to the need to replace roughly 4,000 tanks lost in the first three years of the Ukraine war, with the 2,600‑unit plan deemed sufficient once lower‑cost models are fielded.
