Nizhny Tagil, located in the Sverdlovsk region of the Soviet Union, is the industrial center of the Ural industrial region, with a high density of metallurgical, engineering, chemical and metalworking industries. The Lower Tagil State Arsenal www.biquge.info is also the main producer of T72 and T90 tanks.

The originally peaceful Nizhny Tagil State Arsenal is very lively today, because everyone knows that the general secretary, who has never stepped out of the Kremlin, actually made a very unexpected visit to the Verdlovsk region, and there must be some political factors behind it.

If the well-informed first secretary of the Soviet of the Verdlovsk region should have received the direction of the wind that caused a small earthquake in Moscow, the original mayor of Moscow Luzhkov was removed from power, and the real power of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Anatoly was not spared, the strange thing is that just when everyone thought that the next unlucky person could be the secretary of the municipal party committee, the investigation was suddenly stopped.

Except for some small fish and shrimp who were executed, Comrade Pugo, who had been carrying out the cleansing task by hand, returned to the position of Minister of the Interior without incident, as if he had caused such an incident, and no force dared to rashly attack him.

Some people think that Yanayev has broken with the conservatives, but many more believe that it was the general secretary who forced them to compromise. Because the following high-profile escort visit further confirmed their point of view.

The opposition hidden in the Kremlin can no longer afford to make waves.

Accompanied by the Chairman of the Council of Ministers, Comrade Vladimir, Yanayev visited the Nizhny Tagil State Arsenal, and although the T72 had a bad reputation in the Gulf War, it was fortunate that it was able to turn the tide in the Chechen War and not fall again and again. And the next sell-off of Comrade Victor also reduced the losses of T72 a little.

Yanayev stood in front of the T90 tank produced on the assembly line, silently watching this armored monster. The flames of the turret welding were spewing everywhere, and the workers showed their dedication in front of General Secretary Yanayev, when in fact everyone was pretending to be busy in order to cooperate with the cameraman.

Yanayev stood indifferently in front of the unfinished chassis, staring at the steel monster on the assembly line, and next to him, Comrade Vladimir, who accompanied him, also stood beside him without retreating.

T90, a tank that has a high probability of becoming the future main force of the Soviet army's armor. Now it is caught in the middle of a factional struggle in the army, making its journey to service extremely slow.

Since the dismantling of armored forces in 1991, Soviet-style tanks have been hitting the international arms market price. It is said that in the most exaggerated period in the Middle East, it was 4,000 dollars a tank at a wholesale price. This reckless approach also allowed the Soviet Union to quickly solve the nightmare of overarmament and save money for the army.

Useless tanks smashed in their own hands have to be maintained with funds, and if they are all sold, they can still return to their capital, which method is best for fools to see.

The Soviet Union's weapons have always been rough, simple, and durable, and the steel torrent of the pre-Cold War era has always been a lingering nightmare for European countries, and in the middle of the 20 th century, it almost reached a state of invincibility at the same level, and no European country dared to compete head-to-head with the huge armored forces. Compared with European and American tanks, the Soviet-style tank is more rebellious, although the appearance is rough, simple, and the shape does not conform to the mainstream, but the firepower is strong; From the very beginning, the Soviet armored group was a typical offensive and defensive unit, and all Russian tanks were relatively mobile.

Back in January 1996, a decision had been made to gradually turn the T-90 tank into a single production tank for use by the Russian armed forces, as confirmed by a senior official of the Ministry of Defense in charge of the Soviet armored forces. The key phrase in this decision was "gradually becoming", in other words, despite the selection of T-90 tanks, it is likely that the production of T-80 tanks in Omsk at a low speed, mainly for export, will continue to be used mainly for export, so as not to experience excessive economic difficulties in Omsk.

The entry into service of the T90 was a slow advance in the army, because the military did not unanimously approve of the selection of the T-90 tank by the Fist troops. There are even voices within the country who say that the move is a wrong choice, and many believe that the T-80U is a superior tank compared to the T90. It was also considered that the T-90 was too heavy and underpowered, which was especially dwarfed in this respect compared to the agile T-80U tank.

A number of remedial measures are being taken to this end. It is likely that this will leave the issue of standardization of the Russian Army unresolved. According to the Russian military's estimates, in order to modernize the equipment of the armored forces, the military needs to purchase 400 new T90 tanks every year, but due to the resistance of the military department, the purchase of T90 is far lower than this figure, in other words, the Soviet army has a sufficient budget, but they do not want to buy new tanks for the time being. It's like when the T64 was equipped with the T55.

The Soviet government has planned and responded to the export of 2,030 new T-72 and T-80 units produced between 1994 and 1997, in addition to meeting the needs of the army's armored forces. In order to force the Army at the negotiating table to make concessions.

"Do you know why I'm here to visit the Taxia Gil State Arsenal?"

Yanayev stretched out his hand and carefully stroked the giant wheel of the steel track, feeling the cold breath on it.

Comrade Vladimir replied with understanding, "What about the reluctance of the group of people in the War Department to replace the T90 tanks?" Some people in the War Department even strongly stated that the Army would not be equipped with T90 on a large scale in recent years. ”

Yanayev nodded and said, "There is part of this, but it is not because of this at all. As the head of the Nizhny Tagil Arsenal said, although they praised the T90 as the best main battle tank so far, everyone knows that the T90 tank still has mixed reviews, such as weight problems and armor problems. Unless...... A perfect new type of tank has appeared, capable of completely replacing all existing tanks. So that the army department will shut up. ”

A tank that is even more advanced than the T90......

Comrade Vladimir also fell into deep thought for a moment.

It is really difficult for a strong man to leave this question to Comrade Vladimir to think about, at this time there is no fourth-generation main battle tank that has not yet appeared in its prototype, and according to the original timeline, it will not be in service until at least 2015. However, this did not prevent Yanayev from mastering the golden finger of history.

Project Armata...... Although he was criticized for not reaching the level of the fourth generation, coupled with the strong R&D strength of the Soviet Union and the operation ten years ahead of schedule, he did not believe that the Armata plan would fail.

Since 1995, Atama's plan has been on the parliamentary agenda of the Ural depot in the Omsk region, and a special allocation has been made by the Ministry of Defence. Moreover, this research and development program was carried out secretly three years ago, and no one knew what the Soviet Union was secretly trumpeting up, and only two people, Yanayev and Yazov, knew about this program. Develop the next generation of main battle tanks to gain a new advantage in future military power.

"Actually, this plan is already underway in secret, Comrade Vladimir. But it's not time to come up with it yet, but I want you to step in and use this plan to stabilize the mouths of the Department of Defense and the Department of the Army. How you do it depends on your means. This is the documentation of the new tank that is being researched and developed, and I think you will be very interested. ”

He put a picture of the new tank in front of Comrade Vladimir, which was indeed different from all previous Soviet tanks, and the turret alone gave people a sense of futuristic science fiction. And the listed parameters are also a few levels higher than the T90, which is not the simple and brutal continuous firepower of the previous steel torrent. Since the Soviet Union was no longer able to maintain world dominance, 50,000 tanks were uniformly weakened. Retired troops are also being pulled into overseas markets to expand their financial resources.

Vladimir's expression was a little strange, and Yanayev's words frightened him. I can't believe that the other party actually left a hand, how many secrets of this country are there that he doesn't know?

Yanayev also seemed to see through the other party's thoughts, and said with a smile, "There are still many secrets that you don't know, but you will slowly know them later, after you have reached enough authority." ”

"Now it's up to you to convince the comrades of the War Department."

Vladimir asked helplessly, "What is the use of the T90 plan?" ”

"It's useful, but it's also useless."

Yanaev's answer was succinct and clear, "But it will be carried out as an export project for Soviet troops, and the Far East will also make a certain amount of purchases, after all, we still have a deserted plain in the Far East." Before the news of the Omsk region was released, the Soviets would still have several tanks at the same time for a long time. Kindness...... This time may be a little more chaotic, and I hope to control the situation. ”

Adhering to the idea of fighting for another hundred years in 59, at least T72 and T80 cannot withdraw from the stage of history for a certain period of time.

"As soon as the news of the Ural depot gets out, you have to test the pressure with the War Department to get that small group of diehards to give up on what they were holding onto. Oh yes, I think they'll be interested in Atama's information, so you can test them with this first. Akhmezov and the old man Bakranov should be more open-minded and persuade him to attack Varennikov after that, and the success rate will probably be higher. ”

"But I think you know how to do it, so I don't need to say anything about the rest."

Yanayev said slowly.

For the first time, Vladimir showed a very helpless expression in front of Yanayev.

I'm not completely sure, but I'll see how it goes......" (To be continued.) )