Ailing defense industries
End of foreign cooperation, rise in interest rates on loans and rise in the price of materials, have got the better of Russian defense companies, which are now obliged to suspend their production. The ” War Bulletin “, produced on April 16 by the Embassy of Ukraine in Washington, reports about twenty Russian military companies having suspended, partially or totally, their activity because of the consequences of the economic sanctions of Western countries. Among them, Vympel, which produces missiles for aircraft, including the R-77 long-range missile with active radar guidance, and UralVagonZavod, which produces the T-90 and T-72 combat tanks, but also the new generation tank T -14 “Armatas”. According to the Directorate of Ukrainian Intelligence (GUR), the company, which is the largest manufacturer of combat tanks in the world, has completely stopped its production of T-90s and T-14s, work on the T-72s being for now just slow down.
Russia is also suspending production of some of its air defense systems like the Buk systems, the 2K12 Kub and the 2K22 Tunguska. Ulyanovsk Mechanical Plant workers are being asked to either take unpaid leave or join the fight in Ukraine as SAM (surface-to-air missile) operators. This stop is particularly due to the large presence of electronic parts in the manufacture of anti-aircraft systems, of which Germany was the main supplier.
The difficulties are also numerous on the naval side. Still according to the GUR, some shipyards, such as that of Vladivostok, would today be unable to ensure the construction and maintenance of warships.
As a result, Russia, which was already struggling to restock on the ground and which already reports more than 3,000 disabled military vehicles, is all the more handicapped by Western economic sanctions as they affect its military capabilities.
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