How far up shit creek is the russian army in 2023?
Well volunteers are having to manufacture Kontakt-1 analogues to supply to russian tankers.
A short thread 👇
I've come across two russian channels/volunteer groups who have been manufacturing and supplying ERA to russian tankers since at least February of this year.
The first was "¡No Pasaràn!" run by an guy in Kaluga who does the best fascist Santa Claus impression I've ever seen.
The second is Andrey Anatolyevich, admin of "In Light of Events" and "Politics without Pictures" on Telegram and VK.
Note the Russian Tank Troops flag center and the so-called DPR flag on the right.
Definitely-not-a-fascist owner of the No Pasaràn org can be seen here celebrating a birthday in uniform, though I haven't worked out if is he's still serving.
Andrey claims to be a member of a tank battalion fighting in Ukraine that previously received ERA from No Pasaràn.
Kontakt-1 is a type of Explosive Reactive Armor that you can Google if you really want to get into the details. It's used to counter things like RPGs on armored vehicles.
It's a fairly simple piece of kit; some metal plates in a metal box and explosive compounds.
Yet, there's enough of a shortage at the front that individuals are having to scavenge for metal sheets on Telegram and VK to manufacture replacements.
Either through shortages, corruption, logistics issues or general incompetence, there are T-72 tankers crying out for ERA.
In one post last week, No Pasaràn explains that they sent 600 pieces to a unit fighting in Marinka; enough for 2 tanks.
They were planning to equip 8 more (a full tank company) if they can raise the funds, but claim that demand is about 50x greater than even this.
Andrey, for his part, plans to start manufacturing similar pieces shortly and started to raise money this week for steel and paint.
It isn't even clear if either group are even including the critical explosive elements as part of their manufacuring process.
Whatever the reason russia tankers are having to resort to improvisations like this, it bodes well for the quality of armor that Ukraine is going to come up against as they continue to degrade the more modern russian tank fleet.
Bonus dad dance video.
Shoutout to @John_A_Ridge for some ID work on the tank
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