Before starting a newer count I decided to review the current one, because I was unsure about some BTR identifications. I decided to try Yandex. Alas, idk why I didn't use it before, there's so much newer footage there.
For example, the 4990th. Before the war there were over 600 MT-LBs, and we didn't get newer footage from that one in all these two years on Google Earth. But take a look at Yandex, just 91 MT-LBs remained there a while ago, three of them visibly broken hulls.
Another base we didn't got newer footage, the 230th. Here a lot of stuff is gone too.
All in all, of the total amount of MT-LBs we found during our updated count, these new Yandex images show that half of them are gone from storage already. Unfortunately, there's not much newer footage to significantly update our numbers of other AFV types.
Only a single base remains with a considerable amount of MT-LBs: the 7020th in the Far East, with 342 MT-LBs stored there as of May 2023. In every other base they're counted by the dozens, except at the 187th as of May 2022 where the number actually increased to 115.
I estimate the current number of MT-LBs in storage in 400-500, including 100 broken hulls. Consider that they started the war with 2,4k in storage and according to TMB2021 another 3k in active service.
Here are the prewar numbers in case someone didn't see this tweet.
1/ @aXielMeMer9432 and @waffentraeger just found a lot of updated images boht on Google and Livingatlas. Among these, there are several major storage bases, and as usual, the pattern is them becoming depleted. Let's see a few of them.
2/ Before going deeper, I want to make clear I haven't yet counted any equipment left at these. Still, just a look at them shows that they're not much left.
3/ First of all, the 6018th Central Tank Reserve Base. This one was included in @Vishun_military's recent report, but now it's available for all to see that last September most remaining useful equipment was gone.
It's about time to realize Russia has a shitton of equipment. Just because they lost 2k BMP-2s and still use them amptly does NOT mean they're getting them abroad.
They started the war with 3k in active service and probably 1-1,5k more in storage. Just like MT-LBs, we'll see them for a long time even after stored ones have been depleted for replenishment.
1/ One last thread to end 2024! Let's take a quick look at Russia's towed AA guns in storage: S-60s and KS-19s 🧵
2/ So it's no mystery that this war is full of stark contrats: Leopard 2s and self-propelled MT-LBs, Ladas and BMP-3s... And also old towed AA guns repurposed for ground targets. The main Soviet systems in this regard were S-60s and KS-19s.
3/ Both Ukraine and Russia have been using them extensively since 2022. But while Ukraine at times modernizes them with targeting systems (not always tho)...
3/ So, in the previous thread I talked about how many stored armored vehicles that might look decent-ish were probably total write offs. This time I wanna delve a bit more into related stuff.
A little look into how Omsktransmash has changed. Back in 2021, the only T-80s you could spot were these 52 ones, parked there for years and clearly cannibalized. Nothing would change during 2022, either.
And in 2023, suddenly, T-80s everywhere, in massive numbers, waiting to be refurbished or modernized to BVM standard.