Jompy Profile picture
Apr 25, 2024 28 tweets 10 min read Read on X
1/ It's finally time to publish some actual figures from the updated AFV count made by @HighMarsed and myself. First thread is on MT-LBs, the humble workhorse of the Russian military, and how it's close to storage depletion. Image
2/ First of all, here are the prewar numbers, including MT-LBs, in Russian storage. As you can see, after a second recount of prewar storage we found 2,461 MT-LBs in storage:
3/ However, in the most recent footage there were only 921 left. Image
4/ Here's some recent threads I made on the topic of stored MT-LBs:
7/ Although in the prewar count I wasn't so thorough with my analysis, not differentiating between functional and broken hulls (based on visual evidence) and also not trying to locate potential specialized variants, I did take that approach this time around. Image
8/ The decrease in storage is terrible, proportinally the worst out of all Russian AFV types. And that's no surprise, considering how much it's used and lost by the Russian army in Ukraine. For example, according to @Rebel44CZ , as of April 8th Russia had lost 804 MT-LBs.
9/ TMB2022 estimated that Russia had over 3,900 MT-LBs in active service, plus another 2,000 in storage. So even if they finally reached 0 left in storage, we'd still see MT-LBs for months at the very least. However, once they reach that point of storage depletion, there's no more replenishment.Image
10/ There's also some MT-LBs being refurbished at BTRZs, although probably few in numbers and fast to repair because the MT-LB is such a simple and reliable vehicle.
11/ We also didn't find any MT-LB at BTRZs, or at least we weren't able to ID them:
12/ With all that said, let's dive in these updated MT-LB figures. The first base that I want to talk about is the 4990th. Like I said in the previous tweet, it went from storing a quarter of the entire stored MT-LB fleet before the war to being almost depleted at some point in 2022/2023 based on Yandex imagery:
13/ This base went from 658 MT-LBs to 88, of which 3 were cannibalized: prewar vs Yandex footage (second pic includes the cannibalized ones).


Image
Image
Image
Image
14/ The next interesting base, and the biggest one as of latest evidence, is the 7220th, of which I also talked recently. There were 493 MT-LBs there before the war and now there are 342. Prewar vs May 2023:


Image
Image
Image
Image
15/ Another interesting base is the 230th, of which I *also* talked recently thanks to undated Yandex footage at some point in 2023: 156 MT-LBs before the war and then 82. This is specially interesting because this base is localted in Sakhalin island, so you'd expect it wouldn't be a priority when unmothballing equipment due to its remote location.Image
16/ 230th: October 2022 (nothing removed since 2021) vs Yandex footage.
Image
Image
17/ The last major MT-LB depot left is the 187th, where we haven't get any new footage since May 2022. By then the number of stored MT-LBs had actually increased by 72 units, from 43 to 115 vehicles: prewar vs May 2022:
Image
Image
18/ It looks like the 187th might be a training camp, so that would explain why MT-LBs actually increased there. By now I doubt there's barely anything left.
19/ MT-LB numbers also increased ever so slightly at some other bases: 8 vehicles at the 40th arsenal, 14 at the 243rd base... but nothing worth mentioning, and also old footage by now. And at most artillery bases it's likely that the MT-LBs stored there are specialized artillery support variants, but I haven't been able to ID them.Image
20/ The most dramatic decrease along with the 4990th was, however, the 3018th/6018th base. Here there were hundreds of pretty well stored and preserved MT-LBs, stored in dry air facilities and covered from the weather. Image
21/ By March 2023 most were gone, and in the most recent footage of @Vishun_military there are only 36 left, 18 of which are cannibalized. I can't post pictured because I don't own the footage, but it's terrible in the 6018th.
22/ Besides that, nothing really worth posting here. However, I'll show this bit from the railway hub of the 216th arsenal in June 2023. You can see here that they were about to load a bunch of MT-LBs along with SPGs on a train, either going to the frontline or to some repair plant.Image
23/ I post this to show that, despite the actual footage revealing 921 MT-LBs still in storage as of the latest available imagery, the actual number is lower, a lot lower IMHO, probably nearing total depletion, specially with the recent Russian rate of attrition thanks to their winter and spring offensive.
24/ And with Vishun's so recent satellite footage of most major BMP storage facilities showing the rate of cannibalization and removal of armor being even faster than I estimated, my estimate of MT-LBs left in storage might even be optimistic, specially considering that we haven't got footage of a lot of the biggest MT-LB holder for half a year or more.
25/ And that's it for now. I would have prefered to post my actual analysis on Vishun's footage, but I don't have the time, so I'll probably first also post BRDM-2, BTR-50 and BMD numbers and then that analysis. Probably all will come out between tomorrow and this Saturday.
26/ BTR-60/70/80 and BMP-1/2/3 won't be released for now. Those are the main effort of the stored Russian AFV count and both @HighMarsed and I want to wait for that, and possibly also collaborate with @CovertCabal, just as they did in the past, which was my original inspiration to start researching Russian military storage bases.

Hope you liked it so far!
Almost* any
27/ Thanks for messing most of the links, Musk.

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Jompy

Jompy Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @Jonpy99

Jun 15
1/ Bit of a long-delayed update, but after all the recent footage I wanted to focus on showing the changes on the smaller storage bases for a change, not the major ones everyone has heard about. Image
2/ I talked about the different types of storage bases in depth on the attached thread, but I'll focus on the former MESRBs:
3/ These are brigade-sized storage facilities with equipment ready-to-go to refit movilized units or quickly replace material losses. As expected, they're long gone for the most part by now. Image
Image
Read 23 tweets
Jun 10
Talk about bad luck. The 349th was just updated a tiny bit on Google Earth: Image
And then there'e even more infuriating instances like the 2141st artillery storage base, without an update since late 2022 with pretty bad blurry footage and recently missed by a single kilometer: Image
Of course Google Earth had to update the 769th just one week after I buy my first ever satellite image, precisely of that base. @CovertCabal I feel you now. Image
Read 5 tweets
Jun 2
This is the image I recently bought: the 769th as of May 30th 2025. I won't bother couting it because it's too grainy and numbers appears to remain more or less the same as last time. But that's not the interesting part. Image
You probably noticed already that the local junkyard has been cleaned up. They most likely are sorting and cannibalizing those hulls for any useful part to send to BTRZs to repair other stored BMPs. Image
Image
That's also why some previously emptied spots have been refilled, with those cannibalized hulls moved there to not confuse them with unchecked hulls. Image
Image
Read 7 tweets
Apr 27
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. Image
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. Image
Image
Image
Image
Read 12 tweets
Apr 25
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.
So let's stop with this talking points once and for all.
Read 9 tweets
Dec 30, 2024
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 🧵 Image
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. Image
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)...
Read 28 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us!

:(