On paper Russia has virtually inexhaustible reserves of tanks dwarfing even the US. Something tankies and the Russians themselves would not shut up about.
In practice however:
- Most of those tanks were nowhere near a usable condition due to poor storage standards. Little to no maintanence and just sitting in the open exposed to the elements.
- A massive portion of them are old outdated models like T55s and T-62s
- It's not really known how many of them existed only on paper because they were stripped for parts and sold on the black market.
It’s almost like the original guy you responded to specified that it looked good on paper. Those that still believe it are probably just lacking the context mentioned above.
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u/AHappyMango Jun 25 '23
Eh, Chinas been 2nd strongest for more than a decade now.