Russia's Armata Tank vs. America's M-1 Abrams and TOW Missile: Who Wins?

TNI Staff

Security, Europe

Who would win this military matchup? 

Much has been written when it comes to Russia's new supposed super tank, the Armata T-14. To be clear, the T-14 is actually part of something called "The Armata Universal Combat Platform." This consists of the T-14 main battle tank, the T-15 heavy infantry fighting vehicle and the T-16 armored recovery vehicle, among a host of other vehicles.

While early reports concerning the new tank seem to indicate some strong capabilities, how would the new Russian vehicle perform on the battlefield? Would it dominate against the competition or is it simply a paper tiger? 

And then we have the obvious question: how would it perform against America's best tank, the popular M1 Abrams? Would the Abrams be able to win a fire fight against the new Russian tank? Or would Moscow hold the advantage? 

Then there is the question of how Moscow's new weapon of war would do against various anti-tank weapons, for example, the TOW missile.

To answer some of these questions, below for your reading pleasure, we have packaged together Dave Majumdar and Sebestian Roblin's latest work on this subject together, published several months ago, for your reading pleasure. Let the debate begin. 

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With the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union, the spectre of a massive armored Red Army juggernaut smashing its way through the Fulda Gap is long past, but Russia has continued to develop new tanks and armored vehicles. Meanwhile, the United States has continued to rely on upgraded versions of the Cold War–era M1 Abrams and Bradley fighting vehicle.

Russia’s Armata family of armored combat vehicles is a departure from the previous Soviet practice of developing relatively simple, inexpensive but specialized platforms. In fact, the Armata comes in many versions as was envisioned for the U.S. Army’s now-defunct Future Combat System program. There is a tank, infantry-fighting vehicle, a self-propelled artillery piece and a host of other variants. The most prominent of these is the T-14 main battle tank Armata variant.