It won't be the heavily hyped "super tank," the T-14 Armata that will lead any Russian offensive against NATO over the next few years, but the latest version of the 40 year-old T-72 main battle tank (MBT), said the commander of the Ground Forces of the Russian Federation or the Russian Army.

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The Russian Army doesn't have a single combat worthy T-14 Armata in its inventory since it was only this September the Ministry of Defense signed an order for a pilot batch of more than 100 Armatas that will all be used in field trials.

The deal with Uralvagonzavod, Russia's leading tank maker and builder of the T-14, will see the first pilot batch take part in comprehensive military tests simulating combat situations.

The program to supply the Russian Ground Forces with T-14s was initially planned to begin by 2020, but has been extended to 2025 due to logistics and technical problems and funding shortfalls. The Russian Army plans to order 2,300 T-14s.

Om the other hand, the army has 2,600 operational main battle tanks, of which 1,900 are various models of the T-72 that formed the armored backbone of the defunct Warsaw Pact during the Cold War. The T-72 entered service with the Soviet Army in 1973.

Colonel General Oleg Salyukov, Commander-in-Chief of the Ground Forces of the Russian Federation, admitted his army's best tank is the T-72B3, a heavily upgraded version of the outdated T-72.

"Modernized tanks, (the) T-72B3, are currently arriving for the troops," said Gen. Salyukov.

"Following the results of works that have been carried out, the Ground Forces have received actually a new tank with the basic characteristics close to the characteristics of modern foreign tanks and considerably surpassing them by the cost-efficiency criteria."

The efficiency and reliability of the upgraded T-72B3 was demonstrated at the Tank Biathlon contest during the 2016 International Army Games held this July to August in Russia, said Gen. Salyukov. Russia, which fielded T-72Bs, won the Tank Biathlon, a tank versus tank contest against tanks from friendly countries such as China, Kazakhstan and Serbia.

The Russian Army, however, only has some 600 T-72B3 MBTs in service. It's still receiving the T-72B3, its best tank. 

The T-72B3 is an upgrade of old stocks of T-72Bs held in reserve. Modernization of the T-72B to the T-72B3 began in 2010 and included improving the tank's firepower by installing a new fire control system; overhauling each of these old tanks and replacing their outdated engines.

Most T-72B3s mount the same 125 mm smoothbore main gun that arm older T-72Bs. An upgraded version of this gun, the A46M5, is reportedly equivalent to the old Rheinmetall 120 mm L/44 gun that armed earlier version of the German Leopard 2 MBT. Current versions of the Leopard carry the L/55 model of this gun.

The T-72B3 saw combat against the Ukrainian Army in Russia's attempt to conquer eastern Ukraine in 2014 and 2015.

TagsT-72B3, T-72, T-14 Armata, Ground Forces of the Russian Federation, Colonel General Oleg Salyukov