Russia is steadily growing their tank forces in Kaliningrad. Last summer they formed an armored battalion within the 11th Army Corps, and now that seems to have grown to a regiment sized unit. That reports bmpd.

The 11th Army Corps is structurally a part of the Baltic Fleet. It already had a tank battalion with 40 tanks as part of the 79th Motorized Guards Brigade, but now it also has a separate 11th Tank Regiment. It appears that the new regiment received 30 tanks in 2018 and will receive another 30 this year. So in little more than a year the number of tanks in Kaliningrad has increased from 40 to 100.

That is a dramatic buildup. It’s a 150 percent increase of the tank force in the small enclave. This comes in addition to other military projects like the expansion of Chkalovsk air base. However, a hundred tanks in Kaliningrad is nothing extraordinary if we look at it in a historic perspective. The military reforms in 2009-10 reduced the number from a stunning 803 tanks to the 40 tanks in the 79th motorized guards brigade. So while on the one hand this is a dramatic increase in tank capacity in Kaliningrad, there is still some way to the old numbers from just 10 years ago.

The new tanks are of the T-72B type. The official statement about the new tanks for Kaliningrad mentions a list of features including an 840 hp engine. That suggests that the tanks have not been modernized to the newest standards. The present modernization program includes an upgrade to a 1,130 hp engine.

bmpd speculates that the formation of the 11th Independent Tank Regiment is a step towards a new motorized division in Kaliningrad. It will be interesting to watch the future development in that area.