MOSCOW, February 3. /TASS/. The deliveries of the armor based on the Armata combat platform to the troops for operational evaluation will begin this year, CEO of the Uralvagonzavod defense manufacturer Alexander Potapov said in an interview with Vedomosti newspaper published on Monday.

"In 2020, we will begin the deliveries for the operational evaluation of this armor. During the factory tests, all the vehicle’s stated characteristics were confirmed," the chief executive said.

The defense manufacturer is completing the main stages of the preparatory work, which allows launching serial production, he said.

"No country in the world has such a tank and our rivals won’t have anything even close to that in coming years. Those who say that difficulties arise in the process forget that the T-72 tank was developed for quite a longer period while we talk about a principally new product," the chief executive said.

Replying to a question about when the export deliveries of the Armata tank may begin, he specified that all the foreign customers preferred making purchases, as a rule, when the product was bought by Russia’s Defense Ministry. "We will shortly develop an export configuration certificate while the deliveries may become real already in the foreseeable future, given an official decision," he said.

Head of Russia’s state hi-tech corporation Rostec Sergei Chemezov told TASS in mid-January that the deliveries of the armor based on the Armata combat platform to the troops had not started yet.

The Armata is a heavy tracked standardized platform serving as the basis to develop a main battle tank, an infantry fighting vehicle, an armored personnel carrier and some other armored vehicles. The T-14 tank based on the Armata platform was shown to the public for the first time at Red Square’s Victory Day parade on May 9, 2015. The new combat vehicle features fully digitized equipment, an unmanned turret and an isolated armored capsule for the crew.