Russia's new Armata tank breaks down in rehearsal for debut parade

The announcer told the audience in Red Square that the abrupt stop was planned

Russia’s new high-tech Armata tank appeared to have broken down today in a parade rehearsal for it’s debut.

The new T-14 tank has been touted as one of the most impressive pieces of military hardware ever produced by the country and is set to officially debut in Moscow for the Victory Day parade on Saturday

However, the new vehicle unexpectedly stopped in front of the Lenin’s mausoleum with the engine still running.

The rest of the parade continued while the tank sat motionless. An attempt to tow the vehicle away failed, before the T-14 eventually restarted and moved off around 15 minutes later.

While the fault appeared to be genuine, the announcer of the parade said it was a ‘planned’ event.

“We wanted to show how an evacuation of a tank would take place. It was planned that the tank would stop,” he told the crowd in Red Square.

RuptlyTV were in Red Square to film the disruption in the parade:

It only requires two people to operate the vehicle and it also boasts a state-of-the-art radar system that can simultaneously track up to 40 ground and 25 air targets within a 60-mile (100km) radius.