Long story short: It was always vaporware. It was something that the Russians wanted to show off to the rest of the world to prove that they were not a paper tiger. But the product itself was the very definition of paper tiger.

Most of the money meant for design and development was stolen, all the development reports were falsified to ake it look like it would actually achieve something, it's engine never really made it throught the prototype phase, the chassis was crap, the whole production line meant to make it was commendeered to do nothing and funnel money to oligarchs Yacht funds. All the military officers involved saw the whole project as their personal piggy-bank to leech as much as they could for their countryside datchas. Even the chinese would-be buyers said that it's Electronic Warfare package was horseshit and didn't work.

Nobody in russia ever thought this would be anything but a cash cow for corrupt officials. If you have ever heard about those propagnda stories about "how pentagon wastes money on insane projects" ...well, every accusation is a projection. (not saying there isn't corruption in US arms manufacturing, but what I AM saying is that it pales in comparison to the soviet/russian military industrial corruption. These people see that it is their job perk ,their RIGHT to skim off the R&D funds)

That's what happened to Armata. Russia. Russia happened. Ungodly amounts of money wasted for corruption, and they didn't even ge a working tank to show for it.