After the German invasion, Operation Barbarossa in June, tank factories were ordered to be transferred to the Urals. Part of OKMO was moved to Chkalov after September. The T-50 was of an excellent design, but still suffered from technical problems, and at that time was found to be as expensive to produce as the more capable T-34. Much simpler T-60 light tanks were already being mass-produced. A total of 69 T-50 tanks were built (only 48 of them armed), before production ended in January 1942.