At the end of May, there were reports that UVZ began to create the first prototypes of the heavy attack robotic tank "Shturm", intended for military operations in the city. The complex will include robotic tanks with various combat modules and a mobile control center for combat vehicles of the complex, all vehicles of the complex are supposed to be built on the chassis of the T-72B3 tank, and Uralvagonzavod will be the head of the complex.
The main purpose of the "Shturm" complex is to detect and suppress long-term firing points, to destroy enemy manpower, primarily anti-tank crews, which pose a particular danger to armored vehicles during combat operations in urban areas.
The combat modules of the tank will include a 125-mm shortened cannon of reduced ballistics, blocks of Shmel-M flamethrowers, paired 30-mm automatic cannons, blocks of 220-mm thermobaric unguided rockets TOS "Solntsepek". At the same time, the tank must have a high level of protection against enemy anti-tank weapons.
The initiator of the statements about the development of the Shturm tank, distributed by many publications, is the same person - the military expert Murakhovsky, who claims that
“All machines of the Shturm robotic complex are designed for action on the front line, both directly in battle formations and autonomously …
In the offensive, heavy-class attack RTKs are planned to be used as an advanced echelon of battle formation, for reconnaissance in force, as a means of fire support during combat in urbanized areas, in dense infrastructure buildings."
That is, he believes that the Shturm tank is intended not only for military operations in urban areas, but also in the front echelons of the battle formation, and this raises many questions.
According to the expert, heavy-class RTKs will become one of the elements of a set of weapons for the Ground Forces, which will appear in the near future, and the creation of so-called "robotic" companies in the combined-arms formations of the Ground Forces is already predicted, which will facilitate the introduction of forms and methods of combat into the practice of combat training of troops. application of robotic systems.
These statements give the impression that the tank has already been created and it remains only to work out the mechanisms of its use. Far from it. And such dashing statements must be treated rather carefully so that it does not happen, as with the Armata tank, according to which, since 2015, it has been named for the fifth deadline for its adoption - 2022. It should be noted that since Soviet times, Murakhovsky's statements have always been distinguished, to put it mildly, in their bias: everything that was developed at UVZ is ingenious, is beyond doubt and should be introduced into the troops. The expert should still try to objectively evaluate the material and be more critical of his statements.
How did the tank "Shturm" appear?
According to Murakhovsky, in 2018, research was carried out to create a system of robotic systems for the Ground Forces. According to the results of the research and development work, it was found expedient to use the already tested weapon options (ammunition for the Shmel-M flamethrower, 30-mm automatic cannons, 220 mm thermobaric ammunition TOS "Solntsepek"), create an assault weapon of moderate ballistics with a shortened barrel and work out a version with a 152 mm gun … According to the results of the research work, the ROC "Shturm" was set, the lead contractor was "Uralvagonzavod" and the T-72 tank was chosen as the platform. The director of UVZ unexpectedly announced the creation of a robotic complex in the same 2018 based on the T-72.
At the end of 2019, there were reports that in 2020 R&D will begin to create a robotic tank complex of the heavy class "Shturm" based on the chassis of the T-72B3 tank. At the same time, a discussion was launched on the VO website about the possibility and necessity of creating such a tank and about its technical appearance.
According to the proposals of 2019 at UVZ, it was planned to develop a family of four machines: with a 125 mm or 152 mm cannon, with blocks of launchers for Shmel-M flame throwers, with two 30-mm automatic cannons and blocks for launchers for Shmel-M flame throwers "(Continuation of the development of the BMPT" Terminator ", which for more than twenty years has not been able to attach somewhere), as well as with blocks of launchers of 220 mm thermobaric ammunition TOS" Solntsepek ". With this approach, it was supposed to have four vehicles with different weapons, which is clearly expensive for industry and the army.
In 2021, we are already talking about one machine with different combat modules and only for conducting hostilities in the city, although Marakhovsky claims that this machine can have a wide range of applications.
Why you need such a tank and the requirements for it
In urban combat conditions, the tank is easily vulnerable, since it has poor protection against melee anti-tank weapons, lack of visibility, limited cross-country ability in urban blockages, and does not have effective means of engaging manpower and anti-tank weapons calculations. The most vulnerable point is the lack of reliable protection in the upper hemisphere, since the tank can be attacked from any angle. Due to the high probability of hitting the tank, it is advisable to remove the most valuable thing from it - the crew, and make it remotely controlled.
When creating a robotic tank, two sets of tasks must be solved at once: the first is to create a well-protected tank with the necessary set of weapons, and the second is to equip it with remote control systems.
For three years of discussion of this tank, everything has been considered, except for the main problem - how and with what it will be protected. Without this, no robotic innovation will save the machine. Reliable protection in the upper hemisphere is the main task of the tank designer. Apparently, there is no good solution, and it will have to be looked for in a combination of armor, dynamic and active protection.
In terms of armament, the use of ammunition of various calibers is surprising: 90 mm for Shmel-M missiles, 125 mm for the main cannon, 220 mm for Solntsepek thermobaric missiles, isn't it too much for one vehicle?
All the more surprising is the placement of unprotected and explosive missiles "Shmel-M" and "Solntsepek" outside the tank. If the enemy hits this ammunition, nothing will remain from the tank. For example, the TOS "Solntsepek" is not a weapon of the battlefield, it is easily vulnerable to ATGM and grenade launchers, as a result of which it goes in the second echelon and, under the cover of tanks, provides fire support for the attackers.
It is probably advisable to place the missiles in the reserved volume, as it was customary at one time in the development of guided armament of a tank. This requires modifications of the Shmel-M and Solntsepek missiles in 125 mm caliber, with their placement in the automatic loader's ammunition rack and launching through the gun barrel, which is already done with the Reflex guided missile and its modifications, especially for this no high ballistics cannon needed. In addition, the shortened cannon for close range operations in urban areas and rubble provides good mobility for the tank.
In order to increase the all-aspect effective fire from the tank, the installation of a combat module on the tower with a horizontal and vertical decoupling from the tower with 30 mm automatic cannons or a cannon and a machine gun with an elevation angle of about 70 degrees to combat targets in multi-storey buildings suggests itself.
The use, as previously predicted, of the T-72B3 fighting compartment does not make much sense. All attempts to treat the MSA of this "humpbacked" did not lead to anything good, it turned out some kind of heap of devices and systems without much success in the effectiveness of firing. The most promising base of sighting complexes T-90, inherited from the T-80UD. To replace these sighting systems for the T-90M, the Sosna-U fire control system and a panorama of the Falcon Eye commander developed by the Belarusian Peleng Central Design Bureau, on the basis of which the Armata tank fire control system has probably been developed, is already planned, there is nothing fundamentally new so far.
Robotic Tank Systems
To solve the problems of the robotic complex, the tank must be equipped with remote control systems for movement, fire and interaction. This requires the introduction of technical means for detecting, identifying and capturing targets on the tank, inertial and satellite systems for determining the location of the tank, protected and high-speed communication channels, systems for ensuring automatic movement with terrain assessment and the ability to overcome obstacles operating on various physical principles.
To ensure visibility, the tank needs intelligent "eyes" - a system of all-aspect volumetric video image of the battlefield picture: "look at the tank from the outside", an integrated image formed according to special algorithms from various observation means, contributing to an adequate assessment of the situation.
A primitive arrangement of video cameras around the perimeter of a car will never solve this problem. The generated picture using secure video transmission channels must be transmitted to the control center for decision-making. Robotic systems are not created by the developers of the tank, but by specialized enterprises; it is impossible to create a robotic tank without joining the efforts of these enterprises.
On which base to create a tank
The development of a robotic tank can go in two directions: a deep modernization of the existing generation of tanks, equipping them with the necessary means for remote control and the development of a fundamentally new family of tanks.
Initially, work on the Shturm tank was supposed to be built on the basis of the T-72B3 chassis, now they are talking about the chassis of the T-72 and T-90 family of tanks. This is quite reasonable, in the army and at storage bases of thousands of T-72 tanks of various modifications, and it can be used as a base chassis. At the same time, the tower, most likely, will be different, since a set of weapons, security requirements and the absence of a crew will require a complete re-arrangement of the fighting compartment.
Good protection and high power of the power plant will be required from the chassis, since the tank, taking into account the requirements imposed, will certainly be of a large mass. We will have to save the driver's seat as a technological one, since it will be required during transportation, loading and maintenance of the tank.
From the point of view of ensuring cross-country ability in urban blockages, the tank will not need a primitive dump drawn in the pictures of the Shturm tank, which is almost a hundred years old, but the development of fundamentally new mechanisms and systems for clearing passages in the blockages.
The second direction is a promising heavy robotic complex and it can be created on the basis of the Armata tank, especially since on this tank almost everything has already been laid in terms of remote control of the vehicle.
The modernized and new tanks should use unified elements of the remote control system for movement, fire and interaction of tanks, being developed as part of the network-centric combat control system of the tactical link "Constellation M", which is under development, and for which there are still a lot of unresolved problems.
The robotic tank "Shturm" is planned to be created for warfare in urban agglomeration. It can, of course, be used for other purposes as well - reconnaissance of the enemy's defenses in action, work from ambushes, as a means of fire support, barrage of the offensive zone, suppression of enemy resistance nodes, and evacuation of damaged equipment.
At the same time, not all military personnel consider it correct to introduce a robotic tank into the troops, since in terms of its firepower it does not surpass crewed vehicles and does not provide obvious advantages, but it will be expensive. In addition, such tanks need to be serviced, refueled, sheltered, repaired and transported to the place of use, and this requires people.
In this regard, the creation in the near future of "robotic tank companies" looks clearly far-fetched, not supported either by the corresponding state of the development of the tank and robotic systems, or by the necessary organizational and structural measures in the army. Apparently, a robotic tank is needed in the army not in large quantities, but as a means for use in specific operations.
The development and use of a robotic tank in the army requires a special study, the definition of the tasks to be solved, the place in the battle formations, the tactics of use and, in accordance with this, the justification of its main tactical and technical characteristics.
