A century ago, many military experts thought that during a war it was enough to requisition civilian transport for military needs. However, over time, it became obvious that you could not put a tank on a "civilian" truck. In addition, civilian vehicles turned out to be too variegated and therefore not reliable enough for the military: dozens and hundreds of modifications of army trucks had to be created, but assembled on no more than half a dozen chassis
The importance of vehicles for supplying and transporting troops was shown by the experience of the First World War. Here is an example included in the anthology: at the beginning of September 1914, German troops approached Paris; battles were fought on the Marne, 50 kilometers from it. The 7th Infantry Division was stationed in Paris, but there were not enough funds for its rapid transfer to the front in full strength. The commander of the Parisian fortified area decided to use a city taxi. On the night of September 8, 1,100 "mobilized" Renault were delivered to the front by five battalions of one infantry brigade (another brigade with all the artillery arrived by rail), and in the morning the division entered the battle, attacking the flank of the German shock group. The local episode of the Battle of the Marne became a legend, and the "Marne taxi" marked the beginning of the massive road transport of troops. The number of vehicles in the army grew rapidly. In 1918, the French army had about 95,000 vehicles, the British - 80,000, and the German - 60,000. By October 1917, the Russian army had received just over 21,000 vehicles through purchases abroad.
Artillery tractor on the KAMAZ-63501 Mustang chassis (8 × 8), Russia. Crew and crew cabins - with reservations, there is a crane for loading ammunition. The mass of the towed system is up to 15 tons, the engine is diesel, 360 hp. sec., speed - up to 95 km / h
After the First World War, it seemed to many enthusiasts that it was enough for the state to stimulate the development of civilian transport in order to provide them with an army in the event of a war by means of "automobile conscription." More sober heads demanded the development of vehicles specifically for the army (taking into account the peculiarities in the design of civilian models), mandatory military training of civilian drivers, the expansion of automobile units in the army and the introduction of vehicles into the staff of combat units. A funny, but revealing fact: in the case of the same "Marne taxi" the drivers, transporting the troops, out of habit overtook each other, so on arrival at the place they had to spend more time putting in order the mixed units. Yet military motorists and their own army vehicles were preferable. So the soldiers no longer traveled with such comfort as in a civilian taxi.
Of course, nobody canceled the mobilization of civilian transport in case of war. But the Second World War clearly showed that, together with civilian technology, the vehicle fleet turns out to be too variegated and poorly adapted for military service. Meanwhile, the need for transportation and supplies turned out to be too great. During the war years, the Red Army received about 205,000 vehicles from domestic industry and 477,785 from abroad. In the USSR, in the early 1950s, the army was finally fully motorized, work began on vehicles for various purposes and carrying capacity. Most of the machines that were later supplied to the national economy had army "twins" or prototypes. Many, for example, remember ambulances, minibuses, bread vans on the UAZ-452 chassis. It is less often remembered that this all-wheel drive vehicle, nicknamed the "Loaf", was originally created for the army's needs.
"Ural-4230-01" (6 × 6) with local armor and a disguised armored module for personnel. Weight - 9.62 tons, carrying capacity - 5 tons, engine - diesel, 240 hp. sec., speed - up to 80 km / h
The continuous growth of the need for transportation means can be judged by such figures. During the First World War, the daily consumption of all types of material resources per soldier was 6 kilograms, in the Second World War - 20, in the local wars of the 1970s-1980s - 90, in the Gulf War in 1991 - 110 kilograms (not counting delivery of water). "Replacing a person with equipment" and a slight decrease in manpower in the contingents of troops by no means reduce the volume of supplies, only the nomenclature of cargo changes. In 1999, the weight of the ammunition required for the grouping of forces in Dagestan (very, by the way, limited) was 1,300 tons. During the second Chechen campaign alone, from 1999 to 2002, military motorists transported 457,775 tons of various cargoes.
No development of other types of transport cancels the tremendous role of BAT in the transportation and supply of troops. Now for this, multi-purpose or specialized wheeled trucks of normal, increased and high cross-country ability, tracked conveyors and transporters-tractors, and heavy road trains are used. Let us name at least non-four-wheel drive vehicles KamAZ-5320, MAZ-500A, truck-mounted road trains with KamAZ-5410 tractors, which were widely used by Soviet troops in Afghanistan (and Russian in Chechnya) on paved roads. On unpaved roads, the same tasks were solved by the all-wheel drive KamAZ-43105 and Ural-4320, TK-6 tractors on the Ural-4320 chassis.
We can do everything
The main role in the BAT system of all armies is played by multipurpose wheeled vehicles. In addition to transporting personnel and various cargoes - from ammunition to food and batteries - and towing cargo trailers, they serve as a base for artillery tractors, fuel tankers, radar stations, and command posts. On the chassis of multipurpose vehicles, trailers and semi-trailers, various weapons, equipment and special equipment of different types of troops are mounted. Only mobile repair facilities on automobile chassis include technical assistance vehicles, maintenance workshops specialized in the types and brands of equipment serviced, electric charging stations, control and testing vehicles for guided weapon systems - you can list it even further. Already in the 1980s, the number of options for using the chassis of multi-purpose vehicles reached several hundred - among them there were countless modifications of the three-axle 3, 5-ton ZIL-131.
KamAZ-43501 "Mustang" (4 × 4) on the landing parachute platform P-7N, Russia. Vehicle weight - 7, 7 tons, carrying capacity - 3 tons, towed trailer weight - 7 tons, engine - diesel, 240 hp. sec., speed - 90 km / h
Multipurpose vehicles in BAT are mainly represented by two-, three- and four-axle vehicles with a carrying capacity from 0.6 to 20 tons. These are, as a rule, off-road vehicles - all-wheel drive, with wide-profile single-sided tires and a centralized pressure control system in them, high ground clearance.
In the last two decades of the 20th century, work began on a new generation of BAT. For multi-purpose vehicles, in particular, requirements were imposed on a higher specific carrying capacity, a higher maximum and average travel speeds, better cross-country ability, and an increased power reserve. And at the same time, what is important - greater unification of the base chassis. With all the difference in approaches and programs adopted, general trends in the development of BAT can be identified. One of them is the transition to diesel engines, associated with their high efficiency and the ability to reduce the range of fuels used by the troops. The use of gaseous fuels, adiabatic, turbocompound engines or, say, electric transmissions has not been removed from the agenda, but they do not expect a quick return from these areas. The economy of the course, as well as the convenience and simplicity of control, are also facilitated by automatic transmissions with electronic programmable clutch and gearbox controls. Steering amplifiers are also important - after all, BATs are driven mainly by people of average skill and physical fitness. This generally coincides with the directions of the civilian automotive industry - the military and civilian needs of vehicles are still closely related. True, there is a certain "inverse relationship" between them - the power density of military models, as a rule, is higher than that of civilian counterparts, but the nominal carrying capacity is somewhat less. A military vehicle needs a reserve of power to drive over difficult terrain. An army truck is devoid of the design refinements of commercial vehicles, but more stringent requirements are imposed on it in terms of strength, reliability, multi-fuel capacity, the ability to withstand overloads and overcome fords, the corrosion resistance of assemblies and parts, and the limitation of the number of grades of lubricant. He is also required to maintain as rare and simple as possible, and to be suitable for rail and air transport.
In the USSR, and then in Russia in the late 1980s - early 1990s, work was carried out to create unified vehicles with wheel arrangements 4 × 4, 6 × 6 and 8 × 8 and carrying capacity from 4 to 15 tons. Such work with the participation of the 21st Research Institute of the Ministry of Defense took place, for example, at the Kama Automobile Plant on the "Mustang" theme, at the Ural Automobile Plant - "Motovoz". The basis of the Mustang family was made up of KamAZ-4350 (4 × 4), -5350 (6 × 6) and -6350 (8 × 8) vehicles, and “Motovozov” - Ural -43206 (4 × 4) vehicles, -4320 (6x6) and -5323 (8x8). At the same time, work was underway on new trailers and semi-trailers, especially since some of their manufacturers remained in the sovereign states formed after the collapse of the USSR. The catastrophic state of the domestic economy has greatly delayed the emergence of a new generation of BAT in the army. In the meantime, the used equipment was aging and it became more and more difficult to repair it. Only in 2005 it was decided to adopt the new families into service. As a result, the army should receive at least 6 basic models of multipurpose vehicles. True, the base chassis themselves are now more unified - the internal unification of the Ural and KamAZ families in terms of components and assemblies reaches 80-85%, and KamAZ diesel engines were chosen for all chassis. The unification was also carried out "along the organizational line", dividing "areas of responsibility" between the families. That is, the "Motovoz" of the Ural Automobile Plant should provide all transportation in the military echelon, as well as the needs of support units for the Navy and anti-aircraft missile forces of the air defense, and the KamAZ Mustangs were left with the operational link, the air force and air defense, formations and parts of the rear, as well as airborne troops. For the latter, on the basis of the four-ton KamAZ-4350, a three-ton KamAZ-43501, sometimes called the "Mustangenk", was created. It must be said that proposals to leave a unified base chassis within the battalion or regiment have been expressed for a long time - Urals, KAMAZ, KrAZ, ZIL, UAZ vehicles served together in the fleets of other regiments. The new system makes it possible to reduce the number of brands of vehicles carrying out cargo transportation within the military unit from 8 to 3, and by increasing the carrying capacity to reduce the number of vehicles. The unification of the chassis also makes it possible to reduce the number and composition of the auto property necessary for the troops, to unify the means of maintenance and repair, and, which is important, to simplify the training of drivers. However, the previous models, apparently, will have to serve for more than one year.
GAZ-3937 (4x4), Russia. Weight - 6, 6 tons, carrying capacity - 2, 1 tons, or 10 people with weapons, weight of the towed trailer - 2.5 tons, engine - diesel, 175 hp. sec., travel speed - up to 112 km / h, cruising range - 1000 km
"Shishiga" with "Unimog"
There is a lot of work in the army for light four-wheel drive two-axle trucks with a 4x4 wheel arrangement. The choice of a multipurpose military vehicle is always a compromise between carrying capacity, travel speed, reliability, cost and economy. An example of a successful compromise for its time can be considered "Shishiga", as the Soviet truck GAZ-66 with a carrying capacity of up to 2 tons was nicknamed, which lasted 35 years in production (produced until 1999). He had a high power density - about 30 liters. with. per ton, a wide range of tractive effort and showed remarkable cross-country ability and performance not only in the army, but also in agricultural work. It was replaced by the GAZ-33081, but the military, as we have seen, preferred the more load-carrying KamAZ-4350.
We can also mention the German "Unimog", which have been working in different countries of the world for many years. Characteristic is the decoding "Unimog" - Universalmotorgera..te, or "universal vehicle". The new generation "Unimog" 4 × 4, created by "Mercedes-Benz", includes vehicles of three levels of carrying capacity (U3000 - 2 tons, U4000 - 3, U5000 - 5) with diesel engines of 150-218 liters. with., and in each there are options with a shortened and elongated base. Other interesting features include a "rolling" frame, an electrically controlled gearbox, pneumatic control of the transfer case and differentials, a ground clearance of 440-480 millimeters, large wheels with low-pressure tires, small body overhangs at the front and rear. All this provides a very good cross-country ability and controllability.
The 4 × 4 chassis of the DURO family of cars of the Swiss company "Bucher-Guer" was originally made. The wheels of each pair are attached to a tubular subframe, which is pivotally connected to the vehicle frame and connected through a rocker bar to another subframe. As a result, the movement or tilt of one wheel causes the others to move in such a way that the vehicle maintains contact of the wheels with the ground on slopes and irregularities, but does not experience significant roll. And the ground clearance without protruding crankcases contributes to cross-country ability. This suspension was also used for the 6 × 6 model. You can see here the development of the idea of a "turning point" in the longitudinal plane of the frame, embodied by the Berliet firm back in the 1920s.
KamAZ-5350 "Mustang" (6 × 6). Weight - 8, 54 tons, carrying capacity - 6 tons, towed trailer weight - 12 tons, engine - diesel, 260 hp. sec., speed - 100 km / h, cruising range for fuel - 1090 km
Sometimes in uniform, sometimes in civilian clothes
The use of BAT directly in military units in combat conditions, it would seem, requires building it on the basis of the same components and assemblies as army armored vehicles. Such experience exists - the GAZ-3937 (with a tandem-type cab, unarmored) and GAZ-39371 (with a conventional cab, armored) series "Vodnik", developed in Nizhny Novgorod and produced by the Arzamas Machine-Building Plant, are based on BTR-80 units … And 26 interchangeable modules (transport, cargo, combat) make it possible to carry out on this chassis with a mechanical transmission and independent torsion bar suspension of wheels for various purposes.
A close connection between transport and combat vehicles is also manifested in the Dingo-2 family, developed by the German company Krauss-Maffei-Wegman on the basis of the same Unimog, although units of commercial models are used here to a greater extent. The characteristic features of the car include independent wheel suspension and a large hood - after all, the engine had to be placed in 230 liters. sec., - as well as a high cab, which provides the driver with a good overview. The rear view video system serves the same purpose.
On the other hand, an unexpected example of the use of the most "peaceful" chassis was the "Mungo" transport armored vehicle, made on the basis of … the "Multicar" truck for urban utilities. The fact is that the Bundeswehr paratroopers participating in peacekeeping and counter-terrorism operations abroad needed a vehicle that could carry a squad of ten people, carry bulletproof armor and at the same time fit into military transport aircraft and a CH-53 helicopter. So we chose a more compact chassis.
"Ural-6320" 6 × 6 (Russia) with a frame-panel cabin, local armoring, a 400 hp diesel engine. with. and gross weight up to 33.5 t
One two
The most common in the armies are multi-purpose vehicles with a carrying capacity of 5 to 10 tons. Basically, these are three-axle all-wheel drive vehicles with axle distribution according to the "1-2" scheme, that is, with close rear axles. The "1-2" scheme is well suited for highways, gives a favorable distribution of axle loads, although in overcoming horizontal obstacles it is inferior to the "1-1-1" scheme - a uniform distribution of axles along the length of the car. The latter, which is interesting, can be found on a number of floating trucks like the British "Stolvet" or the Soviet floating chassis BAZ-5937, and close front axles ("2-1") - on tractors with two controlled axles like the Czech "Tatra-813" … Multi-axle vehicles can also differ in the location of the engine and cab, the scheme and type of transmission, wheel suspension.
For example, the Russian "Ural-4320", which proved itself well in the course of hostilities in the North Caucasus, belongs to the machines of the "1-2" scheme. Among its advantages was the classic layout with the engine located in front of the cab - when hitting a mine in such trucks, the driver has a better chance of surviving. It is curious that the same layout was chosen for the American "tactical" 6 × 6 trucks of the Oshkosh family. Moreover, the family of three-axle "Oshkosh" included four main modifications at once, differing in the length of the wheelbase and loading platform, carrying capacity, the presence or absence of a winch - the desire to "cover" a wide range of possible customer requirements based on, in fact, one machine. Ural4320, by the way, also has modifications with an extended base.
"Tatra" Т816 (8 × 8) of the "Force" series, Czech Republic. The diesel engine can have a power of 544 or 830 hp. with.
Octopuses
To increase the carrying capacity (while maintaining cross-country ability), an increase in the number of axles is required. Therefore, it was inevitable that, in addition to three-axle - and four-axle chassis with a wheel arrangement of 8 × 8, it was inevitable. Despite their great complexity, they are preferable to three-axles for a carrying capacity of 10-15 tons and above. However, you can increase the number of axles further - depending on the need. The development of the 8 × 8 chassis developed a long time ago - in Germany, for example, in 1927-1928 they were presented by Daimler-Benz and Magirus, in the USSR in 1932, a four-axle YAG-12 truck and an experimental chassis of brigengineer E. A. Chudakov. By the way, in the same 1932, the German "Bussing" presented a 10 × 10 chassis.
Of the various 8 × 8 chassis schemes, the most common are "2-2" with close extreme axles and "1-1-1-1" with their even distribution. Steering can be two front axles, front and rear, or all at the same time. The "2-2" scheme provides the greatest driving stability, maintaining contact with the ground when overcoming long irregularities, although the width of the ditch to be overcome is inferior to "1-1-1-1" or "1-2-1".
The 8 × 8 chassis also performs well as tractor transporters. For example, an artillery tractor was made on the KamAZ-6350 chassis, which, in addition to calculating in an armored cabin and ammunition in the body, can also carry fire control equipment. The BAZ-6593 8 × 8 tractor of the Bryansk Automobile Plant is designed for towing the 152-mm artillery system 2A36 "Hyacinth-B" or air defense systems weighing up to 15 tons. These vehicles occupy a kind of niche between multipurpose trucks and heavy haulers.
Vans and containers
It would be simple if all transportation was reduced to loading cars at one point of departure and unloading at the final point. In fact, cargo has to be moved several times, especially when troops are used abroad (for example, in UN operations), when the range of delivery of material and technical means increases many times. Anyone who had to manually load, unload and reload even not too bulky cargo filling the body of a 5-6 ton truck knows how much time and effort it takes. And if the same personnel need to immediately put this load into action? The solution to the problem in military transport is the same as in commercial transport - the use of freight containers that meet international standards and are adapted for transportation by air, sea, rail and road. This also facilitates the use of commercial vehicles and handling equipment at certain stages of delivery. True, it is required to equip the vehicle chassis with loading and unloading systems like Multilift. Examples are the American FMTV-LHS system on the FMTV car chassis, the French PLM17 on the RM19 chassis, and the Finnish Sisu HMLT.
A great achievement half a century ago was the appearance of universal body-vans of the KUNG type, mounted on various car chassis or trailers and designed for mounting various equipment and relatively comfortable accommodation of people serving this equipment. But over time, for these purposes, container bodies turned out to be more convenient, which, if necessary, can be either left on the chassis or unloaded onto the ground. Work on them in different countries, including the USSR, began in the 1980s and 1990s. Modular containers have been created to accommodate military personnel, equipment for command and control posts, medical centers, weapon rooms, electrical installations, bakeries, and so on. And kitchens, bakeries, field canteens and other food service vehicles play, by the way, an important role in supporting the combat readiness of troops. Increasingly widespread are container bodies of variable volume, which unfold in place like a matchbox.
Pinzgauer (6 × 6), Austria. Weight - 2.5 tons, engine - diesel, 136 liters. sec., speed - up to 112 km / h, cruising range - 700 km. An example of a light three-axle SUV
Life in the rear
At present, the concept of "rear zone" does not mean security at all. The tasks of transporting, supplying and providing technical support to troops have to be carried out with a constant danger of shelling - especially in the zones of counter-terrorist operations. This requires solving the problems of increasing the security and survivability of multipurpose vehicles and their modifications. The solution has to be looked for in several directions. One of them is a decrease in visibility in the optical, infrared, radar, and seismic-acoustic ranges. This includes the use of blackout means, deforming camouflage paint, thermal insulation of the power plant, screen-ejector devices for exhaust systems, radio-absorbing coatings and removable covers, and covering wheel arches with bulwarks.
The next direction is to reduce vulnerability to damaging factors of various weapons. In our country, this problem has been dealt with since the Afghan war. “The column goes past mountain peaks, meadows and fields in multi-colored patches and past the skeletons of burned-out cars that were also columns at one time” - this is how the poet Mikhail Kalinkin described the movement of transport convoys through the mountains of Afghanistan. The main danger was the shelling from automatic weapons and mines. And already in 1982-1985, we carried out work on hinged local booking for Ural and KamAZ vehicles. It is mainly about the armor protection of the cab, the most important units and mechanisms. The experience of the first Chechen campaign demanded to continue the development. Steel armor remains the main defense. Armor plates can be bolted directly to the surface of vehicles or to a special frame. At the same time, the carrying capacity of machines with the same cross-country ability should not decrease by more than 15%.
NATO countries are very concerned about the protection of transport vehicles during the aggression against Yugoslavia. And by March 2005, the US armed forces in Iraq had 25,300 armored vehicles, including various trucks and Humvees.
Back in the 1990s, the danger of even delivering humanitarian aid in zones of interethnic conflicts gave rise to the UN demand for reserving the trucks used in this case. Note that the Russian variants of local armoring of heavy vehicles with steel armor 4-8 millimeters thick were recognized by many foreign experts as optimal. True, this did not prevent, for example, the Hungarians in 1999 from detaining Russian humanitarian supplies for Yugoslavia at the border, declaring armored civilian trucks "military vehicles", which, however, can simply be explained by the excessive enthusiasm of the new NATO member.
The already mentioned "Ural-4320" in a protected version, in addition to armoring the engine and cockpit, received a filtering unit, radiation and chemical reconnaissance devices, a machine gun installation, night vision devices that make it possible to do without headlights. An armored module for soldiers with embrasures for firing individual weapons, disguised with a conventional awning, can be mounted in its body.
Cars for the delivery of fuel to the troops are also being armored, an example of this is the British and German tankers with a capacity of 18 and 15 thousand liters on an 8 × 8 chassis with bulletproof and splinterproof armor of the cab and tank. The disguise of the tanker as an ordinary truck also works. For example, a fuel tank with a pump can be hidden under the awning of the Ural or KamAZ. The work on armoring of evacuation vehicles and technical assistance vehicles is also characteristic.
In a number of programs for the development of new multipurpose vehicles, the possibility of booking is provided initially. More and more widely used are combat-resistant wheels with rigid inserts that allow driving on a punctured and flat tire. The insert of the German company "Hermann Procurement" also plays a "mine action" role, taking part of the explosion energy for its destruction (there is no time for movement) and directing part of the explosive gases away from the machine.
Escorting by armed vehicles is also a means of increasing the security of the convoys. And here again there is work for multipurpose machines. Both in Afghanistan and in Chechnya, ZU-23 anti-aircraft guns were used, installed in the back of a KamAZ or Ural, and disguised until the moment of use with an awning.
Tractor KZKT-74281 "Rusich" (8 × 8) with a T-90S tank on a KZKT-9101 semi-trailer, Russia. The mass of the tractor is 25 tons, the number of seats in the cab is 6, the carrying capacity of the semitrailer is 52 tons, the engine is diesel, 650 liters. sec., speed - up to 70 km / h, cruising range for fuel - 705 km
Tanks by taxi
The armies were not only motorized, but also mechanized, that is, equipped with combat vehicles. Now it is difficult to imagine even local hostilities without the participation of tanks and self-propelled guns. But heavy tracked vehicles, as you know, are significantly inferior to wheeled vehicles in terms of speed and economy of movement on roads and in terms of the resource of the running gear; moreover, they damage the hard surface of the roads. Therefore, they try to carry them over long distances not under their own power, but on special conveyors. Wheeled tank transporters have existed for almost as long as the tanks themselves: the French, for example, already in 1918 used two-axle car trailers to transport their tanks.
Modern light armored vehicles can be transported on the cargo platform of transporters like the four-axle KamAZ 6350 (8 × 8) with a loading and unloading system such as Multilift or the five-axle Ural-6923 (10 × 8 or 10 × 10). The Ural-632361 10 × 10 transporter can carry loads up to 24 tons - this is how much, for example, BMP-3 weighs.
The main battle tank transporter is a road train consisting of a multi-axle truck tractor and a heavy platform trailer. Folding access ramps and a winch with a chain hoist allow loading the vehicles onto a trailer; the tractor cab can accommodate the crew of the transported vehicle. Tank transporters are also used to evacuate damaged heavy equipment to repair bases, and they themselves become a base for special vehicles.
The well-known Soviet tractor MAZ-537 (8 × 8), which served as both a tank transporter and a towing vehicle for trailers with ballistic missiles. To replace it, a road train of the Kurgan Wheel Tractor Plant was developed as part of the KZKT-74281 (8 × 8) tractor and the KZKT-9101 two-axle semi-trailer with a carrying capacity of up to 53.5 tons. On the basis of the KZKT-74281 tractor, the MTP-A4 technical assistance vehicle was made, and its modification KZKT-74282 serves as an airfield tractor for aircraft weighing up to 200 tons.
American road train for transporting tanks "Abrams" includes a tractor M1070 8 × 8 meters with a diesel engine of 500 liters. with. and a five-axle M1000 semi-trailer with an adjustable loading height of the platform (due to a hydraulic suspension system) and semi-trailer bogies controlled from the driver's seat. And the five-axle GTS1000 trailer allows you to transport a tank weighing up to 72 tons or two armored vehicles weighing 36 tons each - a necessary response to the growing combat mass of armored vehicles.
