One gets the impression that some of our defense industry enterprises are going to endlessly modernize Soviet armored personnel carriers of fifty years ago, not noticing the peculiarities of modern military conflicts. Therefore, although with difficulty, but more and more you begin to understand the position of the leadership of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, inclined to the decision to purchase armored vehicles of Western origin, in particular wheeled armored vehicles "Lynx" (LMV Lynx). And the desire is born to share a few personal observations and ideas that are slightly different from the generally accepted opinions.
Well forgotten old
The weakness of any modern army lies, oddly enough, in its strength in the direct sense of the word, that is, in the ability to wage the so-called classical war. But hardly any third world country that has a chance in the near or medium term to turn into a hot spot has the potential for open confrontation with any modern armed forces. And this means the inevitability of asymmetric responses: terrorist attacks, insurgent operations, the desire to drag the enemy into a war of attrition in populated areas, in forests and jungles, in mountains and foothills.
For crews of armored vehicles, participation in such campaigns means frequent involvement in patrolling, escorting convoys, raids, serving at checkpoints, and autonomous actions as part of small units. Moreover, the enemy, along with small arms, constantly uses anti-tank melee weapons, resorts to surprise attacks from ambushes, firing from close distances, from the flank or from the rear, and widely uses a variety of mine-explosive obstacles.
There is no need to invent anything fundamentally new for such a war. Suffice it to recall how in the 80s in Afghanistan, directly in the troops, they tried to increase the survivability of armored vehicles. These are additional armor plates on the sides and on the bottom, attempts to strengthen the protection of the crew or landing place with improvised means, additional turrets for machine guns and grenade launchers, illuminators, fire extinguishing equipment and other manifestations of soldier's ingenuity.
True, the domestic armored industry began to gradually adapt its products to the requirements of the Afghan war. But the Soviet 40th Army was withdrawn from Afghanistan, and after a few years in high headquarters they managed to forget about the experience gained. The Chechen campaigns quickly recalled all this, but again at the cost of the lives of soldiers and officers. Again, we saw home-made options for booking UAZ and Uralov, ZU-23 on MT-LB, lattice screens from springs on armored personnel carriers and other know-how that we managed to implement in repair companies of regiments and brigades.
You need to hear the voices of those who have experienced all the "charms" of modern hot spots and can clearly say what is really needed and what can be abandoned. The American army, for example, has a number of programs for studying the opinions of combatants, allowing them to convey their position without censorship filters to the Pentagon leadership. On the website of the command of the Special Operations Forces, you can find the results of interactive polls of servicemen about the quality of weapons and equipment, recommendations for their improvement. Among other projects, mention should be made of the collection of reviews on the weapons that are used there, held every three years at the platoon-brigade link of the US Army, which is the basis for the mandatory clarification of AME development programs.
In this regard, I would like to ask: is there a chance to be heard by the soldiers or officers of the Russian army, who want to say everything they think about our weapons?
History repeats itself
The author of this article had the opportunity to personally observe new-old changes in the design of light armored vehicles used in hot spots.
For example, in Iraq, after the end of active hostilities by the coalition forces and until the completion of the withdrawal of combat units, there were practically no tanks visible. Of course, they were there, but they were mainly located at the base of operations. The BMP "Bradley" and "Strykers" were more often in the field of view. "Stryker", by the way, looks more like a car from some fantastic action movie about space wars, so much its appearance has undergone changes precisely because of the need to improve security.
But the main workhorse for the Americans in Iraq is the armored "Hummer", which houses a semi-closed tower installation with various weapons options: machine guns of 7, 62 or 12, 7 mm caliber, automatic grenade launcher, etc. These cars are now equipped, and often directly in the troops, with additional armor kits supplied by the industry. In addition, almost every vehicle is equipped with a generator of jamming radio links to control explosive devices.
The Americans analyzed the experience of using "Hummers" and came to the conclusion that it was necessary to replace them. Soon after the outbreak of the war in Iraq, the US army began to purchase MRAP mine-protected vehicles in small batches. They have proven to be highly effective. Since 2005, Force Protection's Cougar and Buffalo vehicles have been hit by improvised explosive devices many times without major casualties. In February 2005, the number of mine attacks by Iraqi insurgents increased sharply, which led to the ordering of 1,169 MRAP vehicles for the Marine Corps. The potential volume of required MRAPs grew very quickly from 1,169 to 20,500 units with the next order of 4,000 vehicles delivered by the end of 2007. The rest will be produced over the next five years.
Also in Iraq, the widespread use of other samples of armored wheeled vehicles is striking. For example, to transport personnel, the US military was forced to purchase special buses with armor protection "Raino" ("Rhino"). However, no one is allowed into the bus without a bulletproof vest and a helmet.
Light armored vehicles are widely used by private military firms, which en masse carry out contracts for the protection and security of Iraq. Practically similar approaches to the supply of armored vehicles are observed in Afghanistan, where the level of threats is comparable to that of Iraq. The situation is less tense today in the Balkans, including in Kosovo, but even there they do not forget about the protection of personnel.
Directions for improvement
The Afghan and Iraqi wars forced the command of the Western armies to significantly correct their views on the role and place of armored vehicles in armed confrontations of a new generation.
“There is no longer a clear and explicit division into combat and tactical (the latter can also be described as transport) vehicles. Nowadays, all tactical vehicles are combat vehicles that solve combat missions and therefore require equipping them with good armor and a powerful armament complex, - emphasizes in an analytical report commissioned by the Pentagon, one of the American consulting companies working in the field of defense and security.
As for the actual designs of combat vehicles, a number of requirements are imposed on them, which until recently were considered secondary. And security issues come to the fore. It is based on the use of such booking schemes that are able to withstand, first of all, cumulative ammunition and bullets of large-caliber small arms, and not only in the frontal, but also in the lateral and rear projections.
To protect against warheads of RPG-7 grenades and its analogues, screens, mainly lattice ones, are used. It was understood that in the future it is quite possible that the rebels will have massive appearance of anti-tank weapons with cumulative ammunition equipped with tandem warheads or warheads, striking equipment from the upper hemisphere. This led to the search for not only passive, but also active countermeasures capable of identifying and destroying a warhead on approach. And if earlier they were intended to save tanks, now their adaptation to light armored vehicles is becoming more and more realistic.
The layout of the vehicles undergoes changes, in which the placement of the troop compartment in the aft part of the hull and the ability to dismount both from the rear and from the sides become predominant. The hulls are made in an anti-mine design, which makes it possible to send a blast wave to the side when a mine or land mine explodes, or even in the form of an armored capsule, which, when exploded, is triggered similarly to the ejection system for pilots of combat aircraft. In addition, a careful choice of the placement of subsystems, components and assemblies, for example, the installation of a lining, minimizes the side effects of fragments when breaking through the armor of the hull, contributes to the improvement of the general characteristics of equipment.
But the most cardinal solution to the protection of personnel is the use of light combat vehicles-robots or vehicles with remote control in the most dangerous places, which has already been closely approached in the developed countries of the world. For example, the U. S. Army's Armored Vehicle Research and Development Center (TARDEC) has contracted the National Robotics Engineering Center (NREC) at Carnegie Mellon University for $ 14.4 million. The contract provides for the development of a modern unmanned vehicle (UGV) and the production of its demonstration model. NREC will be the lead organization for these activities.
The fire potential is realized mainly by increasing the ability to comprehensively identify targets characteristic of the above-mentioned conflict conditions, installing weapons modules with a wide range of weapons - automatic cannons, machine guns, grenade launchers, ATGMs and mortars. Another direction is the mounting of several points of attachment of weapons (turrets) for the possibility of simultaneous firing in different directions. Along the way, there is a search for a compromise between the need for shooters to have a wide view and large pointing angles of weapons, especially tower installations, and the task of increasing their protection.
The introduction of all of the above will inevitably lead to an increase in the mass of armored vehicles. If earlier the weight of a wheeled armored personnel carrier fluctuated in the range of 10-15 tons, now it has shifted to 15-20 tons and continues to grow. Therefore, on the agenda was the question of a significant improvement in power plants and transmissions.
The information component should be attributed to the new qualities, since a combat vehicle should be an integral part of combat systems in which integration occurs due to the information component: control, automated exchange of information about the enemy and its troops, navigation, etc.
The implementation of a modular layout scheme is finding ever more widespread use, when a subunit receives a set of various combat and auxiliary vehicles mounted on a single base. Solving this problem, the Americans are implementing a project to create troops with the code name Interim Force with a fleet of updated wheeled armored vehicles of the Stryker family, designed to staff the new brigade combat groups IBCT (Interim Brigade Combat Teams). Note: the Stryker family of vehicles consists of 8 models (armored personnel carriers, infantry fighting vehicles, mobile artillery system, command vehicle, reconnaissance vehicle, RCB reconnaissance vehicle, engineering vehicle, ambulance).
At the same time, the concept of "combat systems of the future" is being implemented in various forms. In Iraq, the Americans actively sought to test their adequacy in practice and to get a reserve for the future.
The enumeration of the components of the promising appearance of light combat vehicles can be continued. But, in all honesty, let's try to honestly answer the question: is there a lot of this in those new models of light armored vehicles that the Russian defense industry now offers?
Sales
Analysts estimate the volume of the world market for light armored vehicles in tens of thousands of new vehicles over the next few years. It is stupid if the domestic defense industry will stay away from such an extensive contract “pie”.
Do not forget that there are also orders for the modernization of armored vehicles. In the same Iraq, now there is a T-72, as well as an BTR-94 (practically the same BTR-80, but with a Ukrainian weapon module), transferred to the Iraqis by Jordan, BMP-1, which came from Greece, etc. They objectively need in modernization for the peculiarities of the local counter-insurgency war.
I would like to believe that other proposals of the Russian defense industry can be competitive, especially with an acceptable price-quality ratio. In this regard, the following example can be cited: a few years ago, the media disseminated information about Thailand's intention to purchase 96 armored personnel carriers BTR-3E1 in Ukraine. Thai Defense Minister Bunrod Somtas said at the time that the army decided to purchase the BTR-3E1 because it is the cheapest of all the vehicles that participated in the tender. Somtas noted that Canada, Russia and China made every possible effort to win the tender, but the price was the deciding factor.
A couple of years passed, and Ukraine again signed a contract, now for the supply of several hundred BTR-4 armored personnel carriers in various modifications for the Iraqi armed forces. It is still too early to talk about the high qualities of the vehicle, it is quite "raw" and will only undergo state tests in the Ukrainian army. But the fact that they were able to sell it is important. As you can see, the key parameter in this case is the price of the car, which gives Russian manufacturers another piece of information for thought.
Among the problems that prevent us from achieving even greater success in the world arms markets, there is one subjective one - this is the "policy of ostriches". It is necessary not to get hung up on attempts to endlessly improve and modernize the designs of armored vehicles of the 60s and 70s of the last century, but to try to offer customers models that are adequate to modern realities. And maybe even look ahead, as the design team led by Koshkin did in their time when creating the legendary T-34 tank. After all, there is the potential of Russian design bureaus and industry for this.
