In early May, an exhibition of military-technical equipment KADEX-2012 was held in Astana. Among other novelties, special attention of the public was attracted by the products of the KAMAZ plant. According to the established tradition, the Kama Automobile Plant presented both civilian and military equipment. Moreover, the most attention of the public was attracted by the car, which represents exactly the second category. The fact is that at the KADEX-2012 showroom, the general public for the first time was able to see firsthand the new development of KAMAZ, about which there was so much talk - KAMAZ-63968 Typhoon.
The history of this project goes back to 2009. Then the Military Scientific Committee of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces issued a document entitled "The Concept for the Development of Military Automotive Equipment of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation for the Period until 2020". According to this concept, the further development of vehicles for the army had to proceed according to a modular scheme. It was understood that in the very near future several promising wheeled platforms would be created, on which it would be possible to mount any target equipment. At the very beginning of next 2010, Defense Minister A. Serdyukov approved the Concept and the Typhoon program was soon launched. In the course of the program, it was required to create a new generation of trucks for the armed forces, with bullet and mine protection of the crew, cargo, as well as the main components and assemblies. The Ural and KAMAZ automobile plants were selected as the program participants.
In fact, the Typhoon program is a further development of the Garage program, which, according to some sources, was launched almost in the late eighties. The goal of Garage was to create a unified cargo wheeled platform that could be put into production in the Urals and at KAMAZ at the same time. Obviously, the nineties of the last century were far from the best time to create such projects, so Garage has sunk into oblivion, leaving almost no open information about itself. Nevertheless, the army demanded a truck, and here the “by-products” of the “Garage” theme - the Mustang and Motovoz families of KAMAZ and Ural, respectively, turned out to be useful. Ordering cars of these families helped to temporarily close the issue of a promising army truck. But only for a while, because the main goal of the Garage program - the unification of cars produced by the two plants - was never achieved.
According to the initial terms of reference for the Typhoon program, the projects of the participating car plants had to be based on the same engine (YaMZ-536), the same transmission, a single on-board information and control system (BIUS), bullet and mine protection not lower than the third class according to the STANAG 4569 standard. But the main requirement concerned the possibility of creating a whole family of equipment for various purposes on the basis of a single chassis. First of all, on the basis of the armored Typhoon, it was required to create two versions of trucks: with an armored cabin for transporting personnel and with an open platform for cargo. It was also necessary to provide for the possibility of assembling and operating Typhoons without armored parts. In this case, they could become the basis for those types of equipment that, during their work, almost do not risk being blown up or fired at - radar stations, carriers of unmanned aerial vehicles, etc.
When developing requirements for the protection of new vehicles, the Russian military took into account the foreign experience of operating vehicles in recent military conflicts. Thus, the peculiarities of waging wars in Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and Iraq have clearly shown the need to strengthen the protection of troop vehicles. Moreover, it is necessary not only to strengthen the armoring of the sides of the cars, but also to protect their bottom in order to avoid the serious consequences of the detonation of improvised explosive devices, which are widespread in conflicts with the participation of irregular armed formations. It was for these purposes that armored cars began to be equipped with a V-shaped bottom: inclined armor plates redirect a significant part of the energy of the explosion and fragments to the sides, which significantly reduces the effect of the mine on the internal units of the car and the crew. Over time, machines with such a bottom were even allocated to a separate class called MRAP (Mine Resistant Ambush Protected - Protected from mines and ambushes). The domestic experience of conflicts in the North Caucasus only confirmed the expediency of foreign proposals. Therefore, the topic "Typhoon" can be considered a full-fledged answer to foreign MRAP.
In 2010, the active phase of work on the Typhoon program began. As already mentioned, the Ural and KAMAZ plants were involved as the lead developers of the competitive vehicles, and several enterprises and scientific institutions were invited to the program as an “additional force”. In particular, MSTU im. Bauman was engaged in the development of a hydropneumatic suspension, and the Sarov nuclear center was entrusted with calculating the protection of the armored hull. It is worth talking about these design points in more detail. The hydropneumatic independent suspension system allows you to literally change its parameters on the go. For this, the driver has a special control panel from which, for example, the ground clearance can be changed within 400 mm. In addition, the pneumatic system provides automatic tire inflation, depending on the pressure selected by the driver, from one to 4.5 atmospheres. Reservation of Typhoons was made in the Research Institute of Steel and is based on special ceramics. According to representatives of the institute, ceramic armor, with equal characteristics, weighs significantly less than steel. Work to ensure the protection of a car from mines is being carried out in our country for the first time, and we do not yet have an appropriate standard classifying explosions under the bottom. Therefore, the Research Institute of Steel and the plants participating in the program were forced to use the NATO classification provided for by the STANAG 4569 standard. As a result of this "borrowing", prototypes of armor for advanced vehicles meet protection level 3b - 8 kilograms of TNT under any part of the bottom. Naturally, the truck in this case will receive very, very serious damage, but the crew will remain alive. As for the requirements for protection against bullets, the cockpit and armored module for transporting personnel for 16 people from all angles can withstand a hit from a 14.5-mm armor-piercing bullet from a KPV machine gun from a distance of at least 200 meters, which corresponds to level 4 STANAG 4569.
Assembled by the hands of KAMAZ engineers and workers, all these innovations and elements are as follows. Typhoon with the index KAMAZ-63968, presented at KADEX-2012, is a cabover truck with a 6x6 wheel arrangement, a classic for the Kama Automobile Plant. The six-cylinder diesel engine YaMZ-5367 with a capacity of 450 horsepower transmits power to a six-speed gearbox and a two-stage "razdatka", which, in turn, ensure the operation of planetary gearboxes on all axles. All differentials have automatic locking, and braking is carried out using disc brakes, interacting with traction control and anti-lock braking systems. All KAMAZ-63968 wheels have special tires with explosion-proof inserts.
A large number of parameters that need to be constantly adjusted required the introduction of a specialized on-board information and control system into the Typhoon equipment. Her duties include monitoring the state of systems and the presence of malfunctions, calculating the required clearance, operating mode of the suspension, etc. To do this, the CIUS receives parameters from a variety of sensors and, taking into account the speed, roll, road inclination, etc., issues the appropriate commands to the truck systems. In addition, in the future, KAMAZ-63968 can be equipped with satellite navigation and communication systems of any available type.
The layout of the Typhoon modular vehicle developed by the KAMAZ plant was presented to the country's leadership at the end of October 2010. At about the same time, active work began to "adapt" the existing project to other requirements of the program, namely the creation of wheeled platforms with 4x4 and 8x8 formulas with a carrying capacity of 2 and 8 tons, respectively. As for the 6x6 chassis, it should have a carrying capacity of about four tons. As a result, before the completion of work on the Typhoon program, KAMAZ must create a whole family of trucks. It is interesting that due to the requirements for unification, high load on the front axle and the peculiarities of multi-axle structures, all variants of Typhoons from KAMAZ have two pivot axles. At the same time, last year there was information about a possible refusal to develop a two-axle version of the truck. As the reasons, all the same facts were called, which served as the basis for equipping the Typhoons with two controlled axles. However, this option managed to get a factory index. At the moment, the list of Typhoon variants created by KAMAZ looks like this:
- KAMAZ-5388. 4x4 chassis. Designed for the installation of a side body, cranes, multi-lifts and other equipment that does not require protection;
- KAMAZ-53888. The same "5388", but with the installed armor;
- KAMAZ-6396. Three-axle chassis, not intended for mounting armor;
- KAMAZ-63968. Armored version of the previous modification;
- KAMAZ-6398. Further development of KAMAZ-6396, but with four axles;
- KAMAZ-63988. Armored version "6398".
It is argued that the unification of machines of various modifications reaches 86%, which in the future will improve the economic side of the production of machines. Currently, prototypes of the Typhoon from KAMAZ are being tested and fine-tuned. Comparative tests will begin soon, during which the Kama Typhoon will compete with the competitor of the Ural plant. Based on their results, the Ministry of Defense will choose the most suitable vehicle that will be put into production.
