Within the framework of the Army-2015 forum, the general public was shown for the first time a new Tornado-U off-road and carrying capacity army truck. A vehicle with an on-board platform module is designed to transport weapons, military and special equipment, transport various goods, tow transport and special trailers. Gross vehicle weight - up to 30 tons, carrying capacity - up to 16 tons, towed trailer weight - 12 tons. It is assumed that the car can be presented in both armored and unarmored versions. In particular, the Tornado-U cabin can receive a different degree of protection (depending on the installation of certain protection kits).
Having put into serial production the Ural-M truck, which is a substantially modernized Ural-4320, Miass began to prepare for the launch of new trucks for the Russian Ministry of Defense. On the basis of the same "Ural-M", a family of cars "Motovoz-M" was created, including a basic three-axle chassis with a total weight of 22.5 tons, equipped with an engine of the YaMZ-536 family, as well as trucks with a wheel arrangement of 4x4 and 8x8. Army off-road trucks of the Motovoz-M family differed from Ural-M trucks with similar power and weight and size characteristics, first of all, by their original hood and utilitarian frame-panel cab, which allows for hidden armoring.
At the same time, "Tornado-U" in its pure form is a truck with a body of impressive dimensions and a chassis that is more traditional for all Ural trucks: it uses a dependent leaf spring suspension, continuous axles and, in any case, a prototype, mechanical gearbox. At the same time, as experts note, such a design is simple, and therefore cheaper to manufacture and operate. At the same time, they noted that the next generation of Ural truck SUVs was left without independent suspension. Fortunately, the plant has finally moved away from the pneumohydraulic braking system, opting for pure pneumatics.
It should be noted that today in Russia many developments have similar names. Only "Typhoons" currently there are three: armored vehicles of increased security class MRAP (with protection against mines and improvised explosive devices) - KamAZ 63968 Typhoon-K and Ural-63095 Typhoon-U (the letters "U" and "K" in the name mean respectively "Ural" and "KamAZ"), as well as a full-fledged armored personnel carrier KamAZ-63969 Typhoon.
The situation with Tornado is no less interesting. The Russian army is currently armed with modernized multiple launch rocket systems (MLRS) - "Tornado-G" and "Tornado-S". These are the modernized still Soviet MLRS 9K51 "Grad" caliber 122 mm and MLRS 9K58 "Smerch" caliber 300 mm (respectively, the letters "G" and "C" mean the names of these systems). MLRS "Grad" was mounted on the chassis of the Ural-4320 truck, which was created back in 1977. Attempts to replace the chassis with a more modern one have been made several times before. For example, in Belarus the BM-21 "BelGrad" MLRS is built on the basis of the Belarusian MAZ-6317 chassis. Therefore, there is nothing surprising in the fact that the new chassis of the original design from the Ural Automobile Plant received the unified name "Tornado-U", it can be used as a chassis for MLRS "Tornado-G" and "Tornado-S".
One of the main advantages of the Tornado-U chassis is the increased carrying capacity with a relatively low dead weight. In the future, it is planned to create a whole family of Tornado-U vehicles in 4x4, 6x6 and 8x8 versions. At the same time, a version of the Tornado-U off-road truck with a 6x6 wheel arrangement was actively demonstrated at exhibitions, and renders of a Tornado-U truck tractor with an 8x8 wheel arrangement with a spring suspension of rear axles appeared on the Internet in early autumn 2016.
None of the specialists of the Ural Automobile Plant conceals that the Tornado-U truck was created on the basis of the Ural-6370 civilian heavy three-axle tractor, which has a cabover-free layout. This truck was produced in small series in Miass for the civilian market; relatively recently, the car was also accepted for supply by the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation. "Tornado-U" received virtually the same bridges and frame, and its index does not differ much from the civilian model "Ural-63704-0010".
At the same time, the bridges of the Hungarian company Raba were used on it, there were simply no analogues in terms of carrying capacity of the Gas group of companies, which today includes the Ural automobile plant. Until recently, no one in the country produced such bridges. For example, KamAZ, which faced the need to create its own three-axle and four-axle off-road chassis, originally equipped them with Bulgarian-made Madara bridges. They were able to master the production of these bridges (to carry out localization) in Naberezhnye Chelny in the fall of 2015. Apparently, the developers of "Tornado-U" will go the same way.
The creators call "Tornado-U" a replacement for KrAZ trucks, since in terms of their set of characteristics they are comparable to the Kremenchug all-terrain vehicle: gross weight - 30 tons, carrying capacity - 16 tons. At the same time, the engine power of the Ural truck is higher - 440 hp. It should be noted that the "Tornado-U", apparently, is equipped with a forced YaMZ-652 engine, since the power of the original engine does not exceed 412 hp.
Although the "Tornado-U" came out significantly heavier than the usual "Urals", the designers did everything to maintain a high level of its cross-country ability. They used a two-stage transfer case with a locking differential, as well as driving axles with central and wheel reduction gears, middle and rear axles with blocking inter-wheel differentials, with interaxle blocking on the middle axle. The qualities that help high cross-country ability also include the ground clearance of 400 mm provided by the installation of gearboxes in the bridges and large-diameter wheels with tires with a "toothy" tread pattern of the dimension 16.00R20. Also, a manual gearbox and a dependent leaf spring suspension were installed on the car. The service brake system has become a dual-circuit with a pneumatic drive and ABS.
The manufacturer singles out the cab as one of the features of the new army truck. The cabin is bonneted, frame-panel construction, three-seater, equipped with heating, air conditioning and ventilation systems. Some of the outer panels of the cab - hood, roof, doors - are made of composite materials. There are three seats in the cab, while the driver's seat is sprung. The entrance to it is high enough, but for the convenience of the driver there is a suspended step, as well as handles in the doorway.
The use of a frame-panel cab allows you to solve the problem with the security of the driver and passengers. Covert booking is possible, when the armor is placed under the outer panels of the cockpit, it is not visible from the outside. Installation on the cabin of a KDZ - a set of additional protection can provide the 5th class of protection in accordance with GOST-50963-96 (protection against armor-piercing bullets of 7, 62-mm caliber fired from AKM from a distance of 5-10 meters). But that's not all that concerns the security of the Tornado-U. The truck's engine is protected by an armored capsule, and mine protection can be mounted under the bottom. Thus, not only the crew and the most important units and assemblies from the point of view of mobility are protected from small arms fire and detonation, but also the fuel tank, which provides the car with an impressive range of about 1000 kilometers when driving on the highway.
At the same time, a sample of the Tornado-U off-road truck presented at the Army-2015 forum in June 2015 already raised questions from automotive journalists regarding its technical filling. In particular, AvtoReview noted that the Ural plant had never produced bridges of such a carrying capacity. Therefore, the designers used Hungarian Raba bridges, a YaMZ-652 diesel engine (produced in Yaroslavl under license from Renault Trucks, licensed by Renault dCi 11), a Sachs clutch and a ZF gearbox. At the same time, Oleg Yakupov, the chief designer of Ural for military equipment, said in an interview with TASS that only Russian components would be used in the assembly of the Tornado-U. Apparently, the only way is to localize the production of some of them in our country.
At the RAE-2015 exhibition, which took place in Nizhny Tagil in September 2015, the Tornado-U was shown to the public, more in line with the announced concept of a truck with completely Russian components. According to Yakupov, the company completely abandoned the transfer case of German production, replacing it with a domestic one, produced at the Ural enterprises. Also, all Tornado-U were equipped with Russian engines. According to Oleg Yakupov, work was underway to replace the imported gearbox with a domestic one.
The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation highly appreciated the novelty "Ural-63704-0010" - "Tornado-U" developed by the automobile plant "Ural", Oleg Yakupov said at the end of the international forum "Army-2015". In an interview with TASS, he emphasized that the leadership of the Ministry of Defense and representatives of the Main Automobile and Armored Directorate highly appreciate this model of freight transport. According to Yakupov, the company will continue development work and testing of this model in order to launch serial production of Tornado-U in the future.
Colonel Andrey Kolutkov, Head of the Research and Testing Center for Automotive Equipment of the Central Research Institute of the Ministry of Defense of Russia, noted in February 2016 that the new Tornado-U heavy-duty truck developed by the Ural automobile plant is undergoing preliminary tests. According to the colonel, a truck with an armored cab has been tested in the Arctic. At the same time, a RIA Novosti source in the military-industrial complex said that completely new bridges and a different transmission appeared on the Tornado-U.
With the development of serial production of Tornado-U trucks (and this may happen before 2018), the Ural automobile plant will receive an army off-road truck of a new class at its disposal. Surely, this machine will be in demand not only in the armed forces of Russia, but also in the armies of other countries.
The performance characteristics of the Ural-63704-0010 "Tornado-U":
Gross weight - 30 tons.
Carrying capacity - 16 tons.
Gross weight distribution: front axle - 7,500 kg, on the bogie of the middle and rear axles - 22,500 kg.
The mass of the towed trailer is 12,000 kg.
Wheel formula - 6x6.
Clearance - 400 mm.
The power plant is a 6-cylinder diesel engine YaMZ-652 with a capacity of 440 hp.
The capacity of the fuel tanks is at least 420 liters.
Speed - up to 100 km / h (highway).
Cruising range - up to 1000 km (on the highway).
Overcoming obstacles: rise - up to 60%, ford - 1, 8 m.
Photo: "Tornado-U" IA "WEAPONS OF RUSSIA", Alexey Kitaev
