If in the 19th century sappers could do without shovels, axes, saws and other hand tools, today, in order to open the way for tanks, infantry fighting vehicles and infantry, heavy engineering vehicles are needed that can quickly make a passage in a minefield, establish a crossing, fill up an anti-tank moat, demolish barbed wire, clear the road.
Do not think that the most modern M1 Abrams or T-90 tanks have better maneuverability than the Old Testament BT-7 or Pz. Kpfw III. But making passes for them is required much faster. If in the 1940s an anti-tank ditch was just an annoying hindrance that could disrupt an attack, today the delay of tanks at the ditch for at least a few minutes is fraught with the fact that they will be covered by fire from combat helicopters, high-precision missiles and shells arriving from afar, and will suffer heavy losses. …
Afghan finds
It is impossible to list all the equipment for overcoming obstacles that our engineering troops have at their disposal. These are dozens of samples. But it's worth talking about the most widely used ones.
The most serious obstacle for both tanks and infantry were and still remain mines. The history of the combat vehicle demining (BMR) begins in the distant 1980s in Afghanistan. The main tool of this machine was the famous Soviet mine roller trawl KMT-5M and its further development KMT-7. Their predecessor, the PT-3 trawl, appeared during the Great Patriotic War and showed itself excellently already in the Battle of Kursk. Then roller trawls were hung on tanks. But with the beginning of the mine war in Afghanistan, it quickly became clear that the 40th Army had enough trawls, but with carriers, that is, tanks, the situation was worse. Too many of them were required everywhere.
Today, no one will tell who first came up with the idea to hang trawls on BTS tank tractors (according to other sources, on captured T-54 or T-55). Be that as it may, the idea turned out to be sensible. First, modern tanks were saved. Secondly, it was thought up to arrange the place of the driver-mechanics not at the very bottom of the car, but on the roof, for which, however, the control levers had to be lengthened. The crew was covered with armor plates or sometimes a turret with a gun removed. The bottom of the car was lined with plastic cans of water. The canisters stored a supply of water, never too much in a hot country, and served as an excellent shockwave damper if a mine suddenly explodes under the bottom. Such machines perfectly trawled routes, and if they were blown up, the crew remained intact.
The fighting qualities of these homemade products were quickly and appreciated by the Ministry of Defense. An assignment was issued for the development of a machine, which was assigned the designation BMR. The first prototype was built in Kiev, the author of the project was Lieutenant Colonel A. P. Khlestkin. Although there was nothing special to design. All the original was there - both a tank chassis, and an excellent trawl KMT-5M, created in the Chelyabinsk SKB-200 under the leadership of V. I. Mikhailova. And by the end of 1980, the first BMRs manufactured at the Lviv Tank Repair Plant began to arrive in Afghanistan.
The price of arrogance
Prefabricated BMRs immediately found their place in the combat formations of the troops. They made it possible to drastically reduce the loss of equipment on mines, to increase the speed of movement of the columns. The flow of applications grew rapidly. The car was demanded not only by the tankers, but also by the infantry, rear battalions. It was not difficult to bypass the obstacles of the military bureaucracy, because the BMR did not belong to armored vehicles, but to engineering and were not considered a standard vehicle of exclusively tank units.
The designers, taking into account the shortcomings and "childhood diseases" of the first samples, promptly developed the BMR-2, and later the BMR-3. The latter turned out to be so successful that at the beginning of the 21st century it became possible to present the BMR on the international arms market. Moreover, there were historical reasons for this. During the 1967 and 1973 Arab-Israeli wars, Israel seized quite a lot of Soviet-made KMT-5 trawls from the Egyptians. The Israeli military quickly adapted them to their "Merkavas" and became very successful in using them.
In the Iraqi wars, the Americans suffered significant losses on anti-tank mines, although they carefully conceal these unpleasant facts for them. They began to suffer even more losses after the announcement of the victory achieved. But the Americans did not have acceptable mine trawls, because they arrogantly neglected this technique in the 1950s and 1970s. Attempts to return the chain trawls from the Second World War in an updated form ended in failure. The Americans had to bow to the Israelis and buy Soviet-made mine trawls from them.
Rollers, magnet and plows
The principle of the roller trawl, this basic tool of the BMR, is very simple. Several heavy, strong steel wheels are suspended from two frames fixed to the armor, which roll in front of the car and, running over a mine, make it explode. The strength of this design is such that the rollers can withstand up to ten explosions. Broken rollers are easy to replace. According to statistics, in a minefield, a car can meet no more than 1-3 minutes.
The principle is simple, but to ensure that each roller rolls on the ground regardless of the neighboring ones and carefully rolls over any bump or hole (as the designers say, it copied the terrain), and even so that the weight of the entire structure affects it (which is extremely important for mine operation), only our designer V. I. Mikhailov could. The Russian trawl practically does not miss a single mine. American and British designers failed to create satisfactory examples of a roller trawl.
BMR, or rather a trawl suspended from this vehicle, can also fight mines, which react not to pressure, but to the magnetic field of the tank. Two obliquely standing cylinders above the rollers are EMT (electro-magnetic trawl). The cylinders create a magnetic field in front of the vehicle, similar to that of a tank. The mines explode in front of the trawl without damaging the vehicle.
Equipped with BMR and excavating trawl. Two sections are located behind the rollers. When the BMR moves, the knives burrow into the ground to a depth at which anti-tank mines are usually installed, dig up the mine and throw it aside.
Such a plow trawl is necessary, since there are mines that are triggered not by one, but by two successive clicks. These include, for example, our MVD-62 or the British No.5 Mk4. Making a trawl with two rows of rollers is irrational, because it will be too heavy.
But, unfortunately, the plow trawl is applicable only on terrain with a certain soil quality. With stony, rocky soils, on roads with a hard surface, the "plow" has nothing to do.
Road gnaw
However, mines are far from the only artificial obstacle that can stop moving troops. Anti-tank ditches, escarps and counter-escarps, nadolby, barricades, barriers, tree heaps, city ruins, and finally, a mine trawl is too tough.
Back in the distant 1970s, a vehicle under the designation IMR (engineering barrage vehicle) was adopted by the Soviet engineering troops. Its main task was clearing traffic routes from non-explosive obstacles, laying column tracks, clearing routes from snow, equipping ditch crossings, etc. in the battle formations of troops. And the base of the IMR was first the T-55 tank, later the T-62 and finally the T-72.
First of all, the car was equipped with powerful multi-purpose bulldozer equipment. For example, if you need to dig down slopes on steep slopes, the shovel wings can be placed in their usual upright position, like on tractor bulldozers. If you need to clear the road from snow, debris, bushes, the wings are pulled back. And then everything that interferes with movement is pushed aside. You can turn one wing backward and the other forward - this position is called a grader position; then all obstacles to the movement will move in one direction. If, in this position, the shovel is also tilted, then the IMR is capable of creating a roadbed and at the same time digging a ditch. You will get a normal dirt road with a crescent cross-section. It is enough to cover it with rubble or gravel, and it will turn into a finished highway. It is important to note that the crew does all these transformations of the bulldozer equipment without leaving the car. And this is very important, for example, in an area contaminated with toxic or radioactive substances.
Machines in atomic hell
IMR turned out to be the only machine capable of operating in the early days of the Chernobyl accident right next to the destroyed fourth power unit. The approaches to the reactor were littered with debris of the building and equipment. To get close to the center of destruction, it was first necessary to clear the rubble. But the radiation levels in those days were such that even army radiometers went off scale (from 60 to 500 roentgens per hour). A person could be near the reactor for a matter of minutes, or even seconds.
IMR with its powerful armor reduced the levels of radiation exposure of the crew ten or more times. The telescopic boom with a grab-manipulator, which is equipped with the IMR, was very useful. Boom reach - 8, 8 m Moreover, the accuracy of the work is such that an experienced operator can close a box of matches lying on the ground with powerful manipulator jaws. Or pick it up from the ground and serve a cigarette to a person.
Scattered pieces of uranium rods were collected near the IMR Chernobyl reactor and put them in delivered containers for further burial, and the fragments of the walls were removed. With the help of the IMR, it was possible to install several remotely controlled cranes around the reactor and begin the construction of the sarcophagus. Without this unique machine, such work would have to be postponed for several months until the radiation levels decrease.
Almost all of the IMR that were then in the army were sent to Chernobyl, and they all remained there forever. During the operation, the machines accumulated so much radiation that the armor itself became radioactive. Dozens, if not hundreds of WRIs, among many other vehicles, now stand at an abandoned airfield near Pripyat during the war.
The IMR turned out to be such a successful and demanded machine by the troops that over the years they tried to improve it. Based on the experience of Afghanistan, an attempt was made to give the IMR the capabilities of the BIS. For this, the KMT-7 roller trawl, the KMT-6 plow trawl, and the UR-83 demining charges were hung on the machine. But universalization did not benefit the WRI. The roller trawl deprived the IMR of the ability to use bulldozer equipment and made the machine unmaneuverable. The KMT-6 plow trawl was overloading the front part of the IMR, which was already loaded with the weight of the bulldozer. Mine clearance boxes limited the ability to use the manipulator. In the end, the IMR was returned to its original configuration.
Workhorse of War
IMR is a great car, only too expensive. And heavy. And the engineering troops do not always need armor, and the manipulator is used only from time to time. Most often, for laying paths for the movement of tanks, armored personnel carriers, infantry fighting vehicles, self-propelled guns, vehicles, only bulldozer equipment is required. Yes, sometimes a crane to lift and move something. Engineering vehicles with such a limited set of functions, of course, exist, and they appeared much earlier than the WRI. The name of the machines corresponds to their purpose - these are track paving machines. The first such vehicle appeared in the 1960s and received the designation BAT (bulldozer on an artillery tractor). The AT-T heavy tracked artillery tractor was taken as the base vehicle. The design proved to be very successful and was loved by the troops.
A few years later, the car was improved. A 2-ton hydraulic crane was added to the bulldozer equipment and the new product was named BAT-M. The bulldozer turned out to be very convenient for laying column tracks (temporary roads for the advancing troops), clearing roads from snow, felling trees, clearing bushes, arranging ramps on steep slopes. For example, in winter BAT-M cleans the road at a speed of up to 15 km / h, and in summer it paves a dirt path at a speed of 5–8 km / h. Of course, only where rifle-machine-gun and artillery fire is excluded. Nevertheless, the cab of the machine is pressurized and equipped with a filter and ventilation unit. This means that BAT-M is capable of operating in areas contaminated with toxic or radioactive substances. For example, cutting and removing contaminated soil. Like IMR, bulldozer equipment can have two-moldboard, grader and straight positions. But you have to manually change the position of the knives.
BAT-M fell in love with the military for one more property. The engine located under the cab provides enough heat so that the inside of the car is comfortable in any frost. In the late 1980s, the BAT-M began to be replaced with the more advanced BAT-2, in the cockpit of which, in addition to the crew, a sapper squad can also be accommodated.
