The last few years have been marked by the fact that new types of armored vehicles are being created in our country for the army and the Ministry of Internal Affairs. There is a constant debate around this positive trend, and every news only adds fuel to their fire. The topic "Punisher" has become a typical representative of armored cars, which have become the subject of widespread discussion. Recall that the general public became aware of it a few years ago, but then very little information got into the public domain. Only the name of the competition and the approximate purpose of the finished car became known. Of course, this did not please the lovers of automotive and military equipment, but at the same time it caused a huge amount of speculation. It is worth noting especially the claims to the title of the topic. In the simple, albeit harsh word "Punisher", some citizens saw allusions to thugs in gray uniforms and with "schmeissers", while others began to wonder who this "Punisher" would punish? Surely not them, intelligent and conscientious, but disagreeing with the regime? However, all this can be recognized as a specific course of discussion caused by a lack of information about the project.
In the last days of March, the discussion of "The Punisher" was resumed with renewed vigor. He was spurred on by only one photograph taken at the Dmitrov training ground. Maybe it would have gone unnoticed, but … Firstly, no official information was attached to the photo, and secondly, the captured car looked very unusual. As a result, it was far from immediately clear who the author of the project was, and by that time many noted that such a technique would rather have a place in science fiction films or computer games. And in truth, the "Punisher" in the photo looks like a hybrid of the Batmobile (Batman's vehicle) and an armored car from the game Half-Life 2. Naturally, it attracted attention. And immediately, technology lovers, experiencing information hunger, tried to "pull" as much information out of the photo as possible. Let's try to join them and carry out analytical work.
Some sources under the new photo of the "Punisher" indicated that this was the development of the KAMAZ plant. However, it soon became clear that in Naberezhnye Chelny they were working on a competitive project, but their project had nothing to do with the machine under discussion. The fact is that the fantastic armored car in the recently appeared photographs was taken at the ZIL plant. Even later, information appeared that the Kamsky Automobile Plant still has some relation to the Zilovsky "Punisher": the demonstrated car is made on the basis of the KAMAZ 4911 chassis. for the armor protection of a new vehicle. Finally, the inscription on the "kenguryatnik" of the new car played its role in confusing the situation. Instead of quite logical and understandable letters "ZiL", some "TsSN" are written there, which, as it became clear a little later, stands for "Special Purpose Center". It remains only to find out to which power department this center belongs. In general, the situation is complex and confusing. There is almost no official information, and even that came into circulation through third parties. Even if the origin of the machine is so mysterious, what can you expect from the design?
If the rumors about the KAMAZ chassis turn out to be true, then we can draw some conclusions about the power plant and driving performance of the Punisher. The 730-horsepower eight-cylinder YaMZ-7E846 diesel of the KAMAZ 4911 sports truck allows it to accelerate to two hundred kilometers per hour. Combined with a total weight of up to 12 tons, this requires a huge fuel consumption - about 100 liters per 100 km. Perhaps a slight decrease in the characteristics of the originally sports chassis, for example, removing the turbocharging and simplifying the transmission, will allow an armored car based on the "4911" to have tolerable performance not only in terms of driving, but also economically. So, most modern armored cars have a maximum speed of about one hundred kilometers per hour, and fuel consumption usually does not exceed 20 liters per "hundred". One way or another, the original chassis from the KAMAZ 4911 is not acceptable for a full-fledged combat vehicle and requires improvements. Whether they were and, if so, which ones, is still unknown. ZIL hides this information in every possible way. There is also a version about the undercarriage of its own design of the Likhachev Plant. But in this case, there is no place to start from in the analysis.
The body of the new armored car is no less mysterious. In the existing photograph from the Dmitrov test site, as well as on the one leaked to the network a couple of years ago, both prototypes look rather strange. In particular, the layout of the front part raises questions. If the engine compartment and bonnet look normal enough, the glazing that follows it raises a lot of questions. Such glasses on vehicles are very unusual: large and located at an acute angle to the horizontal. One can only guess what it is like for the driver to look at the road through them and what are the viewing angles. At the same time, the insufficient forward-downward visibility, in which many people have already managed to blame the Zilov Punisher, does not look so bad against the background of more serious armored vehicles. Unfortunately, both available photographs of the car were taken in such a way that it is not possible to estimate its dimensions with sufficient accuracy. At the same time, there is reason to "suspect" the body of the machine in some vertical compression. In this case, the driver's head is close enough to the cab ceiling, which, in combination with the design of the glass and hood, can serve as a transparent hint. It looks like the "Punisher" from the ZiL plant, as viewed from the driver's seat, to some extent resembles the trucks of the bonnet scheme.
However, there is no exact information about the location of the driver and the view from his place. On the Internet there are some concept art of the "Punisher", allegedly having the most direct relation to the project and allegedly leaked from the design bureau. They show the approximate layout of the cabin and the original design of the doors. So, when opened, their upper part goes up (attached to the roof on a hinge), and the lower part supported by cables - down, where it serves as a step. At the same time, the front doors, together with the rear doors, form wide enough hatches without B-pillars. Probably, it is in this way that it is possible to ensure the normal opening of the doors with specific contours of the sides of the body, as well as to make boarding and disembarking more convenient. In the same 3D drawings, you can see that two seats are accessed through each rear side door. Thus, together with the driver in this configuration, five more soldiers can go at the same time (one in the front seat and four in the back). Behind the "troop compartment", apparently, is the luggage compartment. On the existing photos of the armored car, it is almost invisible, but much better it is noticeable on all the same concept art. On the rear of the machine there is a wide enough cargo hatch with two doors. It is noteworthy that these flaps have a bucket shape and protrude beyond the car body. It remains only to guess why the armored car needs such things, but in the existing photos you can see that such a design of the tailgate "survived" to the prototype. Trunk capacity, like other parameters of the car, has not yet been announced.
Let's move on to protection. The very word "armored car" implies the presence of some kind of armor. The most recent photo shows that the side doors received a much smaller glass than before. Probably, here the designers of ZiL followed the same path as the authors of many foreign armored cars - instead of large and fragile glass on the doors they put small ones with greater survivability in battle. And the vacant space was closed with armor plates. That said, the huge, steeply sloped windshield hasn't gone anywhere. At the same time, judging by its shade and characteristic black stripes along the edge, a bulletproof windshield is installed on the photographed sample. Unfortunately, the thickness and protection class of the glass are unknown. Likewise, there is no information on the metal elements of the reservation. Apparently, the entire protection of the "Punisher" must withstand at least 7, 62-mm bullets of intermediate cartridges. As for mine protection, here too you have to rely on guesswork. For example, the characteristic contours of the underside of the body sides may hint at a general V-shaped underbody. However, the additional step and the angle in the photo do not allow you to see it. Although the armored car captured at the training ground may not have an anti-mine bottom. This version is supported by the fact that in the existing photo, despite the snow falling during the shooting, something resembling a differential is visible behind the front lower flap. It is unlikely that such an important part of an all-wheel drive car would not have been "awarded" body armor.
Summing up, it should be noted once again that there is very little open information on the "Punisher" topic. For some reason of their own, the Ministry of Defense and the ZiL enterprise are in no hurry to share "secret knowledge." Therefore, you have to collect the crumbs and carefully analyze the existing one. So we cannot exclude the possibility that this article will turn out to be irrelevant and even incorrect in just a few days / weeks / months. But for this, the customer and the developer of the "Punisher" must lift the veil of secrecy and publish a sufficient amount of information. Until then, we will have to use only what we have. But the main and, perhaps, the most important thing that can be learned from the "detective" with the "Punisher" right now is that the Likhachev Plant is still capable of creating new interesting projects. Against the background of the general state of the domestic auto industry, this gives rise to some optimism.
