Btr on tracks. BTR-MDM: airborne "Shell". Maximum speed on water and land

The first thing you should pay attention to is the features of combat use. Machines must be able to operate deep in the rear, far from repair bases, ammunition depots and fuel and lubricants. Moreover, their task is to ensure high mobility of the airborne unit, that is, to transport both people and all the necessary equipment. Agree, the option when, after disembarking, some go, while others go, and even carry it, is far from perfect. But as soon as it comes to the capacity of landing vehicles, other factors emerge - their dimensions and weight. They are limited by the size of the cargo compartments and the carrying capacity of transport aircraft. Simply put, they are designed with an eye on the capabilities of aircraft.

Minibus in armor

Now pure mathematics. Three units of armored tracked vehicles, that is, a platoon, must be transported and landed from one Il-76 aircraft of the appropriate modification. The most recently adopted BMD-4M can accommodate three crew members and five paratroopers. That is, in places behind the armor at the landing point, such a platoon provides 15 employees. BMD is a powerful means of fire support, its combat module with two cannons and a machine gun is certainly good. But weapons and ammunition take up a lot of space. Where to carry more paratroopers, cargo, fuel?

The latest domestic development, which has recently begun to enter the troops, is the BTR-MDM Rakushka amphibious airborne armored personnel carrier. The universal combat vehicle is produced by Kurganmashzavod on a platform unified with the BMD-4M. This is a huge plus - comparable running capabilities and interchangeability of parts are important for landing equipment. The Shell does not have a turret with weapons, but it can fit two crew members and 13 paratroopers! That is, a platoon of BTR-MDM from one Il-76 will cover 39 fighters behind the armor.

In the troop compartment of the armored personnel carrier, three double seats are installed on each side. They can be folded to the sides if it is necessary to transport not people, but equipment. The shell, turned into a truck, is capable of transporting two tons of luggage. For boxes with ammunition, barrels of fuel and lubricants, spare parts and other cargo, fastening elements with belts are provided. There are along the sides and devices for fixing the stretcher. They can be arranged in three tiers, which means that the BTR-MDM can evacuate six wounded from the front line.

Of course, the Shell was not left completely without. On the roof above the commander's seat, a remote-controlled circular firing machine gun was mounted. Another machine gun, course, is installed in front of the hull on the right, in front of the paratrooper's seat.

Despite the fact that the armored personnel carrier is able to support the fighters with fire, attacks on the enemy are not his calling. It was created for transport tasks - the delivery of paratroopers to the front line, the transportation of ammunition, the evacuation of the wounded. It is the joint actions of the well-armed BMD-4M and the capacious BTR-MDM that are the best suited for mobile units of the Airborne Forces.

The body of the shell is welded, made of aluminum bulletproof armor, the so-called cutting type. Tank layout: in front of the control compartment, in the middle - troop-cargo, behind - motor-transmission. Due to the fact that the engine is almost boxer, it is flat and does not greatly hinder the exit of paratroopers through a huge hatch in the rear of the wheelhouse. The multi-fuel naturally aspirated diesel UTD-29 with a working volume of 26.5 liters (!) Produces 500 hp. and a fantastic torque of 1460 N. m at 1600 rpm.

In the undercarriage of the BTR-MDM, on each side, there are four supporting and five road wheels on pneumohydraulic springs. The working ground clearance is 450 mm, but the clearance can vary in the range of 130–530 mm.

Great Briton on asphalt

BTR-MDM was not made from scratch. A number of technical solutions make it similar to the BMP-3, which appeared in the late 1980s. Nevertheless, Rakushka does not have many direct competitors. In the armies of NATO countries, they rely mainly on well-armed, but bulky vehicles with protection almost like a tank. Among the turretless tracked armored personnel carriers, for example, the American M-113 is hopelessly outdated, and the development of the Bradley BGPV ​​in fact is not the first freshness of an infantry fighting vehicle weighing more than 20 tons with a dismantled combat module. The shell, perhaps, is better compared with the not too common English Stormer armored personnel carrier. But this correspondence duel will obviously not be in favor of the latter.

The British FV-4333 Stormer combat vehicle was created on the basis of components and assemblies of the lightly armored CRV (T) family, which includes the Scorpion tank, the Spartan armored personnel carrier and the Striker self-propelled gun. It differs from other machines of the Stormer family by an elongated hull and six road wheels in the undercarriage instead of five. Produce FV-4333 since the early 1980s. On its basis, many modifications were created, which are still in service. But we are interested in the basic one - an airmobile floating armored personnel carrier.

By mass, it is close to our Shell. The armor is also aluminum bulletproof, and the body is welded. But the layout is different. Front left seat of the driver. The crew leader is behind him. To the right, behind the bulkhead, is the engine compartment. The middle and aft part of the vehicle is given to the troop compartment. In addition to its two crew members, the Stormer can carry eight fully equipped fighters - less than a Shell.

The engine is a Perkins turbocharged diesel engine with a power of 250 hp. Here there is a twofold loss of the BTR-MDM in terms of power supply. Simpler and running - the FV-4333 has a conventional torsion bar suspension with shock absorbers. There is no question of any pneumohydraulic springs. The working ground clearance is slightly less than that of the BTR-MDM, but, most importantly, there is no system for changing the clearance.

The Stormer is well sealed and can swim with a little preparation. Movement in the water is due to the rewinding of the tracks. The maximum speed afloat is 5 km/h. A shell in this element is twice as fast: two auger-type jet propulsion units can accelerate it to 10 km / h.

In the basic version, the FV-4333 is armed with one machine gun located in a small turret above the commander's seat. And here the Stormer is one barrel behind the BTR-MDM, although, I repeat, the armament for transport combat vehicles is not the main indicator.

Is everything really so perfect and Stormer lost outright to Rakushka, yielding in terms of capacity, chassis capabilities, buoyancy, specific power and armament?

Of course not. By booking, you can say parity. The turbodiesel of an English armored personnel carrier is more economical than a domestic atmospheric diesel of a large volume - with a smaller tank capacity, the “Englishman” has a better indicator in terms of power reserve. And it's faster than our combat vehicle on the highway. True, this figure is rather crafty, because it is better to move along the highway on wheeled vehicles. Caterpillars are still designed for off-road - fast driving on asphalt reduces their resource. Once you leave the highway, as the speed will depend on the capabilities of the suspension and other factors, and fuel consumption will increase.

Characteristics of armored personnel carriers in Russia and Great Britain

At first, I started the test drive with the air of a connoisseur. Still, after all, I went to the BMP-3, I already know everything. I set manual gas, I press the starter button and start ... Barnaul diesel V10 UTD-29 roared behind. It comes from the 80s, but is still relevant. And do not rush to wince! It seems that if it were not for considerations of ecology and economy, then ordinary civilian cars would still have old, time-tested engines made according to the principle of no replacement for displacement.

Maximum power - 500 forces, and it's diesel! The driver warns: "There are a lot of horses in the car, and it is light, so you need to release the brakes smoothly." Of course, I still release too abruptly and get a well-deserved impulse to the back of the head ... No wonder I did not calculate the strength – in BMP-3 with the same engine 18,7 tons of combat weight, and here – 13.2. With 500 diesel horsepower, the Rakushka doesn't become a sporty crossover, but for a tracked vehicle it's still extremely fast.

The November issue of the magazine "Za Rulem" publishes an article by Vadim Klochkov "Without a tower", which is a report on the armored personnel carrier BTR-MDM "Rakushka". We bring to your attention the text of this material.

Armored hull, turret, cannon. By such signs, even a pacifist understands that he has a formidable military equipment in front of him. But this, reckless - either a box, or a box - on a caterpillar track, what can she do?

From heaven to earth

A combat vehicle named Rakushka made its debut at the May Victory Parade, but was lost in the background of tanks and missile systems. It's a shame! The latest development of our defense industry this year began to enter the airborne troops.

A new armored personnel carrier for landing is being produced by Kurganmashzavod

Full title - BTR-MDM Shell. Specialty: amphibious airborne armored personnel carrier. To understand its purpose, a brief digression into the history of blue berets is needed.

In military affairs, there are not just famous people, but pillars. The modern Airborne Forces, without exaggeration, were built by the legendary "batya" - General of the Army Vasily Filippovich Margelov. It was he who made the landing troops highly maneuverable, protected by armor and possessing sufficient fire efficiency. Under him, armored vehicles began to be parachuted with a crew inside.

Shell debut at the Victory parade. The rubber inserts in the tracks for driving on asphalt and paving stones are clearly visible.

Margelov's ideology of the use of military vehicles is still valid today. Three units of armored tracked vehicles, that is, a platoon, must be transported and parachuted from one aircraft. Without going into details: this imposes a number of restrictions on the dimensions and mass of landing equipment.

The newly adopted BMD-4M, a classic combat vehicle with a turret and a cannon, matches them. She takes on board three crew members and five paratroopers. The Shell was also created on a platform unified with it. Three armored personnel carriers-MDM also fit into the transport IL-76. What has changed?

Minus the tower with weapons, plus the number of seats. The Shell can accommodate two crew members and thirteen paratroopers! And that's not it. The transporter has a lot of talent. It can be not only an armored bus, but also a two-ton truck, medical, sapper or communications vehicle. Able to support infantry with the fire of two machine guns, but frontal attacks are not his calling. But it will deliver the fighters to the firing lines, deliver ammunition, and evacuate the wounded. The joint actions of the so-platform BMD-4M and BTR-MDM are the best suited for the implementation of Margelov's concept of mobile connections.

Comfortable at the forefront

The body of the conveyor is welded, the so-called cutting type. It consists of a control compartment, a troop compartment and an engine-transmission compartment. Bulletproof armor. The engine is a UTD-29 multi-fuel atmospheric diesel engine with a power of 500 hp.

In the undercarriage, on each side, there are four support rollers and five support rollers on pneumohydraulic springs. The working ground clearance is 450 mm, but it can be reduced to 130 mm or increased to 530 mm. What for? For example, a car manages to get into some transport planes only after thoroughly “crouching”.

Hatch in the stern of the cabin for landing. Swimming vests for fighters and crew are fixed on it.

The inclined hatch in the stern of the cabin is open - I look into the bowels of the Shell. How spacious it is! Usually armored vehicles are large on the outside and small on the inside, but the opposite is true for the new transporter. I count the seats: yeah, thirteen in the troop compartment and four in the front of the car. It turned out two more than stated in the passport data.

Where are the extras from? These are chairs for landing the crew in the car. The commander and the driver land in them, and then change to regular seats. There are six hatches in the armored personnel carrier, but getting from edge to edge from the middle compartment to the driver's seat in the control compartment is not difficult.

The commander has the least space. His chair is surrounded by instruments and optics, and the hatch is perhaps the narrowest. No wonder: next to the roof are fastening elements for a remote-controlled circular firing machine gun, sighting and instrumentation systems and an illuminator. Another machine gun, course, is installed in the front part on the right, in front of the paratrooper's seat. Here, too, it is quite comfortable.

Revolutions, speed, distance traveled, engine hours are displayed on a color monitor. Other readings can also be displayed. The driver's seat is in the center of the car. The commander is on the left, the paratrooper and part-time gunner of the course machine gun is on the right. Semi-automatic gear lever and steering wheel. The black button in the center of the hub activates the spin-in-place mode.

The driver's workplace is similar to that in the BMD-4M. Instead of a steering wheel - a steering wheel. Near the lever of a four-speed semi-automatic transmission. Two pedals: gas and brake. The chair is easy to lift up to operate the machine, sticking your head into the open hatch.

In a combat situation (with the hatch closed), they are guided by three periscope observation devices, and the central one, if necessary, is replaced by a night vision device. There are no analog devices in the Shell. At the disposal of the driver is a huge display of a digital information and control system. All parameters - temperature, pressure, voltage, revolutions, speed, etc. - are displayed on a color LCD screen.

In the troop compartment, each side has three double seats. They look simple but comfortable. It's nice that the knees of a tall man do not rest against the backs of the front seats. These seats can be folded down to the sides. If you need to transport boxes of ammunition, barrels of fuel and lubricants, spare parts and other goods, they are secured with belts. Along the sides - devices for fixing a stretcher with the wounded. The stretcher can be arranged in three tiers.

Shell has an outdoor air purification system with a filter-ventilation unit. Importantly, the smoke of your own diesel engine does not seep into the cabin. The engine compartment is well isolated from the habitable compartments.

The troop compartment can accommodate 13 fighters or 2 tons of cargo. For a Spartan interior of armored vehicles, it is quite spacious here.

The BTR-MDM had a predecessor, put into service in 1974, an amphibious transporter. It was considered a successful car and became the basis of countless modifications. It is curious that, unlike other Soviet armored vehicles, it was never exported. The novelty surpasses the old conveyor in all respects: it is better armored, the engine is twice as powerful. So the Shell has every chance of becoming an equally versatile and popular car.

Two auger-type jet propulsors allow you to swim at a speed of 10 km / h.

For airborne vehicles, variable ground clearance is a must. So the Shell changes the ground clearance from minimum to maximum.

The current commander of the Airborne Forces, Colonel-General Vladimir Shamanov, announced plans to rearm the paratroopers: by 2025, the troops should receive 1,500 new BMD-4Ms and 2,500 BTR-MDMs.

MOSCOW, September 13 - RIA Novosti, Andrey Stanavov. At the end of September, Ulyanovsk paratroopers will for the first time test their new "workhorses" in forests and swamps - armored personnel carriers BTR-MDM "Rakushka" and airborne combat vehicles BMD-4M "Gardener". Both machines are unique in many ways and have no analogues in the world. They are distinguished by lightness, speed, buoyancy and a lethal arsenal of weapons of various sizes, allowing them to effectively fight even tanks. About what things can be done in the rear of the enemy landing on "Sadovnitsy" and "Shells", as well as what the ultra-modern combat module "Bakhcha-U" is capable of, - in the material of RIA Novosti.

Light weight and heavy character

The specifics of the "winged infantry" implies landings and exhausting battles in deep enemy rear areas, where there are neither tanks nor artillery support, and air assistance is far from always available. On the principle of "abandoned - fight." In such conditions, any armored vehicles, even light ones, become the only defense, transport and means of attack for the paratroopers. Therefore, the designers are trying to hang on it as many weapons and aids as possible, while leaving it easy enough to be thrown by aircraft.

The airborne combat vehicle BMD-4M "Gardener" is just that rare case when the developers managed to combine the incompatible in a compact case made of rolled aluminum armor. The heavy-duty aluminum alloy weighs little and, when a projectile hits, does not cut the habitable compartment with fragments. The BMD-4M can be dropped by parachute directly with a crew of three sitting inside, the car runs briskly off-road and can swim. On the track, a 500-horsepower engine accelerates a 13-ton BMD to 70 kilometers per hour. The latest integrated navigation system will not let the crew get lost.

The most powerful weapons and impressive ammunition make the "Gardener" a real nightmare for the enemy. The combat module "Bakhcha-U" is completely unified with the BMP-3 - the same guns, ammunition and sighting and computing systems are used. Compared to the previous BMD-3, the firepower has increased by more than 2.5 times. The automated fire control system makes it possible to shoot accurately even at high speeds and when driving off-road.

The large-caliber 100-mm 2A70 cannon sends high-explosive fragmentation shells at a distance of up to seven kilometers and allows you to destroy buildings and fortifications. Thanks to the presence of four Arkan anti-tank guided missiles, the crew can fight almost all tanks known today, including those hung with active armor.

The 30-millimeter 2A72 automatic cannon with a high rate of fire deserves special attention, which can effectively work on lightly armored vehicles at a distance of up to two kilometers, clear out infantry at a distance of up to four kilometers, and even shoot down a helicopter flying a kilometer and a half. In addition, a 7.62-mm PKMT machine gun with an ammunition load of two thousand rounds and a 5.45-mm RPKS-74 machine gun are provided for combating manpower.

For example, if the paratroopers take up all-round defense and bury the Gardener in the ground, they will have a fortified firing point, which will not be easy for the enemy to suppress. For camouflage, the combat vehicle is equipped with Tucha smoke grenades, for observation and aiming there are night vision devices, a thermal imager and a laser rangefinder. The probability of misses is practically excluded, even if there are newcomers in the crew.

"Taxi" for landing

The multipurpose airborne modernized armored personnel carrier BTR-MDM "Rakushka-M" is designed to increase the mobility of landing forces and their rapid deployment to the desired area. Like the BMD, the transporter is welded from sheets of aluminum armor, can swim and drive over rough terrain. On the highway, the car accelerates to 70 kilometers per hour and is capable of transporting 13 paratroopers at a distance of up to 500 kilometers without refueling. In addition, "Rakushka" is excellent for the delivery of ammunition, spare parts for military equipment and fuel and lubricants.

For the convenience of the fighters, double chairs are installed inside and there are even brackets for hanging stretchers with the wounded. The driver sits in the front center of the car and watches the road through a periscope or night vision system. One of the paratroopers sits down at the PKTM course machine gun, which shoots through the front sector. The commander has his own turret with a machine gun, which he can control remotely.

The naturally aspirated multi-fuel diesel UTD-29 “eats” almost everything that “burns”, and this is especially valuable behind enemy lines, where gas stations with high-quality fuel and a smiling girl at the checkout are rare.

Due to the air suspension, the "Shell" can "squat" on the track, and rise on rough terrain, as expensive off-road foreign cars can do. In this case, the minimum clearance is 7-10 centimeters, and the maximum - up to half a meter.

Interestingly, on the basis of the BTR-MDM, a whole family of weapons and military equipment for the Airborne Forces can be created - command and staff vehicles, communications and control vehicles, medical, logistics and others. The first such transporters entered the troops in March 2015, quickly gained popularity, and now the Ministry of Defense continues to actively transfer paratroopers to them.

5:02 / 17.07.15
Multipurpose airborne armored personnel carrier BTR-MD "Rakushka" and BTR-MDM

The BTR-MD "Rakushka" and the modernized version of the BTR-MDM are designed to transport personnel (landing troops), ammunition, spare parts, fuel and lubricants in the Airborne Forces units, airborne assault formations of the Navy Marine Corps. It is adapted for operation in all conditions of combat use, in a variety of climatic conditions.

Photo: IA "ORUZHIEROSSIYI", Vladimir Primemlin

The BTR-MD "Shell" was developed on the basis of the BMD-3 airborne combat vehicle to be replaced in the airborne units of the BTR-D. Further development of a modernized version of the BTR-MDM on the BMD-4M chassis began in 2008; testing is scheduled to be completed in 2015.

Until 2025, the Airborne Forces will receive more than 2,500 Rakushka armored personnel carriers of various modifications.

The body of the armored personnel carrier is made of welded armor plates. Reservation - bulletproof In the front and middle part of the hull there is a cabin with the crew and troops of the armored personnel carrier. At the rear of the car is the engine compartment. In the aft part of the cabin there is a hatch for dismounting the crew.

Photo: IA "ARMS OF RUSSIA", Vladimir Primemlin

Engine:

Photo: IA "ARMS OF RUSSIA", Vladimir Primemlin