Armored cars are a special class of equipment in the war in Donbass. What have the carts of the Ukrainian army become since 2015?
Table of contents
- Warta
- Special armored vehicles Novator
- Watch
- Kozak
Fighting in the east of Ukraine in 2014-2015years (well, or on the territory of LDNR, as it is convenient for anyone) were, to put it mildly, not trivial. Both sides have used many "innovations" created on the principle of "craving for inventions". Affected by the poverty of the Ukrainian army on the one hand, and in itself the improvisational and spontaneous nature of the organization of the armies of the DPR and LPR.
Despite the fact that the war took place in the centuryhigh technologies, many aspects of the confrontation were more reminiscent of the era of the civil war in Russia. Both sides often had to clash within the city limits and raid each other's rear. The importance of mobile warfare was especially high, armored personnel carriers and armored vehicles became the workhorses of the infantry and special forces, and the latter played a special role. Therefore, equipping the Ukrainian army with modern armored cars has become one of the main tasks of its modernization.
This is how the equipment of the Ukrainian side in the 2014-2015 conflict looked like.
Warta
In essence, it looks like a classic police armored car, but the peculiarity of the fighting is such that both the police and the military have to use mixed tactics and learn from each other.
Warta appeared at the end of 2015, today it isthe most massive armored car of the Ukrainian security forces. The main difference between this class and, for example, armored personnel carriers, is that modern armored personnel carriers are designed to deliver infantry to the landing site, so that it can operate independently, and the vehicle itself becomes a means of fire support, because it can be equipped with weapons that are too heavy and bulky for dismounted use. fighters.
Warta in field colors
ukrarmor.com
In armored cars of the Varta type, the personnelmainly fights without leaving the vehicle, using embrasures for small arms fire, and the armored body has windows with bulletproof glass blocks, which offer a much better view than on the classic Soviet seventy-eighty armored vehicles.
The Warta is nevertheless reinforced by the opena crown tower made of armor plates, which makes it not quite a police tool. The tower houses a 12.7 NSV Utyos machine gun, and in the future a combat module, where 14.5 CPV and 7.62 PKT will be paired.
From the Russian YaMZ, the car was converted to imported Cummins diesel engines of 300 horses. Suspension - two axles, reinforced with armored inserts, well, and a mine bottom.
Airborne transport department of Warta
uapress.info
Warta's release is fighting in an urbanized environment,with dense residential development. The use of heavy weapons by the enemy is hampered not only by narrow street gaps, but also by the maneuverability of the armored car (9-speed gearbox, it is planned to switch to automatic). This is a means of stripping, when the enemy is defeated, the defenses are broken, and the personnel scattered around the surroundings.
In such conditions, the enemy usually haspersonal weapons, Kalash, machine guns, because heavy weapons (and even heavier ammunition for them) are difficult to carry with you, and you have to fight with a constant change of positions, you can’t run up. But it was precisely the cleansing of the areas that resulted in the most serious losses of the fighters, who had only helmets and body armor for protection. The defeated enemy snapped back with ambushes; fire could be opened on the security forces at any time and from anywhere.
Today Warta is produced on several chassis,including MAZ and KrAZ. Armor protection and mine resistance have been brought up to MRAP standards, at least on paper. As of 2021, about 200 units were delivered to the troops.
Special armored vehicles Novator
Innovator is a class of light armored cars, where fashionthe Americans asked their Humvees. HMMWV М1097А2 (two-seater pickup) were delivered to Ukraine long before the events, to study and develop their technology. The Lviv Mechanical Repair Plant was engaged in them. HMMWV M1114 UAH were delivered in the amount of 30 pieces in March 2015, this is already a new generation with enhanced protection. At that time, the need for such funds was most acute, battles with militias often had to be fought in civilian pickup trucks sheathed with armor plates, as in news footage with endless Arab showdowns.
An innovator on a test drive
Cars of this class are a means of patrolling,escort and sometimes intelligence. A special forces group can control peripheral areas, quickly leave to check settlements, and in case of emergency situations, shoot or quickly dump. Reservation, respectively, bulletproof and splinterproof, and, as expected, protection from light road mines.
Innovators are the lightest and just especiallypatrol cars. Development of the first generation Humvees, although based on the Ford F550 pickups. Initially, it was assumed that the vehicle would be unarmed, but over time, combat modules were developed for it. Most likely, the generation of these machines with a 12.7 machine gun, KT-12.7 (a copy of our Cliff), which will be installed in an uninhabited turret with a thermal imaging channel, and the machine gun operator will control it through the display (in the fighting compartment in the back seat).
The innovator, although perhaps the lightest machine from the selection, is nevertheless experimenting with heavy weapons, for example, ATGM
Watch
This car began to be designed long before the war.- since 2004 it has been the development of the Kharkiv Morozov Design Bureau, and was produced there in Kharkiv. If the Novator is a vehicle for the National Guard of Ukraine (an analogue of the Internal Troops or, today, the National Guard in the Russian Federation), then Dozor-B is an armored car for the military, and it was originally intended as a flexible platform for ambulance, patrol or command options.
Watch at the dawn of a career, the old BRDM-2 is guessed in the features
It already has a more advanced systemreservation, which can withstand hits from SVD or PKM rifle cartridges in the forehead from 100 meters, on the sides from 450 m. Mine protection should keep 1 kg of TNT under the bottom, or 3 kg under the wheel, but today's versions of this vehicle in the series do not entirely satisfy the military .
Ventilation has been thought out to protect against chemical weapons or radioactive elements, and for the weathering of powder gases from the fighting compartment. Reserving the engine also required a complex cooling system.
In terms of weapons, the spectrum is also extended. 12.7 machine gun or automatic grenade launcher 30 mm or 40 mm, both separately and together in a combat module, of course remotely controlled, with laser rangefinders and thermal imagers. In addition, in heavy versions, the Barrier or Stugna anti-tank systems are available, and even the installation of 23-mm automatic cannons similar to the Zu-23-2. It is difficult to immediately name a similarly armed armored car in this weight category.
The gunner's battle place in one of the early versions of the Dock, so far it doesn’t smell like displays
The car managed to prove itself in skirmishes after 2015, and Poland also buys these machines for its army. In essence, this is the development and modernization of the legendary Soviet BRDM-2.
Kozak
Analogue of Warta for the army of Ukraine, armored vehicleof the Kozak series on the Iveco Eurocargo chassis, it was developed for a long time, it has also gone into series since 2015, about 40 such funds have entered the army. It differs from rather the policeman Warta, it is distinguished by its versatility, it is again a platform for different purposes.
But, of course, what interests him most is the combatversion, and in it this armored car belongs to the MRAP class (mine resistant ambush protected - protected from undermining and ambushes). 279-horsepower Tector-6 turbodiesel with six gearbox steps and a two-speed transfer case. V-shaped bottom in case of explosion and reinforced chassis, just like everywhere else.
Kozak-2M1
The armament is also ordinary, the same as alreadyThe examples described above - a large-caliber machine gun and an automatic grenade launcher - will not be repeated. Essentially, this is already a light armored personnel carrier, apparently it should be a multi-purpose vehicle for raids, escorts, infantry support, and possibly for interaction with heavier equipment.
How the troop compartment is arranged in the armored personnel carrier -independent armored capsule with safety seats. On Soviet armored personnel carriers, it is possible to survive when blown up by a land mine only if the landing force rides on armor, armored capsules allow the landing force to remain inside, protected from bullets / shrapnel, and from detonation.
Some of the first American MRAP-class cars in Afghanistan, decommissioned were supposed to go to Ukraine, but it feels like they got into other handles
However, MRAP vehicles remain equipment for the sametasks similar to the Humvee, they simply implemented all the experience accumulated in Afghanistan and Iraq. These are vehicles for asymmetrical local wars, these are not strike equipment, they are not for a more classical war in Europe, where the opponents of the Ukrainian army have artillery, MLRS and ATGMs.
The conclusion suggests itself that Kozak willa kind of substitute for the armored personnel carrier, because Ukraine has exhausted the fleet of Soviet vehicles from the BTR-60 to the BTR-80 in combat losses or simply due to wear and tear. Ukraine is still not able to master its own developments in the volumes necessary for the army, the soldiers and Kozakov get it in portions, how long to wait for the Atamans or the BMP Spear is completely unknown.
BTR-4
U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Alexander rector
The cost of the same Ukrainian BTR-4 inexports - about $ 1.5 million, with a wholesale consignment for Kazakhstan in 2012. Today the amount is probably +/- the same, the hryvnia has fallen in price, inflation, but the car is more or less mastered in production and prices should have decreased. The cost of Kozak, though for the Ukrainian army, is about 280 thousand dollars, that is, three Kozaks cost approximately the same as one full-fledged armored personnel carrier of Ukrainian production.
Troop compartment Kozak-2M
bmpd
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