Image source: Photo: function.mil.ru
The participation of light armored vehicles in local wars and conflicts often led to its massive losses.
We can recall the mission of the Soviet limited contingent in Afghanistan, the fighting on the territory of the post-Soviet space. Dozens or even hundreds of burnt-out and exploded infantry fighting vehicles and armored personnel carriers remained everywhere after the fighting.
Unfortunately, there were serious losses in the personnel, because it is known that ten people can be placed in the second-generation BMP, and eleven fighters can be placed in the BTR - 80. Not all of them managed to escape if the equipment was subjected to shelling from grenade launchers, anti-tank missile systems.
Our military spoke about the need to isolate ammunition from the crew and the landing force more than thirty years ago, but then the development of domestic electronics, which was quite cumbersome and heavy, did not allow us to make an uninhabited tower with weapons. Currently, such tasks are being successfully solved.
In May 2015, promising armored vehicles on the Armata, Boomerang, and Kurganets-25 chassis, which had uninhabited combat compartments with isolated ammunition, were presented for the first time on Red Square. As the main cannon armament, they were equipped with a 30-mm cannon, a 7.62-mm machine gun and a Cornet ATGM.
Currently, even more advanced models have been created, for example, "Epoch", with a 57-mm automatic cannon, ATGM launchers" Kornet "and small-sized missiles"Bulat".
In addition to promising machines, the " Era " is now installed on modernized BMP-3, which received a new designation-B-19. In addition to high firepower, perfect sights, surveillance and communication devices, the "nineteen" have much greater survivability, surpassing several times the equipment of previous generations.
Lev Romanov