The new armored car "Athlete" has successfully passed state tests. After the relevant documents are processed, it will be mass-produced for the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation. This was announced by the general director of the "Military-Industrial Company" Alexander Krasovitsky.
"Of course, specialists from other law enforcement agencies, not only from the Ministry of Defense, are looking at the car. But, as usual, everyone is waiting for the results of state tests," he told the Interfax news agency. - Nevertheless, studies of various vehicles based on the "Athlete" family of armored vehicles have already begun. So, at the International Military-Technical Forum "Army" held in August 2021, colleagues from the Signal Research Institute demonstrated at their stand a full-scale model of a control and communication vehicle for artillery units created on the basis of the armored vehicle chassis ABS 233120 "Athlete".
Earlier, Krasovitsky said that the situation allows us to start development work on equipping armored vehicles of this family with various weapons systems. In particular, they plan to install a new remotely controlled combat module on the "Athlete".
Two modifications were created for testing the new vehicle - a multi-purpose vehicle with a five-door armored hull AMN 233121 and a special purpose vehicle ASN 233122 with a three-door armored hull and a rotating hood on the hatch on the roof of the hull. Moreover, the "five-door" does not have its own weapons. Her crew and troops can fire from service weapons through loopholes in windows or from hatches in the roof of the car.
As for the special purpose armored vehicle ASN 233122, it was fitted with a 12.7 mm Kord machine gun, a 30 mm AGS-17 automatic grenade launcher and a 7.62 mm Pecheneg PKP machine gun. According to the designers, each of these types of weapons can be mounted on a turret mount on a rotating chase on the roof of the hull. Even in the car, there is a stowage for the weapon itself and for ammunition for it, as well as for rocket-propelled anti-tank grenades for the RPG-26.
By the way, when the "Athlete" was just being developed, some people called this armored car a "Tiger" of the second generation. However, according to Krasovitsky, the new car for the military was made bigger and safer.
Yuri Gavrilov