Demining of the liberated territories is one of the key tasks to ensure the safety of military personnel and civilians. According to experts, after the end of the conflict in Ukraine, the complete clearance of the zone of a special military operation can last for decades. The problem of minefields is acute all over the world: until now, the territories where armed conflicts occurred 50 or more years ago have not been completely cleared.
We have already written about what methods can be used to speed up mine clearance . In wartime, sapper units are engaged in this with the use of heavy armored vehicles. And when it is necessary to establish a peaceful life, humanitarian demining and lighter equipment, often created on the basis of civilian, come into play.
One of such developments is the humanitarian demining machine MGR-4 "Bumblebee", created by the Kovrov Electromechanical Plant and the Signal Research Institute as part of the holding "High-Precision Complexes" of the Rostec State Corporation. The machine is based on the popular Russian mini–loader Ant-1000.
The MGR-4 machine became the hero of the second issue of Rostec's new video project "Our Crash", in which products of Russian enterprises undergo crash tests. Following the results of the inspection, Kirill Fudiman, Director for the production of road construction and agricultural machinery of JSC "KEMZ", gave an interview to the presenter - a well–known military journalist Alexey Egorov.
− Kirill Yakovlevich, how did it all start?
− It all started, as always, with an idea. The idea was to adapt the mass-produced loader for tasks that are very much in demand in our state today.
− What is the degree of coincidence of the two cars?
− At least 90%.
− When did you first set yourself such a task?
− The story begins back in 2016, when the plant was looking for new niches for the production of loaders. Experimental work was carried out, as a result of which a chain minesweeper was created. But since he was the first and there was very little experience, he turned out to be unsuccessful. They were not satisfied with the mass-weight characteristics, and the speed of the trawl, and the shape of the strikers, and the length of the chains. A huge number of parameters had to be changed in order to get acceptable operation of this part of the machine today.
− And most importantly, we see that it was based on a loader. Did you actually change only the front part?
− Yes, the idea of this trawl was that it could be installed instead of a bucket. Today we have moved away from this universality, because the specialty requires it. Several years have passed, and now, in the new conditions, when there are huge territories subject to humanitarian demining, we saw the huge demand for such equipment and returned to this idea.
We have somewhat reworked the logic and circuit and have already checked the performance of the machine, although not yet in combat conditions, but in close to that.
− How do you estimate how many such cars the country needs?
− Based on the areas that are more or less "polluted" today, we estimate the need for several thousand pieces. Operational work is needed. You can run one car and work on mine clearance for several decades, but we cannot afford this. Therefore, we have followed the path of using the mastered serial production technologies for both metal structures and machines in general.
− And is it true that everything in your loader is Russian?
− The main component composition, which determines the technical essence of the machine, is Russian. Starting from engineering and ending with the engine, hydraulic system, chair, joystick, harnesses, etc.
− What, apart from the minesweeping, is the difference between the mine clearance machine?
− First of all, there is a very original remote control system, which was developed by our neighbors at the Signal Research Institute. It is based on the Prometheus control system, which is used on a very wide range of various military equipment and in itself is a universal platform for creating various modifications. The component base and software are borrowed here, and the creators of this system have extensive experience, including the development of military equipment.
− Is this the case when military technologies switched to the "citizen"?
− Absolutely right. But in addition to this military technology, there are a number of interesting positions in the car that you can show and stop at them. For example, a movement system in which solid polyurethane wheels are used instead of air wheels. They are absolutely not afraid of holes, cuts from debris in an undeveloped area, and they are also ready to withstand an explosion.
In particular, there is a trace of tests on the wheel, when we laid 200 g of TNT in order to identify the weak points of the car. It should be noted that the equipment with honor withstood this test.
− And what happened to the caterpillar after the explosion?
− Yes, you correctly noticed that the wheel was also covered with a track belt. The caterpillar's shoe, which was just in the epicenter of the explosion, is damaged, but not critically. The machine has remained operational.
− Have you set yourself the task of what kind of car should be? What grams in TNT equivalent it should withstand and so on.
- yes. Since the development was proactive, we set ourselves these tasks. In particular, we expected that the machine should remain fully operational during the explosion of the most powerful anti-personnel mine. To date, this is 200 g of TNT, and we have conducted tests on it, which we have withstood.
− And if anti-tank?
− It is naive to expect that a vehicle designed to eliminate anti-personnel mines will withstand anti-tank. But here the argument is that, in principle, the loss of the car is not so terrible. Human life is more expensive. In addition, since we mentioned that the car is not expensive and is ready for replication without any special costs, we again return to the price factor.
− Going back to the ideology, what is the most important thing to make the car as inexpensive as possible?
− Inexpensive and easily produced in large volumes.
− That is, as during the war, when the Germans made one Tiger, we will make ten T-34s. When will you be able to put the production of these machines on stream?
− If we consider the abundance of metal structures in the workshop, which in just a few days will turn into ready-made loaders, it should be noted that compared to last year there was a surge in the consumption of not only military equipment, but also civilian. We have almost doubled the production of loaders.
− Who buys loaders from you?
− Our consumers, first of all, are Moscow, St. Petersburg and other cities and regional centers. And taking into account the fact that we have increased the production of loaders, we know what tools to increase the production of metal structures, which are the same for these machines. Therefore, we can easily increase the volume.
− That is, let's say again, the car in the basic configuration is not just similar, but the same?
- yes. Tomorrow, we can assemble a mine clearance machine from any metal structure of the loader in this workshop.
− And you didn't use a bulletproof vest here?
− No, everything is in regular execution here. It was our explosive tests that showed that the standard metal structures of road construction equipment are ready to withstand the impact of an anti-personnel mine.
− How do you assess your brainchild regarding what is happening in the world in this niche?
− Each manufacturer has its own historical path of development. We are just at the beginning of the journey. But I think that with such a mindset and with such tools that we have today, we can quite occupy a worthy niche.