Armored car "Bear" VPK-3924: purpose, specifications

2024 Author: Erin Ralphs | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-19 11:42

Armored vehicle SPM-3/VPK-3924/ "Bear" is a Russian analogue of vehicles of the MRAP type. This abbreviation means Mine Resistant Ambush Protected and literally translates as "protected from ambush and undermining." The car is designed to protect personnel in the conditions of guerrilla warfare, anti-terrorist operations and suppression of riots. In this article, we will take a closer look at the Bear, consider the history of its creation, technical and tactical characteristics, as well as many other interesting data. First, let's find out what caused the demand for this kind of car.

Prerequisites for creation

For the first time, armored vehicles with a high degree of protection against explosions on standard anti-vehicle mines appeared in the 70s of the last century in the Republic of South Africa. The first model was the Casper armored personnel carrier, designed for counterguerrilla warfare in Namibia. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, US troops and their allies, fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq, faced the problem of large-scale guerrilla resistance. Then they werea decision was made to adopt the experience of colleagues from South Africa. Great Britain, together with the United States, began to massively purchase licenses for South African armored cars in order to create their updated modifications. Then the abbreviation MRAP appeared, which denoted a program of armored vehicles with the highest level of ballistic protection and resistance to explosions on anti-tank mines and land mines.

First attempts

In Russia, such cars were first thought about during the second outbreak of the Chechen war. In 2004, the command of the Internal Troops of the Russian Federation initiated the start of development work to create an armored car. The decision was the result of a thorough analysis of actions in the Caucasus. In the conditions of the military conflict, which proceeded rather sluggishly, the main losses were incurred by the personnel as a result of attacks by bandit formations on motorcades. The use of infantry fighting vehicles, armored personnel carriers and tanks to escort columns is a very costly measure. And besides, the resource of automotive equipment is many times greater than the resource of regular armored vehicles. In this regard, the Urals and KamAZ trucks were “dressed” in armor. Admittedly, such refinement of the trucks had a positive effect.

However, the mined roads still led to significant losses of personnel. KamAZ trucks suffered especially hard. Then an attempt was made to create an all-wheel drive vehicle BMP-97 (aka KamAZ-43269, or "Shot"). However, this development was also unsuccessful. The machine could withstand the detonation of a hand grenade type F-1, which has a charge capacity of only 60 g in TNT. There were also problems with the deployment of personnel incabin, as well as with the maintenance of transmission and chassis components.

Development of the Bear machine

After the failures listed above, the specialized holding "Military-Industrial Company" and employees of the wheeled vehicles department of MSTU got down to business. They developed the armored car "Bear". Stanislav Anisimov, an employee of the Military Industrial Company LLC, became the chief designer. His work was continued by Mikhail Kireev, head of the BRDM-2 improvement program. The team of designers from MSTU was headed by Alexander Smirnov.

The first and main task faced by the developers was to achieve such a level of protection as on the vehicles of the MRAP program. The armored car "Bear" did not become a modernization of the already known models SPM-1 and SPM-2. It is a completely new development.

Why do we need such a car

Misins of this class are used as a vehicle or an operational service vehicle for transporting internal troops in cases:

1. Conducting counter-terrorism operations.
2. Conducting riot control operations.
3. Solving problems of territorial defense.
4. Assistance to border troops.
5. Transportation of personnel in conditions where it is necessary to protect the crew from armor-piercing firearms and any damaging factors.

Specifications

In habitable compartments cars canfit 7-8 people in full uniform. And that's not counting the commander and driver. Thanks to the wide swing doors located in the stern, paratroopers can carry out a comfortable landing and quick dismounting under the cover of a car. Unlike simple armored personnel carriers, the VPK-3924 is considered a full-fledged road user. Therefore, the car does not need to be accompanied by the traffic police. The car develops quite a decent speed - about 90 km / h on a good road.

Serial components and assemblies from Ural are used in the car. They provide a high level of reliability, a long service life (800,000 km), simplicity, as well as minimal costs for the operation and repair of a car. The SPM-3 "Bear" is equipped with a powerful 300-horsepower YaMZ-7601 diesel engine and an independent torsion bar suspension with telescopic hydraulic shock absorbers, borrowed from the BTR-90. Thanks to this, the machine has a smooth ride, high speed and excellent cross-country ability. Pits, concrete beams, dirt, steep hillsides - the Medved armored car overcomes all this with a bang. Vehicle specifications:

• Weight - 12 tons.
• Case dimensions - 5900/2500/2600 mm.
• Ground clearance - 500 mm.
• Highway speed up to 90 km/h
• Off-road speed - 35 km/h.
• Highway range 1400 km.
• Drive - full.

Tests

Before an armored car appeared before combat officers, engineers spent almost a yearsubjected it to the most serious tests in order to set the threshold of strength. The car was shot at point-blank range from machine guns and sniper rifles. The armor survived, and this is the most important thing. When fired from an OSV-96 armor-piercing sniper rifle with a caliber of 12.7 millimeters from a hundred-meter range, the side was pierced, but the bullet cores either remained sticking out in the armor or stuck in the seatbacks. As a result of the tests, it was decided to increase the ballistic protection of the machine in the future.

Protecting the car "Bear"

The type of armor used in this car is spaced differential. The machine is made in the form of a monocoque. According to the national GOST 50963, the car belongs to the sixth class in terms of ballistic protection (STANAG class 3), and in terms of mine protection - to STANAG class 2. In simple terms, the body and glass can withstand an armor-piercing bullet of 7.62 mm caliber fired from an SVD rifle from a distance of 100 meters. As for resistance to explosions, a car can continue its work after an explosion under the bottom or wheel of a projectile equivalent to 6 kilograms of TNT. The crew will not receive serious injuries and will retain their combat capability.

A high level of protection against mines is provided by the use of a carrier hull, which has a V-shaped bottom and a high habitable compartment relative to the ground. The clearance of the car is 50 cm, which exceeds the same parameter for armored personnel carriers, infantry fighting vehicles and tanks. Therefore, the designers developing the Russian armored car "Bear" claim that it can be strongeronly a tank. Thanks to the system of instantaneous setting of smoke screens, the machine can hide from enemy aimed fire in a matter of seconds. The curtain formed when using this system is able to hide the Medved armored car not only from simple optical devices for aiming and observation, but also from modern optoelectronic devices, including thermal imagers.

Armaments

The main armament that the designers propose to install on the Medved armored vehicle is a machine-gun remote installation based on the 6P50 Kord machine gun with a caliber of 12.7 mm. The fire control system includes two television cameras (normal and low-level), a laser rangefinder, an on-board computer, and an LCD color screen that displays all the necessary information. The main advantage of the system is that it allows the gunner to aim without leaving the armored protection zone. Depending on the tasks to be solved, instead of a machine gun mount on a machine, an automatic grenade launcher with a caliber of 30 mm or a PKTM machine gun with a caliber of 7.62 mm can be used as the main weapon. The fire control system works equally well and conveniently with any of these types of weapons. It is worth noting that such a universal installation is used in the Russian army for the first time.

Special equipment

The Bear armored car is equipped with various sets of special equipment designed toeffective conduct of combat operations and ensuring the safety of the crew. These may include:

1. Remote weapon systems.
2. Radio controlled explosive device blocker.
3. Radiochemical reconnaissance device.
4. Smoke screening system.
5. Installation for filtering and ventilation of air FVU-100.
6. Perimeter protection “VV Roll”.
7. Doping fire extinguishing system.
8. Air conditioner.
9. Searchlight OU-5M. It has xenon lamps, remote control, the ability to focus the beam and work in statoscope mode.
10. Erika-201 radio station.
11. Loudspeaker.
12. Rotating beacons and other less noteworthy options.

It is worth noting that all the above equipment, from serious systems to the smallest details, is made at Russian enterprises.

Presentation

The armored car "Bear", whose technical characteristics deserve admiration, was first presented at the end of autumn 2008 at the exhibition of means for ensuring the security of the state called INTERPOLITEX. Later, the car was shown to the Minister of Defense of Russia A. E. Serdyukov and the top leadership of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation. The head of the military department asked for the speedy completion of testing a unique car. And the Minister of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation R. G. Nurgaliyev expressed confidence that the "Bear" will soon enter the ranks of the equipment of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

An armored personnel carrier with a 44 wheel formula was also put up in front of the ODON officers, a separate special-purpose division of the Internal Troops. General N. E. Rogozhin - the commander-in-chief of the explosives - personally checked the driving performance of the car. He rode it over all kinds of obstacles, overcame a vertical wall and a “comb”. After the tests, the general noted that he was very pleased with the result of work on special-purpose vehicles. In 2013, following the results of the latest ballistic tests, the car was included in the state defense order for the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Conclusion

Today we learned what an armored car "Bear" is. The machine deserves attention due to its technical and protective characteristics. It confirms the high level of combat training of the Russian Federation and the professionalism of domestic design engineers. Of course, this is an ingenious development that will remain competitive for a long time to come. And we can only hope that this kind of machine will never be needed by anyone in practice.