Domestic armored vehicles have always been distinguished by high performance and solidity. Light armored vehicles in service appeared not so long ago, only ten years ago with the launch of the KamAZ-43269 Shot car.
The need to create a light armored car
World War II proved the effectiveness of the use of light armored vehicles, which were already in service with many countries. In the Soviet Union there was no such equipment that would not only mobilely deliver small units to the battlefield, but also participate in it. Such a small armored car was created in the fifties of the last century (BTR-40), but it did not receive distribution. The army used bulky heavy armored vehicles, starting with the BTR-50.
But experience showed that participation in military operations in Afghanistan was not enough for BMPs and armored personnel carriers, the need to transfer discreetly small groups of special forces forces forced the use of UAZ off-road vehicles armed with Utes heavy machine guns, while NATO used lightweight multi-purpose HAMWV armored vehicles (widely known Hummer).
KamAZ-43269 "Shot" according to the plan of the creators and was supposed to be such a light armored car, which, if necessary, could take part in the battle.
The history of the BMP-97
At the end of the nineties of the last century, the SPC at the Bauman MSTU together with KamAZ OJSC, since the KamAZ-4326 car was taken as the base, began work on a project to create a light armored vehicle, code-named "Shot".
Later, KamAZ-43269 "Shot" received the designation BPM-97, that is, "armored border vehicle", in contrast to the long-known infantry fighting vehicle - "infantry fighting vehicle".
It was assumed that a car with a steel body would provide a border guard while guarding the state border.
But the first prototype, due to the 1998 default and lack of funding, was released only in the spring of 2000, and two more cars were manufactured over the next year.
Tests of the experimental batch showed that BPM-97 can pass more than 270 thousand kilometers without major repairs.
The KamAZ-43269 "Shot" (BPM-97) began to be supplied to the army of the Russian Federation and exported to Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan in 2005.
Since a light armored vehicle is convenient for transporting valuable civilian cargoes, civilian companies were also allowed to buy it.
BPM-97 was assembled from units and assemblies manufactured by KamAZ OJSC at the plant of CJSC Remdiesel in the same place in Naberezhnye Chelny. Kurganmashzavod manufactured an armored body for KamAZ-43269 Shot. The number of armored vehicles produced today is about one hundred and fifty, and almost all of them are in service.
Design BPM-97
The use of units of a serial KamAZ-4326 off-road vehicle not only made it possible to quickly assemble armored cars, but also made them cheaper to manufacture and operate, simplify repairs and use tools intended for cars and the KamAZ chassis for it.
Structurally, KAMAZ-43269 "Shot" is an armored vehicle, the steel welded body of which is divided, as in a classic car, into a compartment for ten people and the engine compartment. The body is mounted on the KamAZ-432 chassis.
Side and aft doors and sunroofs for personnel allow you to quickly boot and leave the car.
A crew of two is located in the front of the compartment, and seats for eight paratroopers are installed along the sides with their backs to them. A large inclined windshield and small windows in the aft doors and sides allow you to monitor the situation.
The independent heater allows, regardless of whether the engine is running, to keep the operating temperature in the crew and assault compartment. In addition, the machine is equipped with a collective protection system with a special filter-ventilation unit.
Defense and weapons
The armor of the KamAZ-43269 car body can withstand a hit from three hundred meters from a heavy machine gun, and the feed and the lower part of the body from thirty meters from a 7.62 mm caliber rifle.
The armored bottom of a special form protects against fragments of anti-personnel mines.
For firing from hand-held weapons of the landing party and crew, embrasures with dampers are provided in the sides between the windows.
A patrol armored vehicle can be equipped with a rotating turret, in which various types of weapons are installed. This can be a Kord machine gun with a caliber of 12.7 mm, a KPVT machine gun with a caliber of 14.5 mm, a 30 mm Flame grenade launcher, a 2A42 cannon also with a 30 mm caliber, or even an anti-tank missile system.
By the power of weapons, the Shot fully lives up to its name.
The performance characteristics of the KamAZ-43269 "Shot"
Engine characteristics allow an armored vehicle, the curb weight of which is 10.86 tons, and the full load - 11.9 tons, to develop speed on a good road up to 90 km / h, while the range without refueling is more than 1000 km. "Shot" can tow a trailer weighing 5 tons.
KAMAZ-740.10-20 V8 diesel engine with a liquid cooling system, the power of which is 240 hp, is located in the engine compartment, protected from direct contact with an inclined armor plate.
In addition to the two main protected (protected) fuel tanks with a total volume of 250 liters, the car is also equipped with an additional armored twenty-liter tank.
For the KamAZ-43269 "Shot" armored vehicle, the TTX also includes a high ground clearance of 385 mm, which, along with the large wheels 310-533, allows you to overcome fords with a depth of 0.8 m, ditches with a width of 0.6 m, and walls half a meter high.
Advantages of KAMAZ-43269
Large capacity with small dimensions and high cross-country ability is the main advantage for which, in fact, the KamAZ-43269 Shot (BPM-97) was created. The photo of the inhabited compartment shows that ten people can fit inside it without interfering with each other.
The characteristic contours of the forward nose of the machine, which allowed the frontal armor to be installed at such an angle, provided the eighth protection class for the nose of the BPM-97.
The advantage of this light armored vehicle is the ability to vary weapons from a machine gun to anti-tank systems.
Even before the wonderful armored personnel carrier BTR-80, KAMAZ-43269 still has some advantages. Firstly, it is more than one and a half times cheaper, and the resource is much higher. In addition, during maintenance and repair, it requires less labor. Operating costs at the level of a conventional army multi-purpose vehicle allow the vehicle to be operated without restrictions on public roads. Drivers and maintenance personnel do not require special training for its operation.
The disadvantages of KAMAZ-43269
It is unlikely that some design features of KamAZ-43269 can be considered disadvantages. A large spare wheel covers one aft door.
They cause difficulties during the fast loading of the landing and the openings of the side hatches made in the lower armor plates.
During operation in a combat situation, significantly more serious shortcomings became noticeable. With prolonged loads, the springs broke in the machines or the cardan could come off, and with prolonged shelling from a heavy machine gun, the armor cracked, and not all of them were completely unsystematic and unexpected, which caused complaints from the troops and, in the end, the BPM-97 was abandoned.
KamAZ 43269 "Shot" ("Watch")
However, the designers of KamAZ OJSC corrected these serious shortcomings, slightly changed the shape of the windshield and strengthened the frontal armor (it became both bulletproof and anti-shatter). So there was a modification of the car "Shot" called "Watch", which is positioned as a border patrol car, although it can be used for reconnaissance.
With small dimensions (5300 × 2500 × 2300 mm), the Dozor is also very mobile, which protects it from direct hit by artillery shells in urban battles. The Dozor is driven like an ordinary large SUV, for example, the Urals.
Powerful weapons also involve the deployment of a serious ammunition. It can be 1300 rounds of 7.62 mm caliber and 500 rounds for a heavy machine gun; 350 grenades or 300 thirty-millimeter shells instead of five hundred rounds. The ammunition may include 4 air defense missile systems "Strela-3" or 8 ATGM "Cornet-M".
Modifications KamAZ-43269
In addition to the two-axle vehicles BPM-97, intended for use in border troops, the KamAZ-43269 Dozor as a border and reconnaissance vehicle and the upgraded Vystrel car, in 2008, the designers of KamAZ OJSC proposed and assembled a prototype of the same next year. armored car, but triaxial, designed to transport thirteen people.
Another machine based on KamAZ-43269 "Shot" was introduced in 2010 and was intended for remote search and destruction of modern guided mine-explosive barriers.
A special three-axle armored vehicle SBA-60-K2 with the beautiful name "Bulat", in which many components and technical solutions of KAMAZ-43269 "Shot" were used, was introduced in 2011.
The light BMD (landing assault vehicle) “Warrior” and the BRM (armored reconnaissance vehicle) “Otter” were created on the basis of the KamAZ 43269 Dozor car.
Use of cars KamAZ-43269
At present, modifications of the KamAZ-43269 car are used as reconnaissance vehicles in the Caucasus. There are cars with equipment for unmanned light aircraft.
Cars Kamaz-43269 "Shot" provided in the strategic missile forces all units that are responsible for the protection of missile bases and mobile rocket launchers during patrols.
Instead of the heavy BTR-80, the Shot is used by the Federal Penitentiary Service.
Technical thought goes forward, new types of equipment appear, but KAMAZ-43269 Shot (Watch) continues to serve worthily.