“Mass production has begun. It’s no longer a test, it’s a robot that can appear in sci-fi movies because of its ability to fight independently. It’s exactly the weapon. of the future,” emphasized Sergei Shoigu. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu talks about the country’s military priorities. Photo: TASS. According to Sergei Shiogu, equipping the armed forces with such means is one of the top priorities. And Moscow has a lot of work to do to expand its line of complex, military-purpose robots. Many military experts estimate that, although Russia’s military budget is not as much as that of the US or the European Union (EU), the country has spent a great deal of it on “sharpening knives”. Earlier, the Russian Ministry of Defense said that the first unit with attack robots will be formed in the Russian armed forces to operate five robotic systems “Uranus-9” with 20 combat vehicles. Offensive and defensive strategies will be studied in a Department of Defense science center. An experimental Russian attack robot. Photo: Sohu. It is known that the Uranus-9 is a multifunctional combat platform developed by Russia’s 766 Technical Equipment Production Bureau, with a total weight of 10 tons, 4.5 m in length, 2 m in width, 1 in height. ,4 m and maximum travel speed is 40 km/h. This combat robot combines powerful firepower, is equipped with a comprehensive controlled weapon system including 4 9S120 “Bumblebee-M” anti-tank missiles, 4 9K33 SA-18 anti-aircraft missiles and 1 2A72 cannon 30mm caliber with 200 rounds ammunition and 7.62mm machine gun mounted on the vehicle. In theory, its anti-tank missile has a range of 5,800 meters, enough to threaten today’s major armored targets.

The video shows Russia withdrawing its troops from Crimea. Video: Russian Ministry of Defense The Russian Ministry of Defense announced the same day video footage of tanks, armored artillery and soldiers boarding the landing craft on the Crimean coast one after another. This is also where Russia has just completed the exercise with the participation of 60 warships, more than 10,000 soldiers, about 200 aircraft and 1,200 ground vehicles. The withdrawal was carried out by Russia after Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu asserted that “the army has proven its ability to ensure the country’s defense”. “I decided to complete inspection activities in the Western and Southern Military Region bordering Ukraine,” Shoigu said on April 22. Russian battleships boarded the amphibious ships to return to their permanent base. Photo: ITN According to Mr. Shoigu, the withdrawal will be completed by May 1. However, Russia still retains the weapons here for the exercises at the end of the year. The aforementioned weapons have been increased by Russia to Crimea and the region near the Russian border since late March, amid Moscow fears that the Ukrainian army has launched a bloody large-scale war against pro-Russian separatists in the East. Ukraine. NATO and Ukraine expressed concern over Russia’s military action and repeatedly urged Moscow to withdraw. Some Western sources even expressed skepticism that Russia had actually withdrawn.

During the development process, the defense industry in many countries around the world has produced many different types of weapons. They were particularly interested in the idea of ​​installing a powerful weapon on a light-wheeled armored chassis. This weapon is called a wheeled tank.

As a result of all the design effort intensified only in the second half of the 20th century, the wheeled tanks were practically created that were not inferior to the classic main tank on the engine. crawler department.

So what are the advantages and disadvantages of the above combat vehicles? The first issue to mention is that the wheeled tanks are relatively light and this simplifies the transport of equipment to the battlefield.

The mass of a light wheeled tank, even with additional armor plates, does not exceed 20-25 tons, much less than any other main tank. Therefore it is much easier to deploy wheeled tanks with heavy weapons.

The ability to deploy wheeled tanks by military transport aircraft is one of the main reasons why this vehicle is used, developed and served by many armies around the world.

In modern armed conflicts it was necessary to quickly bring equipment to a conflict zone and the military came to a sensible decision: light armored vehicles such as armored vehicles, infantry fighting vehicles and Wheeled tanks will be brought to the battlefield first.

Furthermore tanks and self-propelled artillery units can be moved to the battle site. As a result, armored vehicles, including wheeled tanks, are assigned the function of a highly mobile combat unit to support ground forces.

Not only that, the wheeled tank possesses a higher travel speed than the crawler tank, which gives the advantage of maneuverability and maneuverability, much less harm to the road surface.

The downside of the wheeled tank, though, is its poor off-roading capabilities. Such vehicles travel very quickly on asphalt and dirt roads, but on rough terrain they immediately lose to a track armored vehicle.

Another downside is the poor degree of self-protection. The wheeled tank is light, mainly because the armor is thin and weak, which means both advantages and disadvantages.

Wheeled tanks cannot be used in combat like the MBT, they are also unsuitable against the MBT, it is better suited to destroy light armored vehicles.

This combat vehicle is more suitable for areas not planning to use tanks on rough terrain and large-scale military operations are not carried out, it is more suitable for urban combat.

In real world use of the wheeled tank, its downsides were noted – the wheelbase did not turn out to have any particular advantage over a crawler vehicle.

In addition, the maximum speed advantage cannot be determined due to the lack of good roads, and when used on off-road, much worse off-roading is evident. In addition, tire wear while driving on complex terrain is much higher than expected.

Based on the advantages and disadvantages described above, it is easy to see that the tire tank cannot completely replace the MBT, as it lags far behind in some basic characteristics.

What the future of a wheeled tank will be, of course it will continue to evolve and improvements could go the way of enhancing protection, while maintaining a sufficiently light combat weight.

And of course, the reality of modern military conflicts will play a big role in shaping the look of a future wheeled tank.