Bunker on wheels. Protected machine "Redut"
In RuNet, photographs of an unusual car built on the basis of the MAZ-543 four-axle chassis periodically pop up. Giant technique today rusts under the open sky in the territory of the Military Engineering Academy named after V.V. Kuibyshev, near the village of Nikolo-Uryupino in the Moscow region. On the Internet, you can often stumble upon conversations that an unusual exhibit is a command and staff vehicle (KSHM), but this is not quite so. We have before us a sample of mobile fortification: a real bunker on wheels, a unique technique of its kind - a protected machine for the Redut control points.
The term “mobile fortification” itself appeared in the 19th century in France, and then reached Russia. It is not difficult to guess from the name, we are talking about such fortification means that can be moved or transported from place to place, depending on the emerging needs. In the 20th century, along with extensive mechanization and motorization of troops, mobile fortification began to play with new colors. Indeed, the war of maneuver dictated its own conditions: the military needed fortification facilities, which could be quickly relocated from place to place with operational movement or redeployment of troops. In the Soviet Union, work in this direction began at the end of the 1950s.
Technological progress also played its role. In the second half of the 1970-s, the armies of many countries adopted new fire and reconnaissance-strike complexes, which effectively and accurately hit point targets located on the ground. Accuracy has become increasingly important. weaponwhich posed a danger to command and control posts. Against this background, the relevance of protection of control points only increased. The result of the work in this area was the creation of a protected vehicle for the Redut command and control posts, which was based on the eight-wheeled MAZ-543 chassis produced by the Minsk Automobile Plant. (Before 1991, MAZ included a company specializing in the production of heavy off-road heavy-duty vehicles. Today it is MZKT - Minsk Wheel Tractor Plant.)
One of the directions in the field of creating mobile fortification for control points was the creation of a special protected machine with a single protective body. Such a machine, as conceived by the developers, received a built-in system and mechanisms for digging in order to independently get out of the soil sprinkling, and was based on the automobile chassis of high payload and throughput. Similar chassis in the arsenal of the Soviet military at that time already existed. This is a four-axle MAZ-543 chassis, which entered mass production as early as 1962, by the beginning of the 1970-ies, the chassis had already been upgraded to version MAZ-543М.
To be completely accurate, then for the "bunker on wheels" used a rare experimental chassis MAZ-543В. From the previous models, the new chassis differed in a fundamentally different layout, the payload was 19,6 tons. In the future, it was the MAZ-543В chassis that became the basis for the mass MAZ-543М, the peak of which was produced in the 1987 year. From the previous models, both mass and small-scale and experimental, the new chassis was distinguished by the presence of only one two-seat cabin, shifted forward, located next to the engine compartment (the right cabin disappeared, only the left one remained). The layout presented by the designers of the Minsk Automobile Plant made it possible to extend the mounting part of the frame, facilitating and simplifying the process of installing larger equipment on the chassis. A total of 233 instances of such a chassis were assembled at MAZ; one of them served as the basis for the Redut protected vehicle.
The emergence of a new multi-axle off-road car was directly related to the development of the Soviet missile program. Back in the summer of 1959, the USSR began work on creating a solid-fuel Temp tactical missile that could hit targets at a distance of up to 600 kilometers. Initially, the designers planned to launch rockets from the launch pad located on the semi-trailer of the four-wheel tractor MAZ-535В, but during the design it became clear that the technical capabilities of such a system could not be met by the military. For this reason, they decided to develop a completely new multi-axle vehicle designated MAZ-543 to accommodate the PTRK Temp-S launcher. The created car turned out to be so successful that some modifications of the car are still being mass-produced, the official website of MZKT reports.
The first prototype of the new car was presented in 1961 year, and the following year, the serial production of the MAZ-543 and its triumphal march in the army and then in the civil service began. All cars of the family differed in the same size of the wheelbase - 7,7 meter, and the total length of the MAZ-543 was almost the same 11,465 meter. The heart of the four-axle vehicle with the wheel formula 8х8 was the V-shaped 12-cylinder diesel engine D12А-525А, which developed the maximum power of the 525 hp. (386 kW). The engine power was enough to accelerate the car with a full weight of 39 tons to 60 km / h while driving on the highway, while fuel consumption was 80 liters per 100 kilometers of a track.
Given the length of the car, the turning radius in 13,5 meters does not seem to be such a big value. The ground clearance of the 8-wheeled vehicle was 440 mm. MAZ-543 could easily overcome fords up to a depth of 1,1 meters without prior preparation, as well as upgrades to 30 degrees. All four axles of the car were driving, the wheels were single-pitch, and they were equipped with wide-profile tires with a developed tread to increase the terrain on various soils.
Developed in Minsk at the turn of the 60-s of the last century, the car was so successful that it gave rise to a family of military and civilian vehicles, some of which were full-fledged combat units that received the full set of weapons and equipment for solving fire tasks. In total, more than 543 military superstructures of various purposes were designed on the MAZ-60 chassis and its modifications. The most famous include the S-300 air defense missile system, the Scud tactical missile, the Rubezh anti-ship missile system, the Bereg artillery complex, the Smerch MLRS and the Uragan missile systems.
Having decided on the choice of chassis, the developers of the Central Research Institute of Informatics of the USSR Ministry of Defense (Central Scientific Research Testing Institute of Engineering Troops) started to create a reliable mobile well-defended command and control station, the Redut code was started on this topic and began in 1975. The concept of the project was to create a secure machine built on the basis of the chassis of increased carrying capacity and terrain. The new development of Soviet designers responded to the tasks of protecting the operational control points from modern means of defeating a potential enemy and ensuring the operation of the main elements of the PU. The designers envisaged the possibility of using the protected machine “Redut” on the surface, in the shelter and in the trench with soil dusting to provide additional protection with the possibility of self-exit from it.
Refinement of the new special-purpose vehicle continued until the 1979 year, when the experimental model became a participant in the exercises and shows of military equipment. It is believed that the protected machine "Redoubt" in the form in which the car can be seen in the photos today was assembled by workers and engineers of the 542 engineering armament plant in Nakhabino. The assembled experimental sample of an unusual car was a three-dimensional protective body with a vestibule and a ground ejector on the roof, placed on the base of the 8-wheeled chassis MAZ-543В. To implement the author's concept of using a mobile fortification object, four side, two rear and one front brackets with vertical jacks with hydraulic jacks were welded to the chassis of the car. The hydraulic equipment installed on the machine, together with the roof ejector, ensured the vehicle's exit from under the ground deboning and subsequent exit from the pit. For efficient operation of the command post, officers and crew, the car was equipped with heating, ventilation, and exhaust systems. Inside the protected body were officers' workplaces and autonomous life support equipment.
As conceived by the developers, the maximum level of protection was ensured when the protected machine for the Redut control points drove into a ditch that had been previously excavated for it, after which, using engineering means, it was additionally filled with earth. Ground coating is one of the simplest and most common methods of protection in fortification. The soil is unique in that it has natural properties that allow it to intercept the impact force of bullets and shell fragments and mines, reduce the pressure of a shock wave of a near explosion, reduce the effect of penetrating radiation, etc. According to the information of the magazine “Technics and Armament”, the time of placing the Reduta in the pit already prepared for it, followed by crushing with soil, was half an hour, the same car needed to get out of the earthly shelter, which turned the car into a full-fledged bunker.
The useful area of the protected body was 26 square meters, the capacity was estimated at 10 people, the car crew consisted of two people. In early May 1979, an experimental vehicle under its own power arrived from Nakhabino to Minsk, where, by the decision of the commander of the Belarusian military district, it underwent a process of retrofitting. For the commander, a separate table was installed inside the protective body - 204x130 cm with three aviation armchairs, TV "Record B-312" and the display of the EU-7927-01. Special retractable shelves with telephones were placed on the officers' desks, and R-130, R-123, and R-111 radio stations appeared in the communications compartment. After the installation of new equipment and furniture was completed, the car moved to the training center, where from May 30 to July 2, 1979 it was repeatedly shown to representatives of the high command of the Armed Forces of the Soviet Union.
Many officers were in favor of Redut going into mass production, but this was not to be. It is believed that the Minister of Defense of the USSR Dmitry Fedorovich Ustinov, who was present at the show of new engineering equipment, put an end to the project. Marshal believed that the launch of such a car in the series will be associated with large capital expenditures. At the same time, the fate of the car could have been influenced by the fact that there was no visual demonstration of the capabilities of the Redoubt before the first persons of the Ministry of Defense, the car was not chosen from under the ground deboning. It is also possible that this had the most negative effect on the fate and development of mobile fortification in the Soviet Union. The last time the protected machine for the command and control units of the operational unit “Redoubt” participated in military equipment shows in 1987, well, the further sad fate of this unique car is already known to you.
Movable fortification
The term “mobile fortification” itself appeared in the 19th century in France, and then reached Russia. It is not difficult to guess from the name, we are talking about such fortification means that can be moved or transported from place to place, depending on the emerging needs. In the 20th century, along with extensive mechanization and motorization of troops, mobile fortification began to play with new colors. Indeed, the war of maneuver dictated its own conditions: the military needed fortification facilities, which could be quickly relocated from place to place with operational movement or redeployment of troops. In the Soviet Union, work in this direction began at the end of the 1950s.
Technological progress also played its role. In the second half of the 1970-s, the armies of many countries adopted new fire and reconnaissance-strike complexes, which effectively and accurately hit point targets located on the ground. Accuracy has become increasingly important. weaponwhich posed a danger to command and control posts. Against this background, the relevance of protection of control points only increased. The result of the work in this area was the creation of a protected vehicle for the Redut command and control posts, which was based on the eight-wheeled MAZ-543 chassis produced by the Minsk Automobile Plant. (Before 1991, MAZ included a company specializing in the production of heavy off-road heavy-duty vehicles. Today it is MZKT - Minsk Wheel Tractor Plant.)
Bunker chassis on wheels
One of the directions in the field of creating mobile fortification for control points was the creation of a special protected machine with a single protective body. Such a machine, as conceived by the developers, received a built-in system and mechanisms for digging in order to independently get out of the soil sprinkling, and was based on the automobile chassis of high payload and throughput. Similar chassis in the arsenal of the Soviet military at that time already existed. This is a four-axle MAZ-543 chassis, which entered mass production as early as 1962, by the beginning of the 1970-ies, the chassis had already been upgraded to version MAZ-543М.
MAZ-543М chassis
To be completely accurate, then for the "bunker on wheels" used a rare experimental chassis MAZ-543В. From the previous models, the new chassis differed in a fundamentally different layout, the payload was 19,6 tons. In the future, it was the MAZ-543В chassis that became the basis for the mass MAZ-543М, the peak of which was produced in the 1987 year. From the previous models, both mass and small-scale and experimental, the new chassis was distinguished by the presence of only one two-seat cabin, shifted forward, located next to the engine compartment (the right cabin disappeared, only the left one remained). The layout presented by the designers of the Minsk Automobile Plant made it possible to extend the mounting part of the frame, facilitating and simplifying the process of installing larger equipment on the chassis. A total of 233 instances of such a chassis were assembled at MAZ; one of them served as the basis for the Redut protected vehicle.
The emergence of a new multi-axle off-road car was directly related to the development of the Soviet missile program. Back in the summer of 1959, the USSR began work on creating a solid-fuel Temp tactical missile that could hit targets at a distance of up to 600 kilometers. Initially, the designers planned to launch rockets from the launch pad located on the semi-trailer of the four-wheel tractor MAZ-535В, but during the design it became clear that the technical capabilities of such a system could not be met by the military. For this reason, they decided to develop a completely new multi-axle vehicle designated MAZ-543 to accommodate the PTRK Temp-S launcher. The created car turned out to be so successful that some modifications of the car are still being mass-produced, the official website of MZKT reports.
Protected machine "Redut" based on the chassis MAZ-543В
The first prototype of the new car was presented in 1961 year, and the following year, the serial production of the MAZ-543 and its triumphal march in the army and then in the civil service began. All cars of the family differed in the same size of the wheelbase - 7,7 meter, and the total length of the MAZ-543 was almost the same 11,465 meter. The heart of the four-axle vehicle with the wheel formula 8х8 was the V-shaped 12-cylinder diesel engine D12А-525А, which developed the maximum power of the 525 hp. (386 kW). The engine power was enough to accelerate the car with a full weight of 39 tons to 60 km / h while driving on the highway, while fuel consumption was 80 liters per 100 kilometers of a track.
Given the length of the car, the turning radius in 13,5 meters does not seem to be such a big value. The ground clearance of the 8-wheeled vehicle was 440 mm. MAZ-543 could easily overcome fords up to a depth of 1,1 meters without prior preparation, as well as upgrades to 30 degrees. All four axles of the car were driving, the wheels were single-pitch, and they were equipped with wide-profile tires with a developed tread to increase the terrain on various soils.
Protected machine "Redut" in a prepared pit
Developed in Minsk at the turn of the 60-s of the last century, the car was so successful that it gave rise to a family of military and civilian vehicles, some of which were full-fledged combat units that received the full set of weapons and equipment for solving fire tasks. In total, more than 543 military superstructures of various purposes were designed on the MAZ-60 chassis and its modifications. The most famous include the S-300 air defense missile system, the Scud tactical missile, the Rubezh anti-ship missile system, the Bereg artillery complex, the Smerch MLRS and the Uragan missile systems.
Protected machine for control points "Redut"
Having decided on the choice of chassis, the developers of the Central Research Institute of Informatics of the USSR Ministry of Defense (Central Scientific Research Testing Institute of Engineering Troops) started to create a reliable mobile well-defended command and control station, the Redut code was started on this topic and began in 1975. The concept of the project was to create a secure machine built on the basis of the chassis of increased carrying capacity and terrain. The new development of Soviet designers responded to the tasks of protecting the operational control points from modern means of defeating a potential enemy and ensuring the operation of the main elements of the PU. The designers envisaged the possibility of using the protected machine “Redut” on the surface, in the shelter and in the trench with soil dusting to provide additional protection with the possibility of self-exit from it.
The process of dropping a protected machine "Redut"
Refinement of the new special-purpose vehicle continued until the 1979 year, when the experimental model became a participant in the exercises and shows of military equipment. It is believed that the protected machine "Redoubt" in the form in which the car can be seen in the photos today was assembled by workers and engineers of the 542 engineering armament plant in Nakhabino. The assembled experimental sample of an unusual car was a three-dimensional protective body with a vestibule and a ground ejector on the roof, placed on the base of the 8-wheeled chassis MAZ-543В. To implement the author's concept of using a mobile fortification object, four side, two rear and one front brackets with vertical jacks with hydraulic jacks were welded to the chassis of the car. The hydraulic equipment installed on the machine, together with the roof ejector, ensured the vehicle's exit from under the ground deboning and subsequent exit from the pit. For efficient operation of the command post, officers and crew, the car was equipped with heating, ventilation, and exhaust systems. Inside the protected body were officers' workplaces and autonomous life support equipment.
As conceived by the developers, the maximum level of protection was ensured when the protected machine for the Redut control points drove into a ditch that had been previously excavated for it, after which, using engineering means, it was additionally filled with earth. Ground coating is one of the simplest and most common methods of protection in fortification. The soil is unique in that it has natural properties that allow it to intercept the impact force of bullets and shell fragments and mines, reduce the pressure of a shock wave of a near explosion, reduce the effect of penetrating radiation, etc. According to the information of the magazine “Technics and Armament”, the time of placing the Reduta in the pit already prepared for it, followed by crushing with soil, was half an hour, the same car needed to get out of the earthly shelter, which turned the car into a full-fledged bunker.
Exit to the surface of the protected machine "Redut"
The useful area of the protected body was 26 square meters, the capacity was estimated at 10 people, the car crew consisted of two people. In early May 1979, an experimental vehicle under its own power arrived from Nakhabino to Minsk, where, by the decision of the commander of the Belarusian military district, it underwent a process of retrofitting. For the commander, a separate table was installed inside the protective body - 204x130 cm with three aviation armchairs, TV "Record B-312" and the display of the EU-7927-01. Special retractable shelves with telephones were placed on the officers' desks, and R-130, R-123, and R-111 radio stations appeared in the communications compartment. After the installation of new equipment and furniture was completed, the car moved to the training center, where from May 30 to July 2, 1979 it was repeatedly shown to representatives of the high command of the Armed Forces of the Soviet Union.
Many officers were in favor of Redut going into mass production, but this was not to be. It is believed that the Minister of Defense of the USSR Dmitry Fedorovich Ustinov, who was present at the show of new engineering equipment, put an end to the project. Marshal believed that the launch of such a car in the series will be associated with large capital expenditures. At the same time, the fate of the car could have been influenced by the fact that there was no visual demonstration of the capabilities of the Redoubt before the first persons of the Ministry of Defense, the car was not chosen from under the ground deboning. It is also possible that this had the most negative effect on the fate and development of mobile fortification in the Soviet Union. The last time the protected machine for the command and control units of the operational unit “Redoubt” participated in military equipment shows in 1987, well, the further sad fate of this unique car is already known to you.
Jobs control point in the car "Redut"
Information