Universal Soldiers: Tracked Fire Fighting Vehicles
GPM-64. Source: fireman.club
For timber and artillery warehouses
В previous parts stories armored tracked firefighting vehicles, it was about the GPM-54, the world's most massive firefighter tank.
The vehicle has been and is being manufactured to order until now at the Lviv Armored Repair Plant based on the T-54 and for a long time was the only one in its class in the country. GPM-54 was used to extinguish fires in the most extreme conditions, primarily in artillery depots.
The car was not distinguished by the perfection of execution, because of which people sometimes died. So, in 1982, in Yoshkar-Ola, during the extinguishing of a fire at the artillery weapons depot, two GPM-54 along with the crews burned down.
For less severe conditions, light tracked armored vehicles were intended, capable of making their way through forest rubble and, if necessary, drawing a mineralized strip around the fire.
The first in the domestic line of firefighting equipment are unarmored all-terrain forestry fire-fighting vehicles VPL-149 and VPL-149A.
IDP-149. Source: fireman.club
This is a versatile tracked vehicle capable of transporting up to 6 personnel and more than 300 liters of water with a foaming agent. The equipment is based on the floating all-terrain vehicle GT-SM (GAZ-71) of the Zavolzhsky plant of tracked tractors or, in a modern way, GAZ-34039.
IDPs are one of the most common tracked fire engines, well adapted to liquidating forest fires - there are two motor pumps on board, a fire hose, 60-meter pressure hoses, chainsaws, motor pumps and a disc plow for laying mineralized strips. However, a relatively small supply of water reduces the autonomy of VPL-149.
The next modification, which significantly expanded the capabilities of the machine, was the VPL-6. The developers simply attached a one and a half ton wheeled tank to the tractor and increased the capacity of the tanks on the chassis itself to 700 liters. In this configuration, the tracked GT-SM could no longer swim without first getting rid of the trailer.
LPA-521. Source: kargoteka.info
The Rubtsovsk branch of the Uralvagonzavod in the Altai Territory, which produces tracked vehicles based on BMPs, is responsible for the equipment of a heavier class.
The recipe is simple - the chassis is supplemented with a seventh road roller and the engine is replaced with a more durable diesel engine YaMZ-238BV with a capacity of 310 hp. With. According to this scheme, a universal snow and swamp chassis 521 M1 is born in Rubtsovsk, which outwardly is related to the military ancestor only by road wheels. The tracks, by the way, also had to be replaced with wide 700 mm ones with an increased resource.
A lot of equipment is produced on the basis of this chassis, but within the framework of the article, the LPA-521 forest fire unit is of interest, the serial production of which started relatively recently - in 2010.
This is a real versatile soldier, capable of much in the area of a natural fire disaster.
In addition to small firefighting belongings (knapsack fire extinguishers, incendiary devices, protective equipment, etc.), a massive wedge-pusher is hung on the nose of the car. With this dump, the machine is capable of forming a 5-meter mineralized strip at a speed of up to 3,2 km / h, and a two-meter furrow with the tail PLC-2A. At the same time, the tracked vehicle carries up to 4 tons of water and six rescuers. There are two berths in the cockpit.
For the most severe cases
A whole line of equipment manufactured at the Muromteplovoz enterprise can be considered similar in build to the Rubtsovskaya fire engine.
The MT-LBu all-terrain vehicle with a complex of minimal changes is taken as a basis. In accordance with good domestic traditions, the fire engine has a long name - MT-LBu-GPM-10.
MT-LBu-GPM-10. Source: industrialmachine.ru
MT-LBu-GPM-10. Source: wikimedia.org
The all-terrain vehicle has 4 tons of water, 300 liters of foam concentrate, a fire monitor, a bulldozer blade and bulletproof armor that allows you to get into forest foci. The external watering system for the body allows you to save the car in the most extreme conditions. The army tractor also became the basis for a mobile fire pumping station, which allows pumping water from open sources for several hundred meters.
An interesting design option is an aircraft gunner for reconnaissance in the fire, topographic location, target designation and correcting actions aviation.
Firefighter aircraft pilot. Source: muromteplovoz.ru
In the MT-LBu hull, a pilot's cabin with a full set of radio communications was specially placed. The armored hull of the tractor, in which case, can painlessly survive the fall of several tons of water from an air fire tanker. At the same time, the aircraft controller himself did not lose the ability to fight fire - tanks with water and gun carriages were preserved.
The last modification of the MT-LBu for the needs of the fire fighters was the "Special amphibious tracked fire engine", which can be identified by the characteristic tanks placed right on the roof. The car is crammed with modern communication and navigation means, as well as a lot of specific fire fighting equipment - the list includes a ground gun, an incendiary apparatus, individual gas and smoke protection kits "Chance-E" and much more.
Special amphibious tracked fire truck. Source: muromteplovoz.ru
In Murom, a light artillery tractor MT-LB is produced, and it also became the main one for a fire engine.
This is a specific machine belonging to the class of fire fighting tractors. A bow dump was installed on the Motolyga, a plow was installed in the stern, and an excavator bucket was installed on the roof. MT-LB-LP can do both mineralized strips in a burning forest and rake debris for the passage of lighter vehicles. If necessary, the design allows you to hook up a four-ton trailer with water to the armored vehicle.
"Turn - 4000". Source: stroyland.biz
Let's digress a little from military equipment and consider a fire-fighting tractor, created on the basis of the MSN-10 skidder.
This specific unit is produced at the Altai plant of self-propelled vehicles in Barnaul, which is famous for tracked vehicles for forestry. The fire-fighting variant received the beautiful name "Rubezh - 4000", where the number indicates the number of liters of water on board. The machine is equipped in the best traditions of the genre with a blade, a plow and a pump. But the body is not armored, which seriously limits the combat effectiveness of the unit in the war against forest fire.
Tanks again
In the post-Soviet space, one of the leading manufacturers of heavy armored fire fighting equipment is the Lviv Armored Plant.
He is currently manufacturing a massive GPM-72 fire tank to order, which looks more like a wagon on tracks. The engineers took into account the experience of the not very perfect predecessor of the GPM-54 and thoroughly reworked the design.
First of all, the tank was equipped with a life-saving system for irrigating the body, and also equipped with a tank for 20 tons of water at once - the GPM-54 had only 9 tons. The range of the fire monitor has also increased. The water flow goes up to 100 meters, and the foam flow - to 60 meters. This is a very important parameter for the machine, designed to fight the fires of artillery arsenals. This range is largely due to the powerful imported FPN Ziegler-6000-2H pump.
GPM-72. Source: fireman.club
GPM-72. Source: golosua.info
The crew consists of three people - this allows the vehicle commander not to be distracted by driving the carriage, which was inevitable in the two-seater GPM-54.
If necessary, the fire tank is capable of evacuating up to 6 people from the disaster zone - a special compartment is provided for this. The Ukrainians first demonstrated a fire tank based on the T-72 seven years ago in Astana at the KADEX-2014 arms exhibition. It was an initiative development of the Lviv plant.
GPM-64. Source: fireman.club
But the development of a fire tank on the native Ukrainian chassis of the T-64 was already carried out at the Kharkov Armored Repair Plant (KHBTRZ).
The car under the name GPM-64 was built in 2010 and even managed to run it in while extinguishing a tank farm near Kiev and military depots in Lozovoy.
Differences from the analogue from Lviv - not only in the chassis used, but also in the larger volume of the tank for 25 cubic meters of water, as well as in the absence of a compartment for evacuees. The rest of the Kharkiv resident is similar to the Lviv fire tank. We must pay tribute to the engineers of the KHBTRZ, their fire tank turned out to be okay.
To be continued ...
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