Say a word about the poor tanker
... A sharp bang, a blow, the noise of the engines stops and in the ensuing silence in the headset an order to leave the car. The catapult regularly shoots the chair into the air, hit, bump, then another hit when the dome opens, and that's all for now.
Then you just need to either wait for the arrival of the rescue party, or start moving. Such is the life of a pilot, either in a fighter or in a bomber. And the pilot has NAZ - an emergency emergency reserve, which is placed in an ejection seat. There is a whole container weighing 15 kg, in which there is a radio beacon, an inflatable boat, flasks with water, food and a bunch of very useful items: a signal mirror, a whistle, waterproof matches, a light cartridge, a compass, a machete knife, a flashlight and plastic wrap for collecting water.
Naturally, there is a first aid kit and weapon.
Until recently, the main weapon of the pilot was the APS-20, "Stechkin".
A very peculiar weapon, quite bulky (if with a holster-butt), but more accurate than the PM and having an automatic fire mode. He sentenced the APS-20 to his resignation, his cartridge, 9x18, which is not able to provide at least some armor penetration and a firing range of more than 50 meters.
Even in Syria, pilots took these pistols on a flight, it was with the APS-20 that Roman Filippov took his last fight, but long before that it became clear that a pistol is not a weapon for a pilot.
Then there was good information that the crews of Russian aircraft would be given PPK-20 - a Kalashnikov submachine gun (not Mikhail, but Viktor, son), as soon as the PPK-20 was put into service.
PPK-20 is a modification of the PP-19-01 Vityaz-SN submachine gun, almost ten years of experience in operating the Vityaz was taken into account in the design of the weapon, according to representatives of the Kalashnikov concern, PPK-20 is in many ways superior to modern models of such weapons .
But while the PPK-20 was not accepted into service, the pilots began to be issued ... PP-2000.
This is also a very interesting weapon from Tula, but its effectiveness is questioned by the pilots themselves. Yes, the PP-2000, invented for urban special operations, is very good for such cases: light weight, small size, can be carried covertly. But the problems are still the same: a weak cartridge that does not pierce anything. More precisely, an armor-piercing cartridge pierces, for example, a helmet from a distance of 15 meters. The whole question is - if it's not in urban areas, then the use of weapons at such distances looks like a matter of unscientific fiction.
In general, the affairs of the flight crew are so-so. In the future, a good PPK-20 is possible, in the presence of PP-2000, which is of no use in modern conditions, when even an ordinary soldier is packed in an “armor” of class 4 or 5. Moreover, the effective distance is less than 50 meters.
Now some readers will already begin to boil and look at the title: did the author mix up anything there?
No, everything is going as planned.
Pilots are the elite of the armed forces (although there are those who disagree with this), the most expensive branch of the military in terms of losses. Yes, a submarine costs much more than an airplane, but we (thank God) don't lose them that often.
The tank and its crew are consumables of modern combat. Are destroyed Tanks in completely different quantities than aircraft, and therefore there is not even much reason for joy in the press. Shooting down an enemy plane is an achievement, and a tank...
Meanwhile, the crew in the tank is the same as in the plane, that's why there are only three, and not one or two. And the tank also flies in battle, ATGM, NAR, RPG, scrap steel, a cumulative tank projectile, a mine or a landmine under the bottom - there are many methods for destroying tanks. And, unlike the planes that the elite are fighting, everyone who can afford it is hitting the tank. Because a tank on the ground is no less terrible than a plane in the sky.
... And here you are in the tank. in which it arrived. It is not so important what, the main thing is that horrible and shook. Our expert Alexei Kuznetsov shared his feelings from this with me, his head is blacked out and foggy, everyone’s organs are trying to vomit inside themselves, at best they see double in the eyes, there is a hum and noise in the ears. What to do? That's right, catapult.
It looks a little different, through the hatch in the turret and head over heels down, and then crawl away somewhere until it arrives again or the b / c detonates. In general, it is still a pleasure comparable to leaving the plane.
But if the pilot has at least a short period of time to recover while hanging on the lines, then the tanker, unfortunately, does not have it. He "catapults" directly into the battle, where there are a lot of people who want to take a figure in a black jumpsuit into sight.
And now the topic of the article goes on, because, unlike the pilot, the tanker has nothing. Well, almost nothing.
Let's start with the first aid kit. This is an important component, but not the main one in our review.
What should be in the tank, that is, the AB first-aid kit (military first-aid kit), which is equipped with all wheeled and tracked vehicles of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, is in fact about the same squalor as an individual first-aid kit for a motorized rifle, which we have already talked about. Here is AB (onboard first aid kit for aviation) already looks more interesting in all manifestations.
I was very surprised that in the composition of AB there is not even the most elementary anti-burn dressing or ointment. They say that vaseline appeared in the latest “modifications”, but this is already a fantastic luxury.
Comrade Lieutenant Colonel Kuznetsov did not immediately remember where this miracle first-aid kit was located in the tank, because they had their own, self-assembled ones. One for each crew member.
In general, leaving a tank is somewhat different from leaving a plane. There are nuances that Aleksey Kuznetsov would have better painted, but the fact is that it’s quite difficult to get out of the tank, especially if you look like a bag of minced meat after arrival. But you don’t fall out somewhere, either on your own territory, or on the enemy’s, you fall out into battle.
And here the question arises: what about weapons?
And it's sad. For the entire crew, ONE Kalashnikov assault rifle and four magazines in the pouch. Plus ten grenades.
But we emphasize very boldly with Alexei, this machine still needs to be groped, grabbed, also take a pouch with magazines (by the way, that’s all, hands are over and there’s nothing to grab bags with grenades) and fall out of the hatch. If the tank is already on fire, it's not for the weak.
But there is nowhere to go, because everyone wants to live. And without a machine gun in battle, there is nothing to do. And not only in battle, between battles, as practice shows, there are also situations in which it is better to be armed.
And here - one machine for three ...
Of course, this is a problem that tankers are trying to solve. Of course, every good crew has three machine guns, because this is a matter of survival. And it’s great that they have it, I won’t dwell on it on purpose, the main thing is that there is something to fight back at least in principle, although the tanker, as the same comrade Kuznetsov said, is a very bad infantryman. But if the head turns on after a shell shock, in case of contact with enemy forces, it can shoot a little like that.
And now we will talk about weapons aiming.
AK-74M with a folding frame butt is our everything.
As a weapon on the battlefield, it is quite normal and meets (mostly) modern requirements, of which the most important thing is that it can inflict injury on the enemy and thereby facilitate the process of survival for the tanker.
And, very importantly, the AK-74 can do this at a distance of 50 to 100 meters. Even the Terminator will not be able to shoot at a long distance after such a shake-up. And an ordinary person ... But it's better than a pistol or a pilot's submachine gun. "Kalash" can kill or injure, well, or simply scare away.
But there is a nuance in our question. These are the dimensions of the AK. Of course, with a folded butt, with an open magazine, he was still all right in terms of ejection. And, given that from the tower the machine gun will most likely just fly to the engine room grate or to the boxes with spare parts, because most likely its owner will drag one of his colleagues in misfortune out of the hatch, AK is good at this.
But the shops for AK are somewhat not that convenient. If you look at the drawings, the diameter of the hatch for the same T-72 is only 56 cm. Just take it and figure out for yourself how it will be convenient for you to squeeze into such a hatch with a machine gun and a pouch. And if we look at the T-62, which was recently praised by a number of "experts" (including ours), then there are, as it were, two hatches and three people in the tower. Draw your own conclusions.
In general, the situation is as follows: a person who is in a certain degree of prostration needs to leave the tank through a hatch of a small diameter, having a number of vital items with him:
- weapon;
- Equipped shops to it;
- grenades (preferably);
- first aid kit;
- a walkie-talkie (this has not yet happened, but it will appear).
And all this must be squeezed through the 56 cm hatch.
Let's start all in order.
Weapon. It was not in vain that I looked in the direction of submachine guns, because they are compact and this is their main advantage. However, a low-power cartridge will not give a chance to survive in battle. Still, a submachine gun is a police weapon directed against terrorists and other phenomena that do not walk in armor of 4 or 5 classes.
A compact weapon for a tanker is something like the German MP-7.
Not under the frankly wretched cartridge 9x18 or 9x19, which can do nothing with modern armor, but it is an intermediate one, if not 4,6, like in Heckler and Koch, but 5,45x28 or 5,45x30. The main thing here is not the stopping effect of a 9-mm bullet, as in the PP-2000, but armor penetration and range.
Yes, there will be certain hemorrhoids, but in the end, the tanker will receive a weapon that is capable not of pounding into a bulletproof vest with peas, but of piercing it, greatly puzzling the carrier. Survival on the battlefield.
In addition, here is another important fact: the pouch with magazines is in the tank "somewhere out there." Everyone has their own place. And from there it still needs to be pulled out, having felt it, which also takes time. And b / c in a burning tank will not wait, it's checked.
What can be offered? You can offer a cartridge for which it will not be necessary to bend the magazine in the same way as it is done in the AK-series. Then you can easily and naturally sew pouches on top of the tank overalls. Only not on the hip, because you can still catch on, but lower. On the shins. Stupid? Not at all. It would look better on the hip, but if it weren't for the sunroof. And so, below, the store will not interfere much, and you can place a pair on each leg.
Like this, just not like that. Below and sew two compartments into the leg.
An inexpensive idea, but Kuznetsov and I thought about it for a long time. Indeed, the shops in that place will not bother you much, and if some people start talking about dirt and everything else, then everything is simple: what about crawling with shops on your chest? It's the same on the legs.
Hands freed, you can really take a pouch with grenades. Moreover, no one forces you to run around with shops in your pants, right? Before the fight, he met, but everything is with you. And you can catch a couple of grenades.
Medicine chest. Usually a tanker has it in his pocket for a Makarov pistol. Let it stay there, everyone knows that in this pocket it is either she or something no less useful. But the first-aid kit is also time to invent. With modern means, both anti-burn and anti-shock.
Walkie talkie. At the commander. Small-sized, but at the same frequencies, because if the tank is a khan, then the neighbors will tell the commander of the unit on the radios that “the 102nd is all. Absolutely everything." But as soon as the crew opened the cords from the “talking hat” to the boxes with radio stations, that was all. Considering that sometimes there are considerable distances to the location, plus the general condition, it would be desirable to simply report to the direct command that the crew is alive and relatively healthy.
But there is also a second aspect. For example, such a crew began to move to its rear, and then it ran into an enemy group, which made a detour maneuver. Shell-shocked tankers can only either die heroically, or no less heroically calm down and wait. In general, the radio station should be on "their" frequencies. So that just some sob could ride along the edge of the battlefield and collect those who crawled out for the purpose of delivery to the sanitary battalion.
Of course, given how things are with us with this matter (walkie-talkies) in the army in general, an unrealizable thing.
Bulletproof vest. An insanely useful thing, especially when the tank is already everything. Yes, the thing is, the tanker has to move a lot while sitting in the vertical. That is, bend and unbend. Moreover, this applies to any member of the crew.
The usual armor here will not be entirely appropriate, the lower segment will interfere. You need something light, a class for the second or third, nothing more. But it is necessary, because an unprotected body in conditions when the enemy hits the tank from 5,45 mm to 152 mm, that is, it makes sense to protect the tanker at least from fragments. Small, but vile, which give automatic guns BMP / BTR.
The pilot is easier. He has a chair in which 15 kilograms of vital things. The tanker has nothing, moreover, in a good way, he should be equipped according to the principle "I carry everything with me." That's right, then there will be a chance to survive and return to duty again.
As a result, we ended up with a kind of tanker of the 21st century: in a light armored bra or short body armor, with a small-sized machine gun or submachine gun, but with a cartridge capable of killing or incapacitating a modern infantryman, with a personal first-aid kit built into overalls and with a radio station.
In general, the picture is quite. It would be nice to see such tankers who can not only inflict damage on the enemy, but also in the event of a loss or damage to the tank, having the opportunity to leave the battle, reach their own or call for help and after a while return to duty.
The time of using meat in wars has passed, we also just need to correspond to the spirit of modernity. In practice, and not at parade-applied exhibitions.
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