Floating wheeled armored personnel carrier Kestrel from Tata Motors and DRDO
At the exhibition DefExpo 2014, the Kestrel BTR, created by Tata Motor, was shown
Tata Motors has become one of several Indian and foreign companies that have been invited by the Fighting Vehicle Development Department (part of the Defense Research and Development Organization DRDO) to request information on the supply of chassis, power plant and weapons systems for a floating wheeled armored platform. Other Indian companies invited to participate in the application were L&T and Mahindra & Mahindra, and Russian Rosoboronexport was among the foreign companies.
Tata responded to a request for information, and later to a request for proposals for all three modules of the armored personnel carrier, and subsequently won all three contracts. After issuing the contract, the company was very surprised by DRDO, having developed the entire platform in just 18 months. (Such an active position of Tata in the development of a new BTR, despite all its manufacturer’s experience, limited to power plants and chassis, may be the reason why no one had heard of Kestrel BTR until almost the beginning of the DefExpo 2014 exhibition). But on the other hand, such a short development time showed DRDO in an unfavorable light!
The Kestrel BTR has an 7,8 meter length, an 2,28 meter width, the crew of the vehicle is two people plus it can accept a detachment of troops in the number of 10 people.
The ballistic protection of the Kestrel BTR modular. Protection modules can be replaced in a short time depending on the level of threat. They range from Stanag 1 to Stanag 4.
Depending on the configuration, Kestrel can weigh from 18 to 22 tons. The maximum mass can reach 26 tons, but after 22 tons, the BTR loses its amphibious characteristics.
On the ground, it accelerates to 100 km / h. On the water, with the help of two water jets, the car accelerates to 10 km / h.
The armored vehicle has an 600 horsepower engine, and the power density ranges from 26,6 to 23 hp / t.
Note the rearview mirror on the floating armored personnel carrier!
The BTR is armed with a remote-controlled combat module with a 30-mm cannon, a twin 7,62-mm machine gun and an automatic grenade launcher. In addition, he is able to take a complex of anti-tank missiles Javelin. The machine can be optimized for coastal, desert and mountainous areas.
The complex of weapons for armored personnel carriers may vary depending on customer requirements. Tata relies on the modularity and open architecture of the machine to match its various tasks.
The Indian army has shown its interest in the car and wants to take part in the project before the configuration of the BTR will be finally approved.
All major Kestrel BTR subsystems are more or less uniform with the standard systems manufactured by Tata, that is, the maintenance of this vehicle is less expensive than foreign armored personnel carriers.
Based on materials from www.defence.pk
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