The UAE in the past few decades rely on the oil underground to make a lot of money, the whole country has a new look, after calming down from the state of the nouveau riche, the national leadership also realized that it can not rely solely on the oil economy to maintain a lifetime, so in recent years the UAE began to transform to a "knowledge technology economy", of which national defense technology is an important part.
Rabdan infantry fighting vehicle (Rabdan) is currently one of the new military products in the hands of the UAE, it is a very distinctive armored weapon, the UAE and Turkey cooperation, in the Turkish Arma 8×8 wheeled armored personnel carrier on the basis of the combination of their own BMP-3 infantry combat vehicle practical application experience developed.
Arma armored personnel carrier is a device developed by the Turkish company Otokar at the beginning of this century, initially in the 6×6 amphibious mode, and later developed 8×8 versions, mainly for expanding into foreign markets. The vehicle was tall and comfortable, with a common personnel carrier layout, a front engine, followed by a cab and commander position, a spacious troop carrier compartment in the rear, which could easily transport 10 heavily armed soldiers, powered by a 450-horsepower engine, with liquid suspension on the wheels, good off-road performance, basic armor that could withstand the blows of 7.62 mm armor-piercing shells, and a 12.7 mm machine gun at the top of the remote control weapons station, or a 30 mm cannon.
The Rabdan infantry fighting vehicle focuses on modular design, with a total combat weight of about 30 tons, and in its propaganda, it says that "[the infantry fighting vehicle] can seamlessly integrate various types of mission equipment and weapon systems to meet the needs of modern armies in combat and peacekeeping operations."
The infantry fighting vehicle retains the basic structure of the Arma personnel carrier, the model is tall, a 600 hp turbo diesel engine is installed on the right side of the front, the automatic transmission has 6 forward gears and 1 reverse gear, the chassis of 8 × 8 is good, it can climb over 0.7 meters vertical wall, span 2 meters wide trench, the front two axles are responsible for steering, the exhaust wheel is equipped with a central tire inflation system, the driver can change the driving mode according to the road conditions, the 8×8 mode is used in the off-road case, and the 8× is used in the case of road maneuvering 4 mode, the maximum road speed is about 105 km / h, driving on water using 2 water sprayers, the maximum speed is 10 km / h.
Next to the engine is the position of the driver and the commander, these two people have a separate top hatch and periscope and other observation equipment, the driver's hatch can not be fully opened, at this time the driver can be outcrop to observe, the front and sides of the head to provide bulletproof glass protection. Nine heavily armed soldiers can be carried in the rear carrier compartment, and the soldiers enter and exit through the springboard hatch at the rear of the vehicle, the top hatch is mainly used in emergency, and there are observation holes and shooting holes on both sides of the cabin.
The UAE wants the infantry fighting vehicle to have strong firepower, a two-way stable 2A70 type 100 mm gun in the low single turret, as well as a coaxial 2A72 type 30 mm cannon and a 7.62 mm machine gun, the main gun is stocked with 40 rounds, there are semi-automatic loaders, with the ability to fire 9M117 gun-fired missiles, the maximum range of the missile is 4 to 5.5 kilometers, the armor penetration depth of homogeneous steel armor is 550 to 750 mm, can threaten the main battle tank, and the vehicle carries 6 missiles. The 30 mm cannon has a rate of fire of 330 rounds per minute, and a total of 500 rounds of ammunition are stocked in the car, which has a certain anti-helicopter capability.
The armor protection ability is similar to that of the BMP-3 tracked infantry fighting vehicle, which generally meets the NATO level 4 standard, the vehicle adopts welded steel armor, the whole vehicle can withstand the blow of 14.5 mm armor-piercing shells, the frontal armor protection is a little stronger, and the vehicle can withstand the impact of 10 kg of improvised explosives of TNT. In the promotion of the car, it is mentioned that there are three-proof system, air filtration system, automatic fire extinguishing system, etc., but there are articles that these equipment is selective, and customers choose to buy and install according to their actual situation.
In terms of overall performance, the Rabdan armored vehicle is a qualified design, the use of various technologies is mature, the modular design allows the replacement of equipment into other models such as engineering vehicles, such as personnel carriers with only top heavy machine guns, engineering vehicles with lifting equipment, and so on. In recent years, the UAE has tried to sell this equipment to the outside world, and the UAE's own army has placed orders for 700 vehicles, of which 100 are produced in Turkey and the rest are produced in UAE domestic enterprises.