As early as the 2015 Red Square military parade, Russia showed a new infantry fighting vehicle - "boomerang", which was called VPK-7829 at the time, and later officially entered service as the K-17 wheeled infantry fighting vehicle. Although the detailed parameters of the "boomerang" have not been disclosed, the Russian military has disclosed some relevant research and development details, and today we will talk about the birth of the "boomerang".
As we all know, the BTR series armored vehicles developed and produced in the Soviet era have always been known for their thin skin and large filling, especially the early model of the BTR-50, which could not even withstand the attack of the "Molotov cocktail". The performance of the BTR-80 in Afghanistan can also be described as very bad, although the large-caliber machine gun equipped with a good suppression ability, but the too weak hull can not provide effective protection for the crew, in front of the mine is easy to be directly blown into a pile of scrap iron.
Therefore, based on the experience of the former Soviet Union in the war in Afghanistan, Russia proposed the BTR-90 research and development plan, which was led by Alexander Mashazin, a well-known Russian military engineering expert. But in fact, the BTR-90 wheeled armored personnel carrier is largely a derivative of the BTR-80, and the layout of the two models is very similar.
Therefore, the Russian military has not officially purchased the BTR-90, it is clear that the BTR-90 can not meet the future operational needs, in the past with mechanized troops, in the Eastern European Great Plains to implement a large depth of penetration of the operational concept, has not been applicable to Russia.
The scale of future conflicts tends to be miniaturized and urbanized, so BTR-90 is very unreliable. In particular, the layout scheme of the BTR-80 has proved to be very unreliable in the War of Afghanistan and the War of Chechnya, and the carrier is easily blocked by dense fire when getting off the bus, and it is also easy to be carried by RPG rocket launchers. Therefore, the Russian military decided to abandon the purchase of the BTR-90 and instead seek an armored personnel carrier that is more in line with the tactical positioning of the Russian army in the future.
Therefore, the Russian General Administration of Defense Vehicles and Armor, after conducting a series of studies and demonstrations and comparing European armored vehicle data, officially began to design the VPK-7829 engineering project in 2009, which is the future K-17 "boomerang" universal wheeled armored vehicle platform.
According to the requirements of the Russian military, the new vehicle must have good protection capabilities, be able to withstand the attack of large-caliber machine guns and gun grenades, and be able to withstand the killing of conventional mines is the minimum requirement. At the same time, the vehicle needs to adopt a modular protection design concept, but also to be able to equip different types of weapons, and then quickly form a derivative vehicle with different functions.
The Russian military also requires that the chassis of the vehicle must be adjustable liquid and gas suspension to enhance the vehicle's off-road performance. The hatch must be designed to meet the needs of 11 combatants to get on and off quickly, avoiding unnecessary sacrifices in wartime. In the end, the Russian armored vehicle bearers Alexander Mashazin and Yuri Korolev jointly undertook the development of the vehicle, and they came up with 12 designs in just one year, and then built different models of prototypes for testing and collecting relevant data, in an effort to obtain the best improvement solutions.
Three years later, the VPK-7829 prototype was finally produced in 2013 and participated in the international exhibition that year with Russian weapons such as the Kurgan. Although the research and development of the boomerang is far from the research and development of the same armored vehicles in European countries in the period, for Russia, its emergence is still of positive significance.
From the chassis point of view, the 8X8 universal medium-sized wheeled chassis used by the boomerang is very practical for Russia in terms of productivity, and it is also relatively easy for logistics support.
In terms of weight, the boomerang with a net weight of 25 tons must have better protection performance than the BTR-80, especially the body power compartment is located at the front of the car, which greatly increases the frontal strike resistance. Coupled with the fact that the car body can prepare for the active protection system, the photoelectric protection system, and the electromagnetic protection system, it can be said that the survivability of the boomerang has far exceeded the BTR-80.
To say that the fly in the ointment is probably the cockpit cover that can be opened from the front, but its large inclination armor on the front greatly reduces the chance of being shot in the cockpit cover, but it cannot be said that it is absolutely foolproof, after all, the enemy is likely to focus on this position.
The boomerang's tall body can be said to be very different from the BTR-80, which is inextricably linked to the lightning protection capabilities required by the Russian military. Because in order to meet the needs of lightning protection performance, it is not enough to increase the base plate armor and update the material, the vehicle base plate must be as far away from the ground as possible to increase lightning protection performance.
In order to increase the survival rate of the members, the seats inside the vehicle are also specially designed lightning seats, and the distance between the members' heads and the roof armor is enough to be more than 20 centimeters, only in this way can the survival rate of the members be improved as much as possible when the vehicle is hit by lightning.
According to Russian media, the lightning seats of the members of the boomerang car are designed with an ergonomic structure, so that both the crew members and the combat crew can comfortably ride in the vehicle. At the same time, there are also 7 monitoring displays installed in the crew compartment, and through the 7 monitors on the car body, the occupants of the car can clearly understand the surrounding situation and greatly improve the operational efficiency.
Boomerangs are also very powerful, with speeds of up to 100 km/h on the road and 50 km/h on off-road. This, coupled with its liquid-pneumatic suspension, allows the boomerang to steer at a smaller radius.
In terms of weapons, as required by the Russian military, boomerangs can be equipped with different armaments to cope with different combat tasks. Boomerang's standard weapon is the MB Universal Unmanned Combat Module, or an unmanned turret weapon station is more appropriate. The station is equipped with a 30 mm cannon with a total of 160 armor-piercing shells and 340 explosive incendiary shells, which allows the boomerang to effectively deal with ground or low-altitude targets within a distance of 2,000 meters.
In addition to the powerful 30 mm cannon, the BM weapons station is also equipped with a 7.62 mm machine gun and 4 anti-tank missiles, which makes the boomerang have a huge improvement in response to multiple fires compared to the BTR-80, and even has the ability to fight against medium and light armored vehicles, and its anti-tank missiles can also pose a certain threat to the main battle tank. Depending on the mission requirements, the BM Weapons Station can also replace the 30 mm cannon with a 12.7 mm large-caliber machine gun.
It is unclear whether the Russian military intended to install a larger caliber main gun for the boomerang, but given the operational positioning of the Russian armored personnel carrier, this is unlikely.
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At present, the mass production of the Russian boomerang is still in progress, and the actual combat effect is also eagerly awaited. But it can be said that Russia is gradually getting rid of the influence of the Soviet era, the boomerang is a symbolic product, its design concept is closer to the European infantry fighting vehicle design concept, but from this aspect, it can also be seen that Russia is greatly transforming from the offensive deployment of the Soviet era to a defensive deployment.
References: "BTR - Boomerang", "Russia's New Generation of Armored Vehicles"