RS-26 Rubezh - Transporter Erector Launcher (TEL)
Road-mobile missiles are more survivable. These are harder to detect and hit. Once on high alert vehicles with RS-26 missiles can leave their bases and operate in remote forest areas. The mobile launcher has autonomy on roads of 500 km. It allows the vehicle to operate undetected in an area equivalent to a small European country. So these missiles are more likely to survive the first strike. During field deployment the TEL launcher with ballistic missile will be escorted by a host of support vehicles, including control vehicle, signals vehicle, fuel tanker, as well as a number of other military vehicles with troops to ensure security of the missile. In case of emergency the TEL vehicle can operate autonomously without its escort. The TEL vehicle can launch its missile from prepared site, special garage with a sliding roof, or from unprepared position during field deployment. Once the missile is launched vehicle can leave its position.
There is information about creating a new mobile launcher significantly different from the similar machines of previous complexes. The missile is to be small enough not to require a traditional large vehicle with a missile "lying" on the roof. The new missile would be carried in and launched from a Transporter Erector Launcher (TEL), possibly based on a Belarusian MZKT-79291 [Minsky Zavod Kolyosnih Tyagachei)] special wheeled chassis with 12x12 configuration. The reliability of the claim about the link between MZKT-27291 and Rubezh is uncertain. The chassis for Iskander-M mobile tactical missile systems based on MZKT-7930-300 8x8 wheeled tractor. MZKT-7930-300 has a full weight of 45,200 kg (including a tractor of 20,500 kg and a payload of 24,200 kg).
A similar KamAZ-78509 special wheeled chassis was developed in Russia, which might be used as an alternative. At the International Forum "Army-2018" the performance of a special wheeled chassis for mobile ground missile systems was demonstrated. The capabilities of the KamAZ-7850 tractor (the "Platform-O" project) surprised the forum visitors. Both of these vehicles have 12x12 configuration and can travel over difficult terrain and even off-road. Both of these vehicles are broadly similar in design to the MAZ-547 which was used as a TEL for the RSD-10 Pioner missile.
The chassis, used as the base of the self-propelled launcher Rubezh with a small-sized “light” intercontinental ballistic missile, was created by the Moskovsky Institute of Thermal Engineering Corporation (MIT) OJSC. The earlier MZKT-7929 (first in the 10x10 and 10x8 versions) for various missile systems designed in the USSR at that time was carried out in Minsk at MZKT with 1980s. Despite the efforts of KAMAZ to shore up its position at Russia`s domestic defense production market, the company lagged behind Belarusian MZKT/Volat that supplies all types of heavy wheeled chassis required by Russian Military.
It was reported that in the 2008 year at MIT, the Minsk plant delivered a set of documentation (technical project) to the MZKT-79291 chassis in a modern version for the AAP of the promising PGRK, and MIT conducted the associated R & D with the MWTP. MZKT-792210 can be transported by Antonov An-22 (Cock) or Antonov An-124 (Condor) heavy military transport aircraft. It is known that the modern diesel version of the MZKT-79291 chassis should have a 854.10 diesel engine with 650 horsepower, a special development of JSC "Tutaev Motor Plant".
Since the Soviet Union, equipment manufactured by Belarusian plants has been used to transport missiles. The design bureau of the Kama Automobile Plant developed a vehicle to provide the Russian Armed Forces with their own equipment with significant load-carrying capacity. Russia had long been developing domestic wheeled chassis and wheeled tractors that would have modern technical solutions - modular layout, electromechanical transmission, all-wheel steering, long-travel controlled suspension, automated motion control system.
Moscow and Minsk had contradictions over varioous political issues. Russia would be eager to buy the Minsky Zavod company to reduce dependence on Belarusian heavy wheeled tractors. Negotiations with the Belarusians were held, but without much progress. The government of Belarus had drawn up an unacceptable price for MZKT - about US$3 billion - which resulted in the cancellation of the proposed deal. US$2 billion would be sufficient to build such a plant in Russia. Hence, Russia`s MoD sent a request for proposals (RfP) to the automotive enterprises of the indigenous defense industry. It iwas not profitable for KAMAZ, Ural or bus factories to master production in relatively small quantities at Russian enterprises. Too many resources will be expended. This single industry had been scattered among individual plants for individual owners during privatization, and if in Soviet times, with political will from above and a corresponding infusion of resources, the entire collective farm would have jointly given birth to something (even if again "having no analogues", but at least its own) - now even this will not happen.
The Special Vehicles Plant (ZSA) (previously part of PJSC KAMAZ) is completing state tests of heavy-duty vehicles of the Platform-O family, which will later become the base chassis for the launchers of the Yars and Rubezh intercontinental ballistic missiles. The general designer of the vehicles, Danis Valeev, told Izvestia about this September 7, 2016 during the Army-2016 exhibition. “The vehicles are designed to accommodate heavy missile systems; during testing, all vehicles in the family fully confirmed their intended characteristics,” said Danis Valeev.
KAMAZ-7850 ("Platform-O") is a family of wheeled transporters for very heavy loads, developed for the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation . It serves as a possible replacement for the Belarusian-made MZKT chassis for intercontinental ballistic missile launchers. Platform-O includes the KAMAZ-7850 16x16 chassis with a lifting capacity of 85 tons, the KAMAZ-78509 12x12 with a lifting capacity of 60 tons , the KAMAZ-78504 8x8 tractor, capable of towing a 90-ton semitrailer, and the KAMAZ-78508 8x8 for moving aircraft on airfields . This family was developed with an eye to working with RS-24 Yars missiles.
The first sample of the KAMAZ-7850 family embodied in metal. This sample was a heavy truck tractor (TST) 78504, assembled in February 2013. The TTZ required that the new truck develop a speed of at least 70 km / h when towing an inactive semi-trailer weighing 90 tons. This was achieved by using a V8 Liebherr D9508 engine in the diesel generator set, boosted to a power of 605 kW (822.6 hp) and a torque of 3850 Nm. The modification of the truck engine was carried out on the basis of the successful experience of creating a rally version of the D9508 with a power of 920 hp. The result was a unit with a power and resource corresponding to the modern level of engine building.
The Liebherr diesel engine drove the three-phase traction generator VIG-600 with a power of 600 kW, manufactured by the Safonovsky Electric Machine-Building Plant. All components of the KTEO for the new tractor were supplied by well-known manufacturers with many years of experience in their field. Semiconductor traction inverters, a semiconductor converter of own needs and a cable network were supplied by the Moscow plant "Aeroelectromash". The manufacturer of five-phase valve-inductor TED VID-60A1 was the Sarapul Electric Generator Plant. OOO "Emtech" carried out the installation and debugging of all KTEO components during the assembly of the chassis in Naberezhnye Chelny.
The main feature of the “Platform” is its unique diesel-electric drives with electric motors built into the wheel hubs of the tractors. The tractors of this family do not have a cardan shaft. A small, but powerful and compact electric motor is installed on each wheel. The main diesel engine works on an electric generator, which, in turn, supplies electricity to each electric motor, — a representative of the Ministry of Defense familiar with the design of the newest tractors told Izvestia. — Thanks to this solution, compared to conventional tractors, not only the load capacity and power are increased, but also the cross-country performance is significantly improved. And if even two-thirds of the wheels fail, the vehicle will retain its mobility. Another advantage is the absence of a cardan shaft, on which the vehicle's mobility greatly depends.
The vehicle is assembled from ready-made modules. These are separate components - a cabin, chassis, etc. Such design features make it possible, if one of the parts is damaged, to quickly replace it with a new unit and restore the vehicle's operability. Together with wide wheels, it reduces the pressure on the ground when the vehicle is moving. Thanks to this, it is possible to transport heavy loads on the chassis. The vehicle's wheel mechanisms are rotary. The front and rear axles turn in opposite directions, which makes it possible to reduce the minimum turning radius. Platform control is performed electronically. The operator controls a multi-ton vehicle without using special physical effort.
All trucks of the "Platforma" family are equipped with fully domestic engines with a capacity of 850 to 1000 hp produced by KAMAZ. The vehicles have an electric transmission gearbox directly connected to the electric motors located in each wheel of the vehicle. "We have an electronic remote control system installed," Danis Valeev specified, "this means that there is a steering wheel as such in the cabin, but the force from it is transmitted not to the shaft that controls the rotation of the wheels, but to a special electronic sensor. From it, a signal goes to the computer, which distributes commands to all the wheels of the car to perform a maneuver. This allows you to create special algorithms for controlling the car."
The unique capabilities of the chassis and control of the Platform-O family of vehicles are demonstrated by the fact that the 16-axle KAMAZ-7850 can turn around in just 20 m of space. "To improve maneuverability, all the tractors' wheels are made to turn. "Platforms" can move with a "crab step", that is, practically sideways, when the vehicle maneuvers or changes lanes, without changing the position of the wheels," the general designer of the vehicles explained. "The hydropneumatic suspension of the "Platform" can also be considered unique. It allows the vehicle's clearance to be automatically changed depending on the terrain it is moving on — off-road or highway."
In the summer of 2015, Russian media reported serious problems with the development and testing of the Platforma-O family of tractors. In particular, electric motors developed short circuits under heavy wheel loads. The deadline for completing work on the Platforma-O family was moved from 2020 to 2022, and the Ministry of Defense initiated the opening of a new experimental design work to create super-heavy tractors of a traditional design.
The Russian Defense Ministry did not comment on the progress of testing and the possible adoption of the newest tractors. At the same time, as an informed source in the military department explained to Izvestia, Platforma-O is a very serious and largely controversial technical project, and the refinement of the new family of tractors will most likely continue even after the testing is completed.
By 2018 it was planned that the army's transition from Belarusian vehicles to domestic ones would occur gradually, over 10 years. This is primarily due to the need to build and commission additional areas and production capacities. Currently, Remdizel JSC had a pilot production facility capable of producing no more than 10 such vehicles per year. According to the words of the Advisor to the General Director of KAMAZ PJSC, expressed on 13.09.18, it is known that serial production of domestic chassis of the Platform-O family, including for the Topol-M and Yars mobile strategic missile systems, will not begin before 2023.
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