Russia to develop "a combat vehicle of the future"

PanARMENIAN.Net - Russia’s Defense Ministry has announced a decision to develop "a combat vehicle of the future" and begin supplying it to the Armed Forces by 2015, a senior military official said, according to RIA Novosti.

“By 2015 the Armed Forces must be supplied with a new family of multirole vehicles. The decision to create the new vehicle was taken last week,” Maj. Gen. Alexander Shevchenko, the head of the ministry's Main Autotransport Directorate, said on Thursday, Nov 15.

The first vehicles will be produced in Russia and demonstrated to the defense minister by late 2013.

The vehicles are designed for increased mobility, cargo-carrying capacity and safety and must provide “both ballistic and mine protection,” Shevchenko told a scientific forum in Bronnitsy near Moscow.

Domestic manufacturers have already worked out the technical details needed to meet the ministry's specifications, he said.

"We are capable of developing a vehicle that will be just as good as NATO equipment,” Shevchenko told the forum.

Russia signed a deal with Italy’s Iveco company last December on the semi-knocked down assembly of Lynx light multirole armored vehicles for the Russian Ground Forces in the central Russia city of Voronezh.

In addition, Russia is currently working with France on the development of armored vehicles using a French base but equipped with Russian weapons and Russian turrets.