Russian Ground Forces: News #1

Electric drive would have a range of benefits including getting rid of the gearing and transmission and the fitting of 8 powerful electric motors... one for each wheel.

This means that you don't need diffs and can run each wheel at any speed or direction you like... you can go as fast forward as you can backwards and your traction control can be for each wheel improving performance on soft ground or snow.

It also means that the vehicle can be much quieter.

A problem that would need to be dealt with would be how you store power... generating it is no problem as a gas turbine running with a dynamo at optimum speed for max fuel efficiency would be a compact and efficient way of generating electricity where its lack of torque becomes irrelevant.

Gas Turbines are not very efficient driving wheels through gears directly because accelerating under load is very inefficient and uses a lot of fuel... diesel engines are much more efficient for constant acceleration.

However when a gas turbine is just spinning a dynamo and generating electricity running at a high and constant speed without a load or acceleration issues then the smaller compact GT becomes more efficient than a diesel... especially when the power increases beyond 2KW and the Diesels become huge.

It looks like it will only be a matter of time before the commander of an armoured vehicle is transfering power from his shields and armour to his guns and then to propulsion to get out of there.... awesome.  

Will this so called Hybrid Vehical end up in Boomerang or other vehical under development ?

Or will they go for classic diesel model ?

I would guess it would depend on the maturity of the technology and the direct benefits possible now.

They might not employ it now in the first generation vehicles, but a second generation upgrade it might be worth while... especially in conjunction with powered armour or an EM powered main gun.

Looks like Fara-1 a portable group target locating and weapon aiming radar.

Used to cover open ground in conditions of zero visibility.

Very simply you mount the system on a tree or a building or on a HMG or grenade launcher mount and it scans for moving targets.

When a moving target is detected there is an audio signal played through the operators headphones that will distinguish whether the target is a man, a group of men, or a vehicle. Sometimes they are fitted with a night vision device to further investigate the target but most of the time... in a conflict... they will simply open fire on the threat.

They can be used to cover potential lines of attack or even a minefield surrounding a base.

Very simply if the enemy is trying to clear the minefield in the dark this system will spot them and allow the guard to open fire even in whiteout conditions.

Friendly forces will have seen the signs indicating the minefield and would not approach from that direction.

It can also be used to monitor the ground in front of enemy positions to warn of a sneak attack.

Using it as a detection system is one thing... but it also accurately gives the gunner the range to the targets so the HMG fire and automatic grenade launcher fire can be quite accurate and effective and the total darkness will likely lead to panic for the incoming threat who had assumed they were safe under cover of darkness and smoke or whatever.