Unstoppable: Russia's New APC Can Swim 60 Kilometers, Fire in Amphibious Mode / Tass Bumerang is the identifier of the most modern armor...
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Unstoppable: Russia's New APC Can Swim 60 Kilometers, Fire in Amphibious Mode / Tass |
Bumerang is considered one of the most advanced combat vehicles, a boom in the Russian defense industry. However, the most prominent advantages on Bumerang turned out to have been in the armored vehicles of the West for decades. The improvement of Bumerang is the arrangement of the rear door for the troop compartment instead of opening the two sides like the legendary BTR armored cars of the Soviet Union.
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Bumerang is also equipped with bolt-on ceramic armor which offers all-around protection against 14.5 mm, armor-piercing ammunition, and artillery fragments from 152 mm rounds. |
An example of this is the Finnish Patria AMV armored vehicle, which has been in development since the late 1990s with modular armored protection against 30mm armor-piercing projectiles. It is also designed to resist a 10kg TNT explosion.
Meanwhile, the Bumerang’s full armor was only able to resist 14.5mm armor-piercing bullets. The hull is now designed in a V-shape to prevent mines. The arrangement inside the Bumerang is similar to Western vehicles for decades ago – the engine was arranged in the front, the driver’s cabin in the middle and finally the troop compartment carrying 7-9 soldiers.
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The overall design is an 8×8 wheeled configuration with the power pack at the front, the driver's front left, the turret in the middle, and the troop’s compartment at the rear. |
Currently, Bumerang has been developed into two versions, K-16 and K-17. The K-16 armored personnel carrier, lightly armed with a 12.7 mm machine gun in a small remote turret. The K-17 infantry fighting vehicle, heavily armed with a 30 mm cannon and two launchers of anti-tank guided missile Kornet-EM are mounted on each side of the turret. A 7.62mm coaxial PKT machine gun is mounted to the left side of the main armament.
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According to Alexander Krasovitsky, VPK plant manager, Bumerang is a technological breakthrough, including the modern armor, near-perfect vehicle protection, and a new powerful engine. |