Armored vehicles

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Armored vehicle Fuchs with pioneer equipment kit

Wheeled armored vehicles are armored military vehicles that are usually built on a conventional chassis with two to four axles . A distinction is made in this wheel protect armor , wheel transport armor , wheel battle tank u and modified from the chassis NBC reconnaissance vehicles, armored command post, Sanitätspanzer. a. The vehicles, which are usually only protected against light bombardment, are predominantly powered by diesel engines.

The crew usually consists of a driver and, depending on the armament, a gunner . The commander is the group leader , who dismounts with the group; formally, this task is then taken over by the gunner.

Protected vehicles are to be distinguished from armored vehicles .

properties

Compared to the drives of tracked vehicles , the tires of armored wheeled vehicles generate a greater area load . Therefore, in order to achieve a comparable off-road capability , the vehicles can only have a significantly lower combat weight . Tire pressure control systems are often used to increase the off-road capability . The lower frictional resistance compared to crawler tracks reduces fuel consumption at significantly higher speeds and enables a greater tactical range at higher average speeds, especially on paved roads . Run-flat tires enable you to continue driving at reduced speed in the event of a tire damage. Armored vehicles have a significantly cheaper repair effort and lower costs.

Wheeled armored vehicles are significantly quieter than chain armored vehicles due to the lack of drives and the smaller motors and can be heard acoustically much later. Since they are less of a burden on the ground, they leave less characteristic traces, some of which are noticeable in aerial reconnaissance, and less damage to the fields, including on roads. This makes them suitable vehicles for asymmetrical combat and in terrain with soft ground. In addition, vibration-triggered anti - tank mines often do not recognize wheeled armored vehicles as such. Because of this property and because of the lighter armor, wheeled vehicles are ideally suited as transport tanks as well as for military reconnaissance and patrols. To increase the cross-country mobility, many armored vehicles are floating tanks and have four-wheel drive .

The development of multifunctional multi-wheel armored vehicles is significantly cheaper due to the lower technological complexity and is therefore economically interesting, especially for countries with a small defense budget .

The increasing worldwide crisis intervention in mountainous and urban areas of operation results in an increasing demand for armored wheeled vehicles, as these are more air-transportable than heavy battle tanks and more suitable for driving over bridges with limited load-bearing capacity and have greater operational mobility. In addition, wheeled armor has a more de-escalating effect than chain armor, which can be particularly important in peace missions .

particularities

Wheeled armored vehicles are significantly cheaper to buy and maintain compared to chain armored vehicles. This has led many states to switch all of their armored forces to wheeled armored vehicles. These include most of the African countries and many countries in South America and Asia. The armored car is also increasingly proving to be a valuable combat device for NATO armed forces, especially when deployed in urban areas. The Soviet Army had this experience during the intervention in Afghanistan . This led to the development of armored vehicles like the BTR-80 .

Purposes

gallery

literature

See also

Footnotes

  1. Harry Lye: Armored fighting vehicles: tracks vs wheels. In: defense.nridigital.com. Retrieved February 24, 2020 .
  2. a b Panzer - The History of Defense Technology . garant Verlag, 2017, ISBN 978-3-7359-1339-5 , pp. 73 .
  3. Belgium and the Netherlands have had no battle tanks since 2015

Web links

Wiktionary: Radpanzer  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations