Britain will send 120 units of various armored vehicles to Ukraine

Alexander Sychev

They were brought along the road on tractors. In general, it is planned to send 120 different armored vehicles to help the Ukrainian army.

The Spartan armored personnel carrier is a veteran of the British army. It was created by Alvis plc in the early 1970s. The machine entered service in 1978 and since then their fleet in the British armed forces has consisted of about 500 units.

The armored personnel carrier was intended for scouts, the transfer of anti-aircraft gunner teams, mortar fire control groups and representatives of other military specialties. In general, it served as an armored "taxi" armed with a 7.62 mm machine gun from the Belgian designer Ernest Vervier. In addition to the machine gun, the armored personnel carrier can have four smoke bombs on each side. Some vehicles were equipped with MILAN anti-tank missile systems.

The crew of the armored personnel carrier - three people. The car can take four or five more people on board, but in this case the crew is reduced by one person.

The Spartan is powered by a 190 horsepower Jaguar gasoline engine that was produced from 1949 to 1992. The combat weight of the armored personnel carrier reaches almost 11 tons. The car can accelerate to 96 kilometers per hour, and at an average speed it can overcome 510 kilometers. A feature of the machine is its high cross-country ability. It overcomes slopes with a steepness of up to 60%.

There are more than a hundred Spartan armored personnel carriers planned for shipment to Ukraine, 35 pieces, the rest of the delivery will be Mastiff, Wolfhound and Husky. All these vehicles are wheeled with enhanced mine protection. They have a V-shaped bottom and some armor. But the protection is designed mainly for improvised explosive devices.

The Mastiff and its variant Wolfhound are essentially trucks. It is believed that they are able to withstand an explosion of 13.5 kilograms of TNT under the front or rear axles and six kilograms in the center. The weight of Mastiff reaches 16 tons, and Wolfhound - 25. Cars can carry up to 12 people with equipment. The first - with a maximum speed of about 60 kilometers per hour on the highway, and the second - 90 kilometers per hour.

From armament, both vehicles can be equipped with a 12.7 or 7.62 mm machine gun, which is mounted in a rotating turret at the top. In fact, the tower consists of several shields around the perimeter that cover the shooter.

A distinctive feature is weak armor. This drawback is partly solved by metal gratings welded around the perimeter of the machines.

The Husky armored car was created by the American company Navistar Defense on special order from the British army. The basis is a commercial truck of the Gazelle type, but, of course, American-made.

The machine is equipped with an eight-cylinder diesel engine with a capacity of 340 horsepower and an automatic transmission. Husky can reach speeds of 115 kilometers per hour and with a breeze ride four on the highway. Of the weapons on the armored car, a heavy machine gun is used, installed in the same turret design as on the Wolfhound. The doors are equipped with loopholes with bulletproof viewing glasses.

The peculiarity of this machine is that the US Department of Defense refused to accept it for service, since the Husky did not pass the mine test. However, the British did not refuse it and signed contracts for 262 cars, some of which will be sent to Ukraine almost from the assembly line.