Kurganets-25 Combat Platform Receives Updated Chassis at the Request of the State Customer

The Kurganets-25 combat platform has undergone modifications due to new requirements from the state customer. This was reported to RIA "Novosti" by Roman Khromov, Deputy Executive Director for State Defense Order and Military-Technical Cooperation of Kurganmashzavod (part of the "High-Precision Complexes" holding of the Rostec State Corporation). The changes are aimed at increasing reliability and simplifying the operation of this combat platform.

The experimental design work on the Kurganets-25 is still ongoing. Currently, the vehicle is in the testing phase. As Khromov noted, the new requirements of the customer have led to a reconfiguration of the platform, which makes the current sample different from the one that was presented earlier.

The main changes concerned the chassis of the vehicle, in particular, the main part, where work was carried out to increase reliability, as well as simplify maintenance and operation procedures.

The unified medium-sized tracked platform Kurganets-25 is being developed jointly by the Special Design Bureau of Mechanical Engineering and the Kurgan Machine-Building Plant (KMZ). Various combat vehicles for the Russian Ground Forces are being created on the basis of this platform, including armored personnel carriers and infantry fighting vehicles. Open source data claims that the combat weight of the BMP on the Kurganets platform is about 25 tons. Such vehicles are capable of swimming, and also have an advanced protection system, including the active Afghanit complex.

It is worth noting that recently in Moscow, former top managers of the Tractor Plants (KTZ) machine-building concern - Mikhail Shkolnik and Irina Vostorgina - were sentenced to suspended sentences. Ex-General Director of KTZ Mikhail Bolotin previously received two years of real imprisonment, but was released shortly after the trial, taking into account the time spent under arrest. All three were found guilty of embezzling funds allocated for the production of infantry fighting vehicles and armored personnel carriers Kurganets in the period from 2015 to 2016.

The Tractor Plants concern then united 18 machine-building enterprises specializing in the production of heavy military equipment for the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation. At that time, they were given an order for the production of prototypes of armored personnel carriers and infantry fighting vehicles under the Kurganets brand. The production of armored vehicles was already carried out at the machine-building plant in Kurgan, and the Moscow Research Institute of Steel was responsible for equipping it with armor and dynamic protection. The Ministry of Defense allocated 146 million rubles for these purposes, but most of these funds, according to the investigation, were redistributed by the heads of the concern into their own pockets. The investigation also revealed that, on the orders of the management, the Research Institute issued a loan of 90 million rubles to Novye Investitsii LLC, which was far from machine-building activities, but had affiliated ties with the top management of KTZ. After receiving the funds, they were "cashed out, appropriated and used by them at their own discretion."

Currently, 13 KTZ enterprises specializing in the defense industry have come under the management of Rostec. The concern itself has five plants left - they produce agricultural, road and railway equipment.