The T-15 Armata ( rus, T-15 Армата), with industrial designation "Object 149", is a Russian heavy
infantry fighting vehicle
An infantry fighting vehicle (IFV), also known as a mechanized infantry combat vehicle (MICV), is a type of armoured fighting vehicle used to carry infantry into battle and provide direct-fire support. The 1990 Treaty on Conventional Armed For ...
first seen in public (initially with its turret covered) in 2015 during rehearsals for the
Moscow Victory Day Parade
The Moscow Victory Day Parade ( rus, Парад Победы в Москве, r= Parad Pobedy v Moskve) refers to the annual military parade of the Russian Armed Forces on Moscow's Red Square on May 9 during the Victory Day celebrations. The mos ...
. The T-15 is expected to replace the
BMP-2
The BMP-2 (''Boyevaya Mashina Pekhoty'', , literally "combat machine/vehicle (of the) infantry") is an amphibious infantry fighting vehicle introduced in the 1980s in the Soviet Union, following on from the BMP-1 of the 1960s.
Development his ...
and
MT-LB
The MT-LB (russian: Многоцелевой Тягач Легкий Бронированный, translit=Mnogotselevoy tyagach legky bronirovanny, literally "multi-purpose towing vehicle light armored") is a Soviet multi-purpose, fully amphib ...
based platforms of the
Russian Ground Forces
The Russian Ground Forces (russian: Сухопутные войска �В Sukhoputnyye voyska V, also known as the Russian Army (, ), are the Army, land forces of the Russian Armed Forces.
The primary responsibilities of the Russian Gro ...
.
Background
The infantry fighting vehicle concept was first conceived of in the 1960s during the
Cold War, where a confrontation between
NATO
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...
and
Warsaw Pact
The Warsaw Pact (WP) or Treaty of Warsaw, formally the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance, was a collective defense treaty signed in Warsaw, Poland, between the Soviet Union and seven other Eastern Bloc socialist republi ...
countries was expected to be dominated by tanks, so infantry required transport to sustain the pace of advance while having armament to fight tanks, and armor to withstand machine gun and artillery fire; the Soviet Union created the
BMP-1
The BMP-1 is a Soviet amphibious tracked infantry fighting vehicle, in service 1966–present. BMP stands for ''Boyevaya Mashina Pyekhoty 1'' (russian: link=no, Боевая Машина Пехоты 1; БМП-1), meaning "infantry fighting ...
/BMP-2 and the United States the
M2 Bradley
The M2 Bradley, or Bradley IFV, is an American infantry fighting vehicle that is a member of the Bradley Fighting Vehicle family. It is manufactured by BAE Systems Land & Armaments, which was formerly United Defense.
The Bradley is designed ...
. While IFVs provided troops with heavier mounted firepower, the prevalence of anti-tank rockets and guided missiles made it uneconomical to protect them from such weapons. Post-Cold War, rather than
maneuver warfare
Maneuver warfare, or manoeuvre warfare, is a military strategy which seeks to shatter the enemy's overall
cohesion and will to fight.
Background
Maneuver warfare, the use of initiative, originality and the unexpected, combined with a rut ...
, most fighting took place in urban areas, such as what the Russians experienced in
Grozny
Grozny ( rus, Грозный, p=ˈgroznɨj; ce, Соьлжа-ГӀала, translit=Sölƶa-Ġala), also spelled Groznyy, is the capital city of Chechnya, Russia.
The city lies on the Sunzha River. According to the 2010 census, it had a po ...
. While heavy losses can be tolerated in a near-peer conflict, the ease at which insurgent ambushes using anti-tank weaponry can inflict casualties by targeting IFVs has become an issue for IFV operators. In an effort to field better protected troop carriers, some countries have experimented with converting tank hulls to carry dismounted infantry, such as
Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
with the
Namer
Namer ( he, נמ"ר, ), means "leopard" and also a syllabic abbreviation of "Nagmash" (APC) and "Merkava", is an Israeli armoured personnel carrier based on a Merkava Mark IV tank chassis. Namer was developed by and is being assembled by the ...
.
The Russian T-15 is based on the
T-14 tank hull, with its engine relocated to the front to accommodate a passenger compartment in the rear. This adjusted engine position provides additional crew protection against frontal attacks. Passenger capacity is estimated at between seven and nine troops. At 48 tons, the vehicle is slightly heavier than the
T-90
The T-90 is a third-generation Russian main battle tank. It uses a 125mm 2A46 smoothbore main gun, the 1A45T fire-control system, an upgraded engine, and gunner's thermal sight. Standard protective measures include a blend of steel and comp ...
main battle tank. It has several features, including a built-in entrenching blade and the T-14's numerous cameras and sensors.
Design
Armament

The T-15 Armata can be fitted with:
* The
Bumerang-BM
The Bumerang-BM ( rus, Бумеранг-БМ) or DUBM-30 Epoch is a remotely controlled turret for the T-15 Armata heavy IFV, Kurganets-25 and Bumerang platforms. It was first seen in public in 2015 during rehearsals for the Moscow Victory Day ...
(Epoch) remote control weapon station turret with a 2A42 30 mm autocannon, a 7.62 mm coaxial
PKT and a bank of two
9M133M Kornet-M anti-tank guided missile
An anti-tank guided missile (ATGM), anti-tank missile, anti-tank guided weapon (ATGW) or anti-armor guided weapon is a guided missile primarily designed to hit and destroy heavily armored military vehicles. ATGMs range in size from shoulder ...
s on both sides
* The AU-220M Baikal remote turret that features a 57 mm autocannon BM-57 and the
9M120-1M Ataka guided anti-tank missiles
* DUBM-57 Kinzhal RCWS with BM-57 autocannon, 7.62mm PKMT machine gun, and 9M120-1 Ataka ATGMs
Mobility
Like the T-14, the T-15 is based on the
Armata Universal Combat Platform
The "Armata" Universal Combat Platform (russian: Армата) is a Russian advanced next generation modular heavy military tracked vehicle platform. The Armata platform is the basis of the T-14 (a main battle tank), the T-15 (a heavy infantry f ...
, but unlike the T-14 it has its engine in the front.
It is powered by a new generation 1,500 hp multifuel diesel engine coupled with a hydro-mechanical automatic transmission, has a combat weight of about 48 tons, a maximum road speed of , an operational range of , and a power-to-weight ratio of over 30 h.p./t.
Protection
Like the T-14, the T-15 is protected by
reactive armour
Reactive armour is a type of vehicle armour that reacts in some way to the impact of a weapon to reduce the damage done to the vehicle being protected. It is most effective in protecting against shaped charges and specially hardened kinetic ene ...
[ and the ''Afganit'' ( rus, Афганит) ]active protection system
An active protection system is a system designed to actively prevent certain anti-tank weapons from destroying a vehicle.
Countermeasures that either conceal the vehicle from, or disrupt the guidance of an incoming guided missile threat are desig ...
. While the T-14 has its ''Afganit'' launch tubes at the base of its turret, the T-15 has them arrayed along the top sides of its hull. It uses four soft-kill launchers to deploy smoke grenades that disrupt visual and infrared guidance systems, and five hard-kill launch tubes on top of the hull, compared to the T-14's ten hard-kill tubes on the turret which automatically turns to face a threat.
The T-15 has "an unprecedented level of armor protection," including improved passive steel and ceramic composite plate
A composite plate is basically a plate made out of composite materials, i.e. a resin and a fibre. Its mechanical evaluation is more detailed than a normal isotropic
Isotropy is uniformity in all orientations; it is derived . Precise definition ...
armor and a slat armor
Slat armor (or slat armour in British English), also known as bar armor, cage armor, and standoff armor, is a type of vehicle armor designed to protect against high-explosive anti-tank (HEAT) attacks, as used by anti-tank guided missiles (ATG ...
cage at the rear. Its new ''Malakhit'' (Malachite) explosive reactive armour (ERA) is claimed to protect against ATGMs like the FGM-148 Javelin
The FGM-148 Javelin, or Advanced Anti-Tank Weapon System-Medium (AAWS-M), is an American-made portable anti-tank missile system in service since 1996, and continuously upgraded. It replaced the M47 Dragon anti-tank missile in US service. Its fi ...
, Missile Moyenne Portée
The Akeron MP (''Akeron Moyenne Portée''),
* Fire-and-Forget
* Man In The Loop with optical fiber data-link
* Lock-on after launch (LOAL) for non-line-of-sight (NLOS) and using third party target designation.
Despite these new features, it ...
(MMP), 120 mm tank rounds like the German DM53/DM63, and American M829A3 armour-piercing fin-stabilized discarding sabot
Armour-piercing fin-stabilized discarding sabot (APFSDS), long dart penetrator, or simply dart ammunition, is a type of kinetic energy penetrator ammunition used to attack modern vehicle armour. As an armament for main battle tanks, it succeeds A ...
(APFSDS) (see Sabot (firearms)
A sabot (, ) is a supportive device used in firearm/artillery ammunitions to fit/patch around a projectile, such as a bullet/slug or a flechette-like projectile (such as a kinetic energy penetrator), and keep it aligned in the center of the barrel ...
). In addition to hard-kill and soft-kill APS, the developer uses a special paint that significantly reduces the vehicle's infrared signature Infrared signature, as used by defense scientists and the military, is the appearance of objects to infrared sensors. An infrared signature depends on many factors, including the shape and size of the object, temperature, and emissivity, reflecti ...
.
The floor is reinforced with an added armor plate to protect against land mine
A land mine is an explosive device concealed under or on the ground and designed to destroy or disable enemy targets, ranging from combatants to vehicles and tanks, as they pass over or near it. Such a device is typically detonated automatic ...
s and improvised explosive device
An improvised explosive device (IED) is a bomb constructed and deployed in ways other than in conventional military action. It may be constructed of conventional military explosives, such as an artillery shell, attached to a detonating mecha ...
s (IEDs). It also has a radar jamming and deception
Radar jamming and deception is a form of electronic countermeasures that intentionally sends out radio frequency signals to interfere with the operation of radar by saturating its receiver with noise or false information. Concepts that blanket ...
system to detonate radio-controlled anti-tank mine
An anti-tank mine (abbreviated to "AT mine") is a type of land mine designed to damage or destroy vehicles including tanks and armored fighting vehicles.
Compared to anti-personnel mines, anti-tank mines typically have a much larger explosive c ...
s, and an NBC protection
Chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear defence (CBRN defence) are protective measures taken in situations in which chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear warfare (including terrorism) hazards may be present. CBRN defence consis ...
system.
Variants
*BMP-KSh: Command post variant, has the turret removed and replaced by additional power supply equipment.Russia has developed the BMP-KSh command post tracked armored based on Armata platform
''Army Recognition''. 19 January 2022.
Operator
;
*
Russian Ground Forces
The Russian Ground Forces (russian: Сухопутные войска �В Sukhoputnyye voyska V, also known as the Russian Army (, ), are the Army, land forces of the Russian Armed Forces.
The primary responsibilities of the Russian Gro ...
See also
*
Armata Universal Combat Platform
The "Armata" Universal Combat Platform (russian: Армата) is a Russian advanced next generation modular heavy military tracked vehicle platform. The Armata platform is the basis of the T-14 (a main battle tank), the T-15 (a heavy infantry f ...
*
Kurganets-25
*
VPK-7829 Bumerang
The VPK-7829 Bumerang (russian: Бумеранг, Boomerang) is a modular amphibious wheeled infantry fighting vehicle and armored personnel carrier being developed by Russian Military Industrial Company (MIC) for the Russian army. It is not c ...
*
Typhoon (AFV family)
*
Namer
Namer ( he, נמ"ר, ), means "leopard" and also a syllabic abbreviation of "Nagmash" (APC) and "Merkava", is an Israeli armoured personnel carrier based on a Merkava Mark IV tank chassis. Namer was developed by and is being assembled by the ...
– Israeli HAPC on the Merkava chassis
Image gallery
File:9may2015Moscow-10.jpg, Close-up of turret
File:9may2015Moscow-07 (cropped).jpg, Front view
БМП «Армата» Т-15.JPG, Side view
File:Rehearsal29april15Moscow-33 (cropped).jpg, Rear view with the rear ramp door
File:Alabino220415part2-20.jpg, Close-up of engine exhaust ports in the front
References
External links
{{Use dmy dates, date=June 2017
Infantry fighting vehicles
Tracked infantry fighting vehicles
Infantry fighting vehicles of Russia
Uralvagonzavod products