Russia Develops Helicopter-Transportable Armored Vehicles

Russia has developed VPK-Strela light armored vehicle that can be transported by rotorcraft such as Mil Mi-8 by an external sling.

"Designers of Military Industrial Company have created an experimental armored vehicle model of the VPK-Strela family. As of today, our Army simply has no armored vehicles of this type," Company CEO Alexander Krasovitsky told TASS on Monday.

Weighing 4.7 tonnes, the vehicle can be transported military transport helicopters like a Mi-8 on an external sling. The Strela is designated to transport personnel and various cargos, he added.

The vehicle’s armor provides the 2nd-degree ballistic protection that shields it against bullets with a heat-strengthened core of 5.45x39mm cartridges of the AK-74 assault rifle, bullets with the heat-strengthened core of 7.62x39mm rounds of the AKM submachine-gun and bullets with the non-heat strengthened core of 7.62x54mm ammunition fired from the Dragunov snipe rifle. The vehicle’s anti-blast protection safeguards the crew inside it upon hitting mines or explosives with a yield of up to 2 kilograms in TNT equivalent, the TASS report said.

The Strela can develop a speed of up to 155 km/h on the road and carry eight personnel. The vehicle’s design is based on advanced assemblies, units and accessories planned for their use in mass production in the domestic auto industry.