So, what do you do when a war has drawn combat into city streets and your enemy has destroyed your Armored Fighting Vehicles by the hundreds? You change the way you do your fighting, of course. This is precisely what has been happening with the conflict in Chechnya. Most Russian Armored Personnel Carriers and Infantry Fighting Vehicles have been nullified in the city streets of Grozny by "top down" weapons fire. An armored vehicle's protection is typically the weakest on the roof, so Chechen rebels fire down on Russian light armored vehicles from the upper floors of any building they can use.
However, the Russians have learned their lessons and learned them well. The Soviet era doctrines are beginning to fade, replaced with tactics learned by the military combat history of foreign nations. From the Israelis, the Russians have begun adopting the concept of the Heavy Infantry Fighting Vehicle, and from the United States, they have adopted the concept of the the Fast Attack Vehicle.
The UAZ-3150, one of several vehicles the Russians now use as Fast Attack Vehicles, is roughly the Russian equivalent of a USMC M1511 Interim FAV. Actually, size-wise, it has more kinship with the M151A2 MUTT FAV. It is an unarmored 4x4 offroad vehicle, compact, fast, nimble and heavily armed. With a crew of two, it is primarily a reconnaissance vehicle, though the 7.62mm Pecheneg machine gun and RPG-27 anti-tank rockets it carries are more than enough to make short work of any enemies encountering the UAZ-3150, allowing for a quick getaway.
This product also includes Big Bang entries for the Pecheneg machine gun, RPG-27 anti-tank rocket launcher, and RShG-1 multipurpose assault weapon. |