The infantry fighting vehicle concept was first conceived of in the 1960s during the Cold War, where a confrontation between NATO and Warsaw Pact 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/BMP-2 and the United States the M2 Bradley. While IFVs provided troops with heavier mounted firepower, the amount of anti-tank rockets and guided missiles made it impractical and uneconomical to protect them from such weapons. Post-Cold War, rather than maneuver warfare, most fighting took place in urban areas, such as the battles for Grozny by Russia. While heavy losses could be tolerated in a superpower war, insurgent ambushes with anti-tank weapons easily killing whole squads at once by destroying their IFV have become unacceptable. In an effort to field better protected troop carriers, some countries have experimented with converting tank hulls to carry dismounts, such as Israel with Namer. 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, which adds the engine as a type of shield against frontal hits; passenger capacity is estimated at between seven and nine troops. At 48 tons, the vehicle is slightly heavier than the T-90main 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 is armed with either the Bumerang-BMremote control weapon station turret with a 2A42 30 mm autocannon, a 7.62 mm coaxial PKT and a bank of two 9M133M Kornet-Manti-tank guided missiles on both sides or the AU-220M Baikal remote turret that features a 57 mm autocannon BM-57 and the 9M120-1 Ataka guided anti-tank missiles. or 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, 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 and the Afganit active protection system. 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 armor and a slat armor cage at the rear. Its new Malakhit ERA is claimed to protect against ATGMs like the FGM-148 Javelin and Missile Moyenne Portée and 120 mm tank rounds like the German DM53/DM63 and American M829A3 APFSDSsabots. In addition to hard-kill and soft-kill APS, the developer uses a special paint that significantly reduces the vehicle's infrared signature. The floor is reinforced with an additional armor plate for counter-mine and counter-IED protection, and it has a jamming system to detonate radio-controlled anti-tank mines. The T-15 has an NBC protection system.
