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Truck tractors for S-400 and S-500 air defense missile system will powered by new diesel engines TASS 1001171

Military Defense Industry Technology - Truck tractors S-400 & S-500

Truck tractors for S-400 and S-500 air defense missile system will powered by new diesel engines.

The advanced truck tractors made by the Bryansk and Minsk Automobile Plants for the S-400 Triumph (NATO reporting name: SA-21 Growler) and future S-500 surface-to-air missile (SAM) systems will be powered by diesel engines from the Tutayev Motor Plant (TMZ), according to the Izvestia daily.

Mobile launcher unit (TEL Transporter Erector Launcher) of S-400 air defense missile battery.

The engines burn any type of fuel, operate while fully submerged under water, start at -50°C and consume not more than 80 liters of fuel per 100 km. The engines from TMZ are superior to their Western analogs in terms of performance.

TMZ Chief Designer Oleg Prokhorov told the Izvestia daily that the 8493.10-34 engine family with a power of 500 hp or more have passed all qualification tests in compliance with the Defense Ministry’s new standards, been recommended for full-rate production and equipped the chassis of the SAM systems developed by Almaz-Antei. The first 20 vehicles fitted the advanced engines shall be fielded in a few months.

"The engines feature enhanced power and high torque, which allows them to equip all future tractors designed to carry up-to-date air defense and other missile systems," Prokhorov said. "At the request of the military, we have made them multifuel. The engines start up when fully submerged in water and operate without a hitch at [an ambient temperature of] -50°C owing to the sealed electrical starter."

The characteristics of TMZ’s V-engines are quite ordinary: they are four-stroke, eight-cylinder and turbo-charged (the latter feature ramps up the combustion, which reduces fuel consumption and increases power). For this reason, the 500-hp engine uses not more than 82 liters of fuel per hour, which is not that much as far as military vehicles are concerned. The engines have excessive service lives covering the wheeled tractors’ warranty life - over 10 years.

Future trucks for S-500 air defense missile battery.

The principal characteristics of the engines are power and torque, the latter allowing a sharp increase in force when negotiating obstacles while towing a trailer. The fuel burn during this maneuver is important too. The nearest competition to the S-400’s Bryansk-made tractors is as follows. The US-made HEMTT (Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck) is powered by the Detroit Diesel 92T A-90 (8V92TA) eight-cylinder two-stroke turbocharged V-engine with the intermediate air-intake cooler. It has a power of 480 hp and a torque of 1,900 N.·m. The vehicle hauling the MIM-104 Patriot SAM system consumes 100 liter of fuel per 100 km, and the fuel consumption may increase to 150 liters during a climb.

The MAN HX is powered by the D2066 six-cylinder in-line direct-injection 440-hp diesel engine with a maximum torque of 2,100 N.·m. Its fuel consumption stands at 90 liter per 100 km. It stems from its characteristics that the Russian engines surpass their Western rivals and use less fuel to boot. According to expert opinion, their fuel consumption varies little irrespective of the tractor going up or down the slope or driving off road or on a highway.

Expert Ivan Konovalov believes that high mobility is a most important tactical capability of advanced vehicles. The BGM-109 Tomahawk long-range cruise missile was developed to take out low-mobility SAM systems sitting in their firing positions. The same goes for the most up-to-date S-400 and S-500 designed to defend stationary installations.

"The S-25 [SA-1 Guild] and S-75 [SA-2 Guideline] systems providing air defense coverage for Moscow used to be moved about on a concrete road built around the city specifically for this purpose," Konovalov told the Izvestia. "These days, at the age of precision-guided weapons, cruise missiles and reconnaissance satellites, the advanced AD missile systems must possess enhanced mobility to dodge air strikes."

All the more so that the present-day SAM systems are heavy and large and badly in need of highly effective tractors equipped by powerful diesel engines, according to the Izvestia daily.