Serial production of Russian new Kurganets-25 BMP combat vehicles may start in 2017 18051501.

"The research and development work for the creation of the Kurganets-25 platform vehicles is not over yet. The development prototypes will be subjected to preliminary and then to state tests. So, concerning the new platform I can say that the Russian Defence Ministry has already ordered a batch of the Kurganets MICV for field trials. If everything goes well, then the vehicles’ full-fledged serial production is planned to be organised in 2017-2018," Bakov said.

According to him, the state tests of such vehicles include comprehensive military operational requirement checks. "Several prototypes are subjected to tests, which are conducted in Russia’s various climatic regions. The vehicles are also tested for their landing ships’ boarding and disembarkation capacity at sea with the swell scale of up to 3 points.

Russia’s latest armored prototype Kurganets-25 was recently spotted rehearsing for the nation’s upcoming May 9 Victory Day parade following more than half a decade of top-secret development. This amphibious personnel carrier has been designed to replace all of Russia’s existing tracked assault vehicles, which have been in service since the Cold War.