The First Serial Vehicles of the Ukrainian Missile System "Neptune" on the Tatra T815 Chassis

15 Agustus 2021

Serial transport vehicles TM-360 of the Ukrainian coastal mobile anti-ship missile system RK-360MTS "Neptune" on a Tatra T815 automobile chassis with a 6x6 wheel arrangement. Kiev, August 2021 (photos : Defense Express)

The Ukrainian information and consulting company "Defense Express" has published photographs of the first serial vehicles of the Ukrainian coastal mobile anti-ship missile system RK-360MTS "Neptune", made on the Tatra T815 automobile chassis selected for this complex with 8x8 and 6x6 wheel configurations. These vehicles of the "Neptune" complex, manufactured on the Tatra T815 chassis at the State Enterprise "State Kiev Design Bureau Luch", are to be demonstrated at the military parade in Kiev in honor of the 30th anniversary of Ukraine's independence on August 24, 2021.

Recall that the vehicles of the prototype of the coastal mobile missile complex RK-360MTS "Neptune", which was tested in 2018-2020, were made on the KrAZ-7634NE chassis with an 8x8 wheel arrangement (for the USPU-360 launcher) and the KrAZ-6322 chassis with wheel arrangement 6x6 (for the mobile command post RCP-360, transport-loading vehicle TZM-360 and transport vehicle TM-360). However, the obvious inability of PJSC "AvtoKrAZ" to serial production of modern chassis forced the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine to choose the Czech Tatra T815 chassis with 8x8 and 6x6 wheel formulas and armored cabins for serial production of the complex. The Tatra T815 chassis are manufactured by the Czech company Tatra Trucks as, which has been part of the private association Czechoslovak Group since 2017, belonging to the Strnada family.

As previously reported, at the end of 2020, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry has signed with GKKB "Ray" (which is part of the state concern "Ukroboronprom") contract for the supply in 2021 of the Ukrainian Navy first production kit (division) of the RK-360MTS "Neptune" all cars of which must be made on the Tatra T815 chassis. It is now reported that the first division of the complex should be delivered to the Ukrainian Navy in the first quarter of 2022 and take up combat duty in mid-2022. In total, the Ukrainian Navy is planning have three divisions of the Neptune coastal mobile missile system. The Neptune missile system was officially adopted by the Armed Forces of Ukraine on August 23, 2020, and in March 2021, the prototype vehicles of the complex (without missiles) were transferred to the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine for training purposes.

One division of the RK-360MTS "Neptune" complex normally includes 19 pieces of equipment - one mobile command post RKP-360 and six units of USPU-360 launchers each, TZM-360 transport-loading vehicles and TM-360 transport vehicles. All of them are now made on the Tatra T815 chassis - the USPU-360 and TZM-360 vehicles with an 8x8 wheel arrangement, and the TM-360, and, apparently, the RKP-360 vehicles, with a 6x6 wheel arrangement. Each USPU-360 launcher, the TZM-360 transport and loading vehicle and the TM-360 transport vehicle each carry four R-360 Neptune anti-ship missiles - thus, the battalion's total standard ammunition load is 72 missiles.

The R-360 "Neptune" rocket developed by the Luch State Design Bureau is actually a clone of the Soviet/Russian 3M24 anti-ship missile of the 3K60 Uranium complex. The R-360 rocket has a mass of 870 kg with a warhead weight of 150 kg and is equipped with a starting solid-propellant booster and an MC-400 main turbojet engine manufactured by Motor Sich PJSC (Zaporozhye). The cruising speed of the rocket is about 900 km/h, the maximum firing range is up to 300 km. The guidance system combines inertial satellite correction with an ARGSN-05R active millimeter-wave radar homing head developed by Radionix LLC (Kiev).

In total, as reported, to participate in the military parade in Kiev on August 24, a total of seven USPU-360, TZM-360 and TM-360 vehicles on the Tatra T815 chassis have been manufactured.

(BMPD)