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Ukrainian Company Unveils Concept Design for Armored Fighting Vehicle Named “Babylon”

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 Ukrainian Company Unveils Concept Design for Armored Fighting Vehicle Named “Babylon”

The Ukrainian design & development company Arey Engineering Group has unveiled its conept design for a new heavy infantry fighting vehicle (IFV) to be known as Vavilon (Ukrainian for Babylon)

The news was reported by Defence-blog, which cited Opk.com.ua website.

Built on the T-64 MBT chassis, the Vavilon is a modern heavy IFV powered by a hybrid power plant; it features state-of-the-art digital control system, advanced armor protection set and additional STANAG 6+ Level protection.

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The website said citing Arey Engineering Group that the Vavilon, in an IFV configuration, has a combat weight of 36,000 kg. It can seat 8 passengers in addition to its crew of three comprised of the commander, driver, and gunner.

The Vavilon IFV was derived from the T-64 tank, but there has been also developed a variant based on the T-84 chassis. The Vavilon design incorporates NATO requirements regarding combat use of military vehicles.

The vehicle’s hybrid power plant integrates a 768 hp TCD16.0V8 DEUTZ engine and electric motors of up to 500 kW, which gives a combined output of 1080 hp. The hybrid drive increases the maximum torque and improves traction in all driving modes using any of the gears. The use of a hybrid power plant allows for the vehicle to operate in the modes as follows: (1) operation on the main engine only; (2) operation on electric motors only; (3) hybrid-powered mode of operation; (4) operation in electricity generator mode.

As seen from the concept design, the vehicle’s armaments include a 30 mm 2A42 main gun, a coaxial 7.62 mm machine gun, NSV-12.7 machinegun, automatic UAG-40 grenade launcher, and Barrier ATGM launcher with its associated control equipment, the latter three being mounted in a remote turret.

The vehicle can be equipped for driving in water to a max depth of 5m.

The website says the goal of the Vavilon project is to create a modular-built armored vehicle that can be converted into a heavy personnel carrier, an infantry fighting vehicle, a self-propelled gun system, and an air defense vehicle.

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