Russia seems to be having a surge of military development these days, suggesting some expansionist policies which go far beyond the scope of a model review. What this offers for the modeler, however, is a wide range of interesting equipment never seen before. The Kurganets-25 IFV is a good example of this. Heralding back to the BMP-2 and -3 of the previous generation, this new machine seems to be the epitome of both defensive and offensive capabilities, literally festooned with sensors and targeting electronics. The spaced armor enhances survivability on the battlefield, while its armament makes it a worthy opponent for most challenges it might encounter.

Background

As a young man in the late 1960’s living in Canada, each weekday night I used to watch “The CBS Evening News” with Walter Cronkite. This was my window on the world, so to speak. And it seemed that almost every night the first thing that I saw through this window involved “the war in Vietnam”. Mr. Cronkite would tell me how many US troops had been killed or wounded, and then I would see a video clip from a correspondent in Saigon, or in some rice paddy somewhere in the countryside. Vietnam, I thought, was a place I didn’t EVER want to visit. Often in the background of the television videos, there were TWO objects regularly seemed to appear at some point during the newscast. One was a helicopter, often many, and the other was an M113 APC. These apparently, were the chariots that the Americans rode into battle, be it on the ground, or in the air.

Initially deployed with German forces in 1940, Sturmgeschütz (Stug) assault guns were purpose-built fully tracked armored fighting vehicles designed to support the infantry during the initial assault on enemy positions, especially useful for knocking out strong points such as bunkers. When the Germans invaded Russia in 1941 in Operation Barbarossa, they got a nasty surprise with the appearance on the battle field of heavily armed and armored Soviet tanks such as the T-34/76 and KV-1. The Stug assault guns were discovered to be excellent tank destroyers. They were quicker and cheaper to produce than tanks, making them a good “bargain” on the battlefield. As the war progressed, the Stug was up-gunned to deal with ever more lethal Soviet tanks, and spread across the battle fields as German industry struggled to keep up with tank losses.