02/18/2007
 

No stranger to desert conditions: The Yak

A versatile multipurpose armoured vehicle offering excellent protection

Developed by Rheinmetall Landsysteme, the Yak is a multipurpose armoured vehicle specially designed for international crisis management operations. It meets the military's heightened requirement for armoured transport capacity in outstanding fashion, enabling forces to deploy and fight even in the toughest terrain.

The vehicle, jointly produced by Rheinmetall Landsysteme GmbH and MOWAG GmbH, is based on the internationally tried-and-tested Duro III chassis, large numbers of which are already in service.
 

Successfully fielded by the German Bundeswehr and the Swiss Army, the Yak all-terrain vehicle – shown here in ambulance configuration with ISAF in Afghanistan – is a modularly designed system that can be deployed almost anywhere.

Thanks to its interchangeable multipurpose modules, the Yak can be quickly reconfigured for an extremely wide variety of missions, including mobile medical support, EOD, monitoring and reconnaissance, command and control, military law enforcement, border control operations and transport.

The high-performance climate control system installed in the Yak's multipurpose build-on unit and driver's cab means that the crew can operate effectively even at high desert temperatures with no drop in efficiency.

Real-world experience during the ISAF operation in Afghanistan proves conclusively that this highly manoeuvrable all-terrain vehicle – equipped with six wheels and DeDion axels – is impervious to dust, heat and abrupt changes in weather conditions.

The German Bundeswehr already has 20 Yaks in its inventory, configured for medical and military police roles; others serve as ground station and launch and recovery vehicles for the Luna reconnaissance drone. Ten more vehicles are currently being delivered, this time configured for bomb disposal operations. In September 2005, the Bundeswehr ordered a further 100 Yaks as the first lot of the series. Variously configured, they include new system variants such as air defence and geographic information support vehicles, as well as 14 others equipped with water cannon or designed for prisoner transport.

As well as meeting the military's ambitious requirements for interior space and load-carrying capacity, the Yak offers a level of crew protection and all-weather comfort never before achieved in a vehicle of its class. Depending on the configuration, it offers room for between two and twelve soldiers. Moreover, the Yak can be airlifted in a C-130 or C-160 as well as in the future Airbus A400M. Owing to its two-stage automatic transmission, self-blocking torsion differentials and excellent running gear, even inexperienced drivers find the Yak easy to handle in difficult terrain, including sandy and/or rocky desert.

At this year's IDEX, Rheinmetall Landsysteme will be presenting the command post version of the Yak. In the military command and control process, command posts are the central element for assessing and evaluating the tactical situation on the ground and issuing orders to manoeuvre units.

Depending on the echelon of command and the threat situation, modern command posts must ensure the following:

• Up-to-the-minute situational awareness
• Reliable, secure communications
• Survivability (i.e. a high degree of force protection)
• Mobility
• Air transportability
• Ergonomic workstations
• Air conditioning (critical for desert operations)
• NBC protection

Rheinmetall Landsysteme's Yak command post vehicle meets all of these requirements, allowing leaders to command their units even when on the move.

By using "Commercial or Military Off-The-Shelf" IT products (COTS/MOTS), new technical developments can easily be incorporated into the system. Expensive stockpiling of spare parts is unnecessary.