April 30, 2015. A special firefighting vehicle produced by Omsk Transport Machine-Building Plant (a member enterprise of Uralvagonzavod Corporation) will now be used by the Russian Armed Forces; a decree to this extent was signed by First Deputy Defense Minister Valeriy Gerasimov in early April, the corporation’s press service reports.

‘The machine was designed by our Omsk-based experts in 2012; this is one of those rare cases when it only takes a year to design, test, and produce the vehicle. In 2013, the machine was presented at Russian Arms Expo in Nizhniy Tagil and aroused great interest there. Following government-initiated tests, the vehicle was officially named Special Firefighting Machine and will soon be added to the MoD’s fleet of vehicles,’ the company says.

The firefighting machine was created on the basis of tanks T72 and T80 and is meant for fire-fighting and rescue operations at munitions depots and explosives warehouses as well as for clearing roads during forest fires. The machine weighs 65,000 kg at the most and is fit for three people, who will be safe inside an air- and heat-insulated cabin. The machine contains 25 m3 of fire extinguishing agent that can be dispersed at the speed of 100 liters per second, with reach of up to 100 m.