MOSCOW, October 3 – Novosti. The outfit of a future new generation soldier, which is being developed to replace the Ratnik and Sotnik kits, will be called Legionnaire, a source in the military-industrial complex told Novosti.
“A decision has been made on the name for the promising equipment of the soldier of the future. If the previous generations of equipment were called “originally Russian” names – “Warrior” and “Sotnik”, then the new project received a more “international” name – “Legionnaire,” the agency’s interlocutor explained.
He noted that more than ten years have passed since the launch of the Ratnik project – despite the fact that the equipment turned out to be successful, the creation of new equipment is dictated by the demand of the time: new materials, technologies have appeared, the very specifics of warfare have changed.
Warrior and centurion
By the end of 2020, the Russian army received more than 300,000 sets of second-generation Ratnik equipment, the lead developer of which is TsNIITochmash. Today, the development of equipment of the third generation “Sotnik” is underway, some of the elements of which are already undergoing preliminary tests. As the Rostec state corporation told reporters, Russian defense industry enterprises are already discussing requirements for equipment for the next — conditionally fourth generation.
As previously reported to Novosti in Rostec, the Sotnik equipment will be based on a special polyethylene fiber, which, on the one hand, will make the equipment light, and on the other, will provide a protection class higher than that of existing bulletproof vests. Composite armor will receive shock absorption, which will stop fragments at speeds up to 670 meters per second and prevent organ contusions and fractures. In addition, the development can be equipped with an active exoskeleton with electric motors, it can also include robotic systems and artificial intelligence elements.
Subsequently, a source in the military-industrial complex told Novosti that the creators of the Sotnik equipment also plan to equip it with optical devices to blind the enemy at long range. In addition, new-generation equipment can be equipped with “nano-pilots” (drones weighing only 180 grams) developed by the Kronstadt group .
