KPE’s Barys 8x8 vehicle nearing service entry

Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Defence is in the final stages of the evaluation of Kazakhstan Paramount Engineering's (KPE's) Barys 8x8 armoured vehicle ahead of acceptance into service, Paramount Group announced on 7 March.

The Barys is the winterised version of Paramount’s Mbombe 8 and features advanced land system technologies according to the company. The vehicle has been developed to meet the increasing demand for multi-role, high mobility and mine hardened platforms.

The winter trials of the Barys started in early December 2017 at a military tank test site in central Kazakhstan and included a series of intensive factory acceptance tests. The tests are intended to evaluate and optimise the complete weapon system, platform and turret.

Currently, the vehicle is equipped with a Shipunov 2A42 30mm automatic cannon and a 7.62mm machine gun jointly manufactured by joint venture Kazakhstan Aselsan Engineering and the Turkish parent company Aselsan. The weapon system was evaluated during both day and night firing sessions, in static and fire on the move modes. The 30mm cannon, which has ranges greater than 2000m, was demonstrated successfully under the severe ambient conditions according to Paramount.

The vehicle design allows for the addition of a large range of other weapon systems, enabling it to be customised for armed forces throughout the world.

The 8x8 combat vehicles will be produced at the 15,000sqm KPE armoured vehicle factory in Astana in Kazakhstan.

Johan Delport, director of the KPE factory in Astana, said: ‘The most severe winter conditions prevailed during testing, similar to conditions found in Siberia. During this period the temperature dropped to -45 celsius with a chill factor of -60 celsius, resulting in serious challenges to man and machine while conquering up to 750mm of soft snow.

‘During such conditions every smallest detail and subsystem could be evaluated extensively. Items such as glass heating for de-ice and de-misting, engine heating before starting, batteries, cabin heating, electrical functions, steering, and suspension have been successfully tested. The vehicle performed exceptionally throughout the trials.’