OREANDA-NEWS. May 4, 2012. Dmitry Rogozin, deputy Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation had a working trip to URALVAGONZAVOD Research and Production Corporation.

One of the sites Dmitry Rogozin has visited was the Ural DESIGN OFFICE OF TRANSPORT MECHANICAL ENGINEERING which is a part of URALVAGONZAVOD Corporation. There he saw some advanced designs of armored vehicles developed by Nizhny Tagil experimental machinists. He has also addressed the issue of Defense Procurement and Acquisition in 2012. Accompanied by Igor Kholmanskikh, the head of the Machine Assembly Department, later that day Mr. Rogozin, studied the production of new armored fighting vehicles.

“There is as a matter of fact an agreement between the Ministry of Defense and URALVAGONZAVOD Corporation on T-72 tank upgrade,” said Dmitry Rogozin after he took a tour of the production site. “By the year 2015 the “Armata” project will be completed. It’s not an armored fighting vehicle in the conventional sense, but rather a cutting edge multipurpose base for infantry fighting vehicles, accident rescue vehicles and others. They will have a modular system and repairing them will take very little time and effort even in field conditions. The damaged item will be easily removed and replaced,” he said.

Modern UVZ armored fighting vehicles were demonstrated to Dmitry Rogozin at Nizhny Tagil Institute of Metal Testing training area. The deputy prime-minister as a crew member emplaced the modernized T-90 tank and fired several shots. At the test range they negotiated several obstacles.

Moreover, at the training area Dmitry Rogozin was familiarized with the project of a new Training and Exhibition Centre of Weapons and Military Equipment that is in works in Nizhny Tagil. The UVZ Corporation is known to initiate this project.

“Everybody witnessed that these are in fact decent vehicles of high quality. And they can actually fly. And the crew members aren’t quite armor crewmen, but rather pilots. We will perfect the machines. And it’s not only about introducing a new machine by 2015. The key point here is the next 20-30 years of work that will result in developing new advanced armament system” said Mr. Rogozin. “We have extensive developing plans for the training area. It’ll become the main Russian trial centre for armor and ammunition, as well as main demonstration area for high-level international meetings. And Russian tank builders will train tank crews for foreign customers”.

Oleg Sienko, CEO of OJSC “Research and Production Corporation “URALVAGONZAVOD” commented on Mr. Rogozin’s trip, “We demonstrated to Dmitry Rogozin both our new machines and our development path and planning time-frame. This is important to us. And we are glad that UVZ’s policy is endorsed by the government of the Russian federation”.