Ukraine is retiring a Soviet chemical-scout vehicle in favor of one it built itself. Ukraine's National Guard has received the first Ukrainian radiation and chemical reconnaissance vehicles on the armored Tisa chassis, replacing the outdated Soviet UAZ-469RKh, National Guard commander Oleksandr Pivnenko announced.
The vehicle is a step in Ukraine's shift from Soviet legacy equipment to its own modern designs. Developed to National Guard specifications for current battlefield conditions, the armored scout allows crews to survey and monitor contaminated zones without leaving the protected vehicle.
What the vehicle does
The vehicle carries radiation and chemical reconnaissance instruments, an automated system for collecting and processing information, a weather station, modern communications, and satellite navigation, all of which enable real-time data collection and transmission to assess a situation and make decisions faster.
The mission is early warning of invisible threats. The task of chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) units is to detect radiation, chemical, and biological threats in time, determine the extent of contamination, and quickly pass the information to command.
"The safety of soldiers, the completion of combat tasks, and the protection of the civilian population depend on the speed and accuracy of this work," Pivnenko said.
The armored base is the upgrade
The Tisa chassis is what sets the new vehicle apart from its Soviet predecessor. The light-armored Tisa is built on the Toyota Land Cruiser 79 platform and meets the NATO STANAG 4569 protection standard, providing ballistic and mine protection that the open-topped UAZ never offered.
The vehicle is equipped for hard conditions. It carries night-vision systems and air ventilation and filtration systems, letting the crew work in contaminated or dangerous environments while staying protected. The filtration matters especially for a CBRN vehicle: it lets the crew operate inside a sealed, over-pressured cabin in exactly the toxic zones the vehicle is sent to scout.
