Ukraine Made its Own Armored Combat Vehicle — and It’s Kind of Awesome

Inguar-3 multirole armored vehicle — Courtesy Inguar

When the US deployed to Iraq in 2003, the Army learned a hard lesson about using Humvees — the standard tactical vehicle at the time — which had a flat armored undercarriage.

After the overthrow of Saddam Hussain, and Bush stood on a flight deck touting “mission accomplished,” the war evolved into a brutal, decades-long counterinsurgency.

Like Afghanistan, one of the main dangers to US troops was the enemy’s use of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) or roadside bombs.

When an IED exploded underneath the vehicle, the force from the explosion was absorbed directly into this flat, horizontal undercarriage with deadly results.

It got so bad that troops would often sit on their flak vests, rather than wear them because the danger of an explosion from below was so life-threatening.

This is my Humvee from the sandbox. No armor… Also, after all these years, I just noticed in my pic that we had no drum of ammo on the M240B machine gun. The belt just dangles out the side with like 20 rounds. WTH

The Army eventually recognized the need for a new light combat vehicle for the troops — and the Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected truck, or MRAP, was born.

The main feature of these new vehicles was MRAPs have V-shaped hulls to deflect explosive forces from land…