international
Falkatus The ‘Falkatus’ made on the Kamaz 4911 competition special two-axle chassis is used as a Russian infantry fighting vehicle.
B
etter known as ‘Karatel’, the Russian infantry fighting vehicle ‘Falkatus’ was developed for the FSB CSN. Built on the Kamaz 4911 competition special chassis, the vehicle has been developed by Moscow-based ZAO ‘Fort-
Bhushan Mhapralkar Tekhnologiya’ for the Russian Defense Ministry. With few different pilot models of ‘Falkatus’ made on the Kamaz 4911 competition special twoaxle chassis, the interesting part about the vehicle is how the experience and excellent results of the Dakar specials
with which the members of the Kamaz Master Team have been declassifying the world competition in all the races in which they participate for more than a decade was leveraged. In fact, the slight difference between ‘Karatel’ and the ‘Falkatus’ is claimed to be a decade worth of development where the former was an early project on ZIL chassis and never built with armour whereas the later is armoured. Used by FSB for anti-terrorist operations, the full combat weight of ‘Falkatus’ is 12 tonnes. With room for some confusion where a majority of people would confuse the ‘Falkatus’ for ‘Karatel’, the Russian infantry fighting vehicle is named after arced Celtic sword or the modern
Commercial Vehicle www.commercialvehicle.in // June 2021
57