Cate's Research-Investigation Bureau

 The GM-569 series of tracked armoured vehicles is a universal platform created in 1978 by the Mytishschi Machine-Building Plant. In 1980, several modification variants of the GM-569 were made. The GM-577, GM-579 and GM-567. GM-577 and GM-567 are used as platforms to launch SAMs while the GM-579 is used as a mobile command post. In the 90s, a new generation of GM-569 chassis was laid out. In 1990 the GM-562, 1992 GM-5959, 1993 GM-5951 and GM-5952, in 1994 GM-5955 (chassis of the "TOR-M1") and in 1995 the GM-5975 (chassis of the "Tunguska-M1"). The hull structure comprises 3 segments; a crew compartment in the front, a central section (combat section) and an engine-transmission section, which are hermetically isolated. The GM-569 series strives far from its predecessor hull GM-575 used on the "Shilka", "Kub" and others. While the chassis is intended for larger combat modules as listed previously, the volume of the GM-569 is much larger, which remo...

Dear readers of CRIB Blog. With more free time on my hands this summer, I am pleased to announce the following blog updates. Firstly, I want to address the current state of certain large Collection pages represented on this blog. With varying degrees of quality and variety, some pages will be reworked, primarily focusing on the quality and accuracy of the information presented.  Following affected pages:  Soviet/Russian tank sight collection  Comprehensive Soviet/Russian vehicle collection  Russian naming abbreviations  Most of the effort will be going towards reworking the Soviet/Russian vehicle collection, this is because it is poorly assembled with a mix and mash of all AFV-related vehicles. This leads to the next goal of making a separate list, solely for lightly armoured vehicles like the BMD, BMP and their derived variants.  The aforementioned pages will remain available for a certain period before being taken down and updated. Sadly, I cannot provid...

A tank's overall performance during combat does not only depend on the technical characteristics . It also depends on the psychological, emotional and biological factors of the crew and their given tasks.  One way to ease the crew's operating stress is to automate certain processes of the vehicle. But in some cases, this solution does not work, due to the higher qualification requirements for the operation. This issue is more significant when the overall operation complexity of certain modules becomes more delicate and requires highly qualified personnel. As a result, this increases the stress level of crew members. This may be less of an issue with a highly trained crew member but on the other side, the overall performance factor of a crew member heavily depends on the surroundings in which he performs, especially in extreme conditions, such as the crew compartment of any AFV, which can become a harsh operating climate due to the fluctuating microclimate.  A vehicle'...