Frag Out! Magazine
Issue link: https://fragout.uberflip.com/i/713424
compartment, which has room for three crew members and six troops. The driver sits on the left side, in a relatively shallow niche, between the left part of the hull and the protruding wall of the drive compartment. Behind the driver, there is the place for the gunner (near the longi- tudinal axis of the vehicle) and the commander (near the right side). Transported soldiers – 4 on the right and 2 on the left side – sit with their backs turned to the sides of the vehicle. In general, the combat-assault compartment has a quite limited space, so the crew and the assault soldiers sit very close to each other. The access to the inside of Puma is available through a large lowered ramp in the back and a spacious hatch with a cover above the assault compartment. What is more, the driver and the commander have their own hatches with sliding covers. The idea of an emergency hatch in the bottom of the hull was abandoned. It was probably due to the fact that the presence of such a hatch lowers vehicle's protection against mines. The self-supporting hull was welded from steel rolled plates and adjusted to assembly of mod- ular armor. The base ballistic re- sistance – level "A" (like Air-Transportable) – is equivalent to STANAG 4569 Level 4 and it protects against 14.5 mm large caliber machine guns. The front part of Puma has been reinforced with special armor. It is said that this part of the vehicle, which is most exposed to attacks, is able to withhold fire from subcaliber 30 mm rounds, high-explosive RPG warheads and older gen- eration ATGMs. The interior of the machine is padded with anti-fragment lining. In case of the armor being pierced, the lining decreases the risk of the crew and assault soldier being harmed by the piercing projectile and frag- ments of the hull. The turret of Puma, welded from rolled plates, weighs 3.5 tonnes. It is an unmanned con- struction mounted on the slope of the hull, slightly to the left from its longitudinal axis. The characteristic asymmetric shape of the turret results from the adopted construction assumptions – it is to allow the commander view the surroundings with optical channel of a panoramic device without the need of using cameras. That is why the rotation axis of the turret includes a massive tube of the said de- vice. The armaments – a cannon and a coaxial machine gun – are mounted on the right side, which allowed creating space for ammunition in the niche. On the left side of the turret, there is an installed optoelectronic gunner sight. VEHICLES