EURASIA Blades to the Brigades: Northern Fleet Ground Forces Receive Arctic Bulldozers OE Watch Commentary: A bulldozer is a must for construction and soldiering in the Arctic. Snow drifts and ice blocks need to be moved out of the way. But the Arctic is more than ice and snow. There is peaty soil and permafrost under all that snow. Permafrost is a mixture of rocks, soil and ice that remains frozen in a layer year-round. Permafrost forms when winter freezing exceeds summer thawing and can extend 2,000 feet below the ground surface. Permafrost is tough to move, peaty soil --not so much. In the summer, a thaw sets in and sections of the far north turn into massive bogs on top of the permafrost. The bogs and marshy ground can readily swallow heavy equipment. As the accompanying passage discusses, the BM10M2S armored bulldozer is specially designed to operate in this Arctic environment. It is tracked, the tracks are wide and Russian BM10M2S Armored Bulldozer Source: Vitali Kuzmin, https://www.vitalykuzmin.net/Military/ARMY-2017-Static-p3/i-HLW8FHP, CC BY SA 4.0 the bulldozer’s weight is carefully distributed. Other Russian tracked engineer and combat vehicles are already equipped with blades to move snow and soil, but when it comes to heavy digging and pushing, the bulldozer leads the way. End OE Watch Commentary (Grau) “Arctic brigades have received special bulldozers. They are fully armored and can withstand grenades, small arms fire, and even hits by antitank missiles. The special bulldozer has been designed not only for road construction work but also to evacuate equipment under fire and to destroy enemy fortifications. The vehicle is fully autonomous and is well adapted for work in the North. Its engine starts up at temperatures down to -60° Celsius [-76° Fahrenheit].”

Source: Aleksey Ramm and Bogdan Stepovoy: “With Armor on Ice: Troops in Arctic Get Special Bulldozers. Vehicles Are Designed To Destroy Enemy Fortifications and To Build Roads”,Izvestia , 26 March 2019. https://iz.ru/845814/aleksei-ramm-bogdan-stepovoi/bronei-po- ldu-voiska-v-arktike-poluchili-spetcbuldozery

With Armor on Ice: Troops in Arctic Get Special Bulldozers. Vehicles Are Designed To Destroy Enemy Fortifications and To Build Roads According to the Ministry of Defense, the Arctic brigades have received special armored bulldozers. Syrian experience showed that field formations need such simple and inexpensive specialized equipment. This bulldozer …has an armored capsule for the driver’s cab and a protected engine cowling. The vehicle weighs more than 20 tons and has a speed of 10 km/hour. The bulldozer has been specially adapted to operate in the Arctic. It is capable of moving large amounts of earth throughout a wide range of temperatures from 45° to -60° Celsius [113° to -76° Fahrenheit]. Armored plates up to 20 mm thick protect the driver against bullets, shell fragments or aviation ordnance as well as antitank missiles. The bulldozer’s cabin and side doors are equipped with armored glass to provide the driver with the view that he needs to work. In the future the vehicle may be fitted with special stand-off grill screening to protect it against shaped charges and antitank rocket launchers. As the Syrian experience showed, this combination armor makes it possible to reduce personnel losses substantially while performing combat missions. The Arctic bulldozer is designed to construct roads, evacuate equipment under fire, and destroy enemy fortifications….Bulldozers are required primarily for the rapid construction of defensive positions, dismantling obstacles and the construction of simple engineer barriers such as earth banks or berms. These machines are also needed to move large amounts of soil, backfill trenches and ditches, dismantle obstacles and barricades, and repair roads during combat. In peacetime the bulldozers can be used during emergencies to assist the population. The additional armor will not have a major impact on the vehicle’s main characteristics. On the contrary, the armor will be able to protect the vehicle’s operator against falling trees or pieces of buildings and structures. Military expert Colonel (retired) Sergei Suvorov stated that “The practice of employing this machinery is widespread in the Near East. Of course, there are no barricades in the Arctic, but this machine will prove handy in clearing drifts and blocks of ice and in building roads.” Many armies of the world have armored bulldozers. The United States has used such machines widely ever since the war in Vietnam, where bulldozers would clear the jungle… While preparing for Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003, the American Army and Marine Corps bought 12 armored bulldozers in Israel and used them for engineering work. In Israel, American bulldozers are being modernized for the armed forces. They have armor and bullet-proof glass. In addition, these bulldozers can be fitted with additional attachments (a smokescreen system, machine gun, or grenade launcher) that can be controlled directly from the cabin. The crew of the Israeli bulldozer consists of two people – the bulldozer driver and a rifleman. Soldiers call these vehicles, despite their formidable appearance, teddy bears

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