MOSCOW, April 7. /TASS/. Specialists of the Chapayev Cheboksary Production Association (part of Technodinamika Group within the state tech corporation Rostec) have developed Russia’s first device that simulates combat hardware destruction on the battlefield during drills and will make part of a laser engagement system, the Technodinamika press office announced on Wednesday.

"This invention is unrivaled in Russia. A similar system is used during battle exercises in NATO countries and South Korea but ours has original design. For example, it uses large-yield smoke cartridges. The simulator can be produced in record time. Just six months have passed from receiving the assignment to producing the first batch of 10 devices and 100 smoke pellets and delivering them to the customer," the press office quoted Technodinamika Group CEO Igor Nasenkov as saying.

The simulator will make it possible to substitute practice munitions with a laser beam and cut the cost of drills. As Technodinamika specified, the device's trials are scheduled for 2021, following which a decision will be made on its compliance with the requirements and its acceptance for service.

The simulator developed by the Cheboksary specialists will make part of laser multi-purpose modules that will be additionally mounted on combat hardware, for example, tanks or infantry fighting vehicles. The device includes smoke cartridges and special controllers.

With the help of a controller, the simulator interacts with a combat vehicle’s onboard computer that records attacks during drills and signals military hardware’s notional destruction. A white smoke cartridge is triggered to indicate that a combat vehicle is ‘damaged’ while a black smoke munition signals its ‘destruction.’