MOSCOW, May 8. /TASS/. Serial production of the mechanised infantry combat vehicles (MICV) on the Kurganets-25 medium tracked platform may be launched in 2017-2018, Vice President and co-owner of the vehicle developer - Tractor Plants concern Albert Bakov told TASS in an interview on Friday.

"The research and development work for the creation of the Kurganets-25 platform vehicles is not over yet. The development prototypes will be subjected to preliminary and then to state tests. So, concerning the new platform I can say that the Russian Defence Ministry has already ordered a batch of the Kurganets MICV for field trials. If everything goes well, then the vehicles’ full-fledged serial production is planned to be organised in 2017-2018," Bakov said.

According to him, the state tests of such vehicles include comprehensive military operational requirement checks. "Several prototypes are subjected to tests, which are conducted in Russia’s various climatic regions. The vehicles are also tested for their landing ships’ boarding and disembarkation capacity at sea with the swell scale of up to 3 points.

Russia’s latest armored prototype Kurganets-25 was recently spotted rehearsing for the nation’s upcoming May 9 Victory Day parade following more than half a decade of top-secret development. This amphibious personnel carrier has been designed to replace all of Russia’s existing tracked assault vehicles, which have been in service since the Cold War.

The 25-ton Kurganets-25 will carry about a half-dozen troops and protect them with modular armor that can be adapted to meet specific mission requirements. It is armed with a 30-mm cannon and four anti-tank guided missile launchers, all of which will reportedly be controlled by an on-board automatic firing system capable of choosing its own targets. The turret is remotely operated by a crew of three.