Canadian armoured vehicle manufacturer Roshel announced that it had delivered the 1,000th Senator to the defenders of Ukraine. This is a great big armoured vehicle, which can take many different roles on the Ukrainian frontlines. Ukrainian soldiers have many good things to say about the Senator and it actually has many interesting features.
Roshel Senator in Ukraine. Image credit: АрміяInform via Wikimedia (CC BY 4.0)
Ukraine is being helped by so many different countries. It is great – Ukraine is in a desperate need of military aid. However, this does result in a huge number of different vehicles that the defenders of Ukraine need to take advantage of and maintain. Some of them are quite rare and exotic.
The Roshel Senator would seem like such a vehicle, because it is from Canada and before the war in Ukraine was used only by Canada itself and NASA (they used them to defend astronauts before the 2020 Crew Dragon Demo-2 test flight).
However, the Roshel Senator is actually not that strange. It is based on a Ford F-550 chassis and has a Ford 6.7 litre Power Stroke diesel engine with a 10-speed automatic transmission. This means that spare parts for these vehicles are readily available pretty much everywhere in the world.
Also, because it’s based on a civilian platform, the Senator is bizarrely comfortable. It even has air conditioning and sound insulation. And while it weighs around 8 tonnes, it is actually quite good off-road, because of all that Ford expertise that was incorporated into this chassis.
The Senator is often used as a quick personnel transporter in Ukraine. Image credit: АрміяInform via Wikimedia (CC BY 4.0)
The Senator has 250 kW of power and 750 Nm of torque. Its top speed depends on the weight, but you can expect it to go as fast as 120 km/h. This is quite impressive for an armoured vehicle, which serves as an armoured personnel carrier. 10 passengers and 2 crew members will find space inside of the Senator and it can be armed with a machine gun.
The Senator has a good level of protection against lighter charges and bullets. Its original purpose was peacekeeping and law enforcement activities so protection from small arms fire was the main focus of its designers. However, it can be configured as an armoured personnel carrier or an infantry mobility vehicle and that is what it does in Ukraine.
🎉 Roshel delivers 1,000th Senator armored vehicle to Ukraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/Eh4GmOsMPG
— The Ukrainian Review (@UkrReview) December 21, 2023
Because it is based on a ubiquitous Ford platform, the Roshel Senator can be made quite quickly. Just 8 Senators were shipped to Ukraine in 2022 and the 1,000th was delivered this December. Of course, naturally, several of them were lost in the Ukrainian defence effort. However, the defenders of Ukraine are happy with these machines, because they are easy to maintain, quick and easy to use.
Written by Povilas M.