HOMEABOUT USWHAT'S NEWFORUMLINKS



Please Support our Sponsors
 
   

BTR-70 Armored Personnel Carrier Series


Specifications

Country of Origin/Used by: Soviet Union/Russia and about 30 other users
First Produced/Service Dates: 1972
Manufactured by: Arzamas Machinery Contruction Plant (Prior to 1981: Gorky Automotive Plant)
Crew: 2+8
Armament: Main: 14.5mm Heavy Machine Gun (KPVT); Co-axial: 7.62mm MG (PKTM)
Engine: Early Vehicles: (2) 6-Cylinder Gasoline (GAZ-49B); Later Vehicles: (2) 8-Cylinder Gasoline (ZMZ-4905)
Miscellaneous Info: The BTR-70 Armored Personnel Carrier (APC) Series (aka: GAZ-4905) was an improvement over the BTR-60PB APC and replaced it in production. Improvements include better armor protection, more vision and firing ports for passengers, upgraded engines and the addition of side doors for easier ingress/egress. BTR is the acronym for "Bronetransporter", translated from Russian as 'armored transporter'.

There were four (4) recognized production marks/versions of this vehicle. They started with the early production BTR-70 obr. 1978, which was powered by the 6-cylinder GAZ-49B engines.  The second version was the BTR-70 obr. 1982, which replaced the initial engines with the 8-cylinder ZMZ-4905 model.  The third version was the obr. 1982 that had a new periscope added to the roof. The fourth and fiinal version was the obr. 1986 which was fitted with the turret from the BTR-80 series. Although the BTR-70 series had the same armament as before, the weapons were more effective due to a higher possible gun elevation level.

Like its predecessors, the BTR-70 design was relatively flexible for its time which allowed them to be used as the basis for other variants, besides the APC. Russian variants include the 15Ya56-MBP Base Security Vehicle, BREM (Turretless) Recovery Vehicle, BTR-70Kh Chemical Recon Vehicle, BTR-70M (Upgraded turret & single engine of BTR-80), BTR-70MBP Artillery Command Vehicle, BTR-70MS (Turretless) Communications Support Vehicle, BTR-70KShM Command/Staff Vehicle and SPR-2/2M "Rhut-B) Electronic Warfare Vehicle. In addition there were foreign-built vehicles including the East German SPW-70, Romanian TAB-77 and Ukrainian BTR-70DI (BTR-7 Defender) APC's. Although considered a good vehicle, the BTR-70 series was eventually replaced by the
BTR-80 APC Series.
Data Sheet Available:   None Available

Photos

Reference Source/Provider
BTR-70 APC Photos Major (Retired) Don Allen - Orleans, Ontario Canada
BTR-70 APC Photos The Massimo Foti Collection
BTR-70 APC Photos - (Taken at Musee' des Blindes - Saumur, France) Christophe Jacquemont - France
BTR-70 APC Photos Vitaly Kuzmin - Moscow, Russia
BTR-70 APC (Uparmored) Photos Vitaly Kuzmin
BTR-70 APC Photos - (Taken at Musee' des Blindes - Saumur, France) Dennis Trowbridge - Salisbury, UK
  BTR-70 APC Photo (Ukraine) U.S. Army
  BTR-70DI APC Photo (Ukraine) "Zinnsoldat" via Wikipedia Commons
  BTR-70DI-02 "Svityaz" Armored Command Vehicle Photo (Ukraine) Ukrainian Ministry of Defense
  BTR-70DI-02 "Svityaz" Armored Command Vehicle Photo (Ukraine) U.S. Embassy - Ukraine
  BTR-70DI-02 "Svityaz" Armored Command Vehicle Photo (Ukraine) "Void Wanderer" via Wikipedia Commons
        BTR-70 APC (Modernized) with BM GROM Turret Photos Kharkov Morozov Machine Building Design Bureau
   BTR-70 APC (Modernized) with ZTM-1 Turret Photo Kharkov Morozov Machine Building Design Bureau

References Available

Online

Reference Source/Provider
BTR-70 APC Information & Photos Army-Gude.com
BTR-70 APC Information & Photos Federation of American Scientists
BTR-70 APC Information & Photos Global Security.Org
BTR-70 APC Information & Photos Military Factory
BTR-70 APC Information & Photos Tank-Encyclopedia
BTR-70 APC Information & Photos TankNutDave.com
BTR-70 APC Information & Photos Weaponsystems.net
"Detailing the Dragon BTR-70"  By Paul Bird Armored Car - The Wheeled Fighting Vehicle Journal (Issue #13)

Printed

Reference Author
Armor of the Afghanistan War (Concord Publications) Zaloga, Luczak & Beldam
Blue Helmets Under Fire, The (Concord Publications) Samuel Katz & Yves Debay
BTR-70 In detail (G 023) Wings & Wheels Productions
Encyclopedia of Armoured Cars Duncan Crow & Robert J. Icks
IFOR: Vehicles of the Multinational IFOR Peace-Keeping Operation (1995-96) (Tankograd Publications) Carl Schulze
Jane's Tank Recognition Guide (Fourth Edition) Christopher F. Foss
Soviet Wheeled Armored Vehicles (Concord Publications) Steven Zaloga
Wheeled Armoured Fighting Vehicles In Service B.T. White

Hobby Modeling

For a Full List of Model Kits and Accessories related to the BTR-70 APC Series, you can check out Scalemates.

Model Photos

Reference Source/Provider