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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

Printed

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