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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: |
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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 |
|
U.S. Army |
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"Zinnsoldat" via Wikipedia Commons |
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Ukrainian Ministry of Defense |
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U.S. Embassy - Ukraine |
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"Void Wanderer" via Wikipedia Commons |
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Kharkov Morozov Machine Building Design Bureau |
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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 |