The BTR-70 is a wheeled armored personnel carrier developed in the early 1970s at the design bureau of the Gorky Automobile Plant (GAZ) under the direction of chief designer I. S. Mukhin. It was adopted into service in 1971 and entered serial production in 1976; approximately 10,400 vehicles were built. The BTR-70 was formally accepted into service by order of the USSR Minister of Defense dated 22 August 1972, No. 0141 — subject to the correction of identified deficiencies; refining the design and preparing the technical documentation took four years, and serial production at GAZ only began in 1976.[1][2]
What changed compared to its predecessor
In appearance and in its principal engineering solutions, the BTR-70 repeated the BTR-60, but it was a next-generation vehicle: the earlier powerplant was replaced by a pair of more modern eight-cylinder V-type carburetor engines, the GAZ-49B (ZMZ-4905), each rated at 115–120 hp, which noticeably improved cross-country capability.[2]
Production and continuation
The vehicle was manufactured by the Gorky Automobile Plant, and from 1981 by the Arzamas Machine-Building Plant, the future Arzamas Machine-Building Plant: Nizhny Novgorod Region.[2][2] The design was based on the experimental GAZ-50 infantry fighting vehicle; one of the armored personnel carriers assembled in Gorky in 1983 is today held at the Saratov Museum of Military and Labor Glory. During serial production the vehicle's design was repeatedly refined: a TNPT-1 observation device appeared on the turret roof, and a TNP-205 device on the left side of the turret; drawing on combat experience in mountainous terrain, the BPU-1 turret machine-gun mount with a 1PZ-2 sight was introduced, allowing fire at elevation angles of up to 60°; four firing ports for personal weapons in the vertical plane were added to the hull roof.[1][2]
The shortcomings of the BTR-70 were corrected in its successor: in the early 1980s, the Gorky design bureau under I. Mukhin and Ye. Murashkin designed the GAZ-5903 armored personnel carrier, in which the twin carburetor engines were replaced by a single, more powerful diesel, and large double-leaf hatches for troop embarkation and debarkation were added to the hull sides.[2]
The Nizhny Novgorod City Museum of Technology and Defense Industry (Victory Park, Grebnoy Canal Embankment) holds three examples of the BTR-70: the first arrived in 2012 from among vehicles that had previously stood on the grounds of the Donskoy Monastery in Moscow in memory of the "Dmitry Donskoy" tank column, and was originally painted white; the second joined the collection in the first half of 2013; the third — presumably in 2014, and this vehicle is equipped with a Luna infrared headlight for night illumination.[4]
In addition to the museum, armored personnel carriers of various BTR-70 modifications are on display in the Nizhny Novgorod Region: as a monument on the grounds of military unit 3671 in Village of Shumilovo, Bogorodsky District, and as exhibits at the Pobeda Memorial in Nizhny Novgorod and the Alleya Geroev Memorial in Dzerzhinsk.[4]
Links
Sources
- armforc.su — Armored Personnel Carrier BTR-70 — The BTR-70 was accepted into service by order of the USSR Minister of Defense dated 22 August 1972, No. 0141 — subject to the correction of identified deficiencies; refinement…
- armedman.ru — Armored Personnel Carrier BTR-70 (USSR) — Armies and Soldiers — Armored Personnel Carrier BTR-70 (USSR) (archive)
- ar.culture.ru — BTR-70. Detailed description of the exhibit, audio guide, interesting facts. Official website of Artefact — Artefact (a project of the Ministry of Culture of Russia) — Armored Personnel Carrier…
- techmem-52-rf.moy.su — Technical Monuments of the Nizhny Novgorod Region — Armored Personnel Carrier BTR-70 — At the Nizhny Novgorod City Museum of Technology and Defense Industry (Victory Park, Rowing Canal Embankment)… (archive)