Russia's Tractor Plants Concern is developing a new amphibious tracked armoured personnel carrier (APC) called the BT-3F, a defence industry source told IHS Jane's . The new APC is intended for the use by naval infantry/marine units.
"The Tractor Plants Concern is finishing the designing of the BT-3F APC in order to exhibit its demonstrator at the Army 2016 military-technical forum outside Moscow in September 2016. The vehicle may partially replace the BTR-80 APC of Russia's Naval Infantry. We suppose that the Ministry of Defence (MoD) will take a close look on the new vehicle at the forum," the source said.
He said that the BT-3F APC has a combat weight of 18.5 tonnes, a crew of three, and can carry 14 soldiers. "The vehicle is armoured at Level 4 STANAG 4569, providing all-round protection against 14.5x114 mm bullets fired from a KPVT heavy machine gun at a 200 m distance. The hull of BT-3F has a length of 7,000 mm, a width of 3,300 mm, and a height of 3,000 mm. The APC is powered by a diesel engine [of 500 hp] that provides a road speed of 70 km/h, a swimming speed of 10 km/h, and a power-to-weight ratio of 26.7 hp/t. The BT-3F has an operational range of 600 km," the source added.
The BT-3F is based on the chassis of the BMP-3 infantry fighting vehicle (IFV). As a result "the serial production and massive deliveries of the BT-3F APCs to the Russian Armed Forces can be established in the shortest time possible, due to the high level of interchangeability between the carrier and the BMP-3 IFV," the source claimed.
The new vehicle is currently armed by a DPV-T remote controlled weapon station (RCWS) fitted with a 7.62x54 mm PKTM Kalashnikov machine gun. However, "The APC can be integrated with all types of remote turrets developed by the Russian defence industry, including those armed with 12.7 mm 6P49 Kord machine gun and 14.5 mm KPVT machine gun, as well as 30 mm AG-17A and 40 mm AG-40 automatic grenade launchers," the source said.
(Jane's)
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