Zvezda 3557 BTR-70 Russian personal carrier (Afgan War)

The wheeled armored personnel carrier BTR-70 was developed in the late 1960s and entered service with the Soviet Army in 1973. Serial production of the vehicle took place in the years 1973-1984. The vehicle was powered by two carburetor engines with a total power of 240 HP and took 7 landing soldiers. The crew consisted of two people: the commander and the mechanic-driver.

The BTR-70 transporter was created as a successor to the BTR-60. The main armament of the car (a 14.5 mm machine gun) was still in the rotating turret, which allowed for effective circular fire. The BTR-70, however, towered over its predecessor with much more powerful engines of the ZMZ-4908 type and a slightly better crew protection. By far the biggest disadvantage of the BTR-70, just like its predecessor, was the disastrous placement of very small hatches for the landing troops. In addition, the big drawback was the complicated drive system, very difficult to repair in combat conditions, as well as the too small lifting angle of the main weapon, which was changed later in subsequent versions. The BTR-70 wheeled armored personnel carriers were used in combat in Afghanistan in 1979-1989 and in armed conflicts led by the Russian Federation in the Caucasus after 1989. Various versions of the BTR-70 are still used today, primarily by Russia, but also by, for example, Ukraine and Lithuania.