#btr-80

Russian Wagner Group "Africa Corps" BTR-82AT, captured by the Azawad Liberation Front.

The BTR family of vehicles are certainly an oddity. Adopted in 1959, the BTR-60 was the true start of the BTR line of amphibious APCs. Seating 14-16 cozy dismounts and 2 crew, the BTR-60 was made to replace the older BTR-152 and BTR-40 vehicles in Soviet service, which were found disappointing largely because of their lack of a roof. With the accompanying decision to restructure many units to the Motor Rifle Division layout, a new, armored APC was needed. Development would lead to two vehicles, the BTR-60, a lighter, cheaper, APC concept designed primarily for offloading infantry in Motor Rifle Divisions, and the more expensive BMP-1, which, while called an APC, was really more of an IFV concept for use in Tank Divisions. The BTR-70 would be an incremental improvement on the 60, while the BTR-80 would be considered a larger modernization effort. The BTR-90 would come into existence in the early 90's, but has mostly only been present on paper.

P.S. Though destroyed as of Autumn 2022, this loss has remained undocumented until now.

When it's mature it will have six, just like its grand-daddy ONTOS.

Bucharest, Romania, 1990 by Danish photographer Marianne Grøndahl