TRANSPORTER OPANCERZONY BTR-60PB

The wheeled armored personnel carrier BTR-60 was developed in the late 1950s and entered service with the Soviet Army in 1959. Serial production of the vehicle took place in the years 1959-1976. The vehicle was powered by two carburetor engines with a total power of 180 HP and took from 8 to 16 landing troops. The crew consisted of two people: the commander and the mechanic-driver. The BTR-60 transporter was created as a quite successful successor to the BTR-152. In the BTR-60 PB version, its biggest advantage over its predecessor was the main armament (a 7.62 mm machine gun) in the movable turret, which allowed for effective circular fire, slightly better armor, as well as a much better adaptation of the vehicle to combat the battlefield with the use of weapons of mass destruction. By far the biggest disadvantage of the BTR-60, as well as its successors from the "BTR" series, was the disastrous placement of very small hatches for the landing troops. This resulted in a very long time of leaving the car, which in practice led to a paradoxical situation in which the landing party moved mainly on the roof of the BTR-60, not inside it! The BTR-60 wheeled armored personnel carriers were used in combat in Afghanistan in 1979-1989. The BTR-60 was exported or licensed in: Poland, Finland, Estonia and Lithuania.