The International Military-Technical Forum "Army-2021" is being held near Moscow from August 22 to 28, and the exposition of Belarus is one of the brightest.
At the "Army-2021" you can see the best samples of Belarusian military equipment. Various means of communication, military telecommunications, radar equipment, unmanned aerial vehicles are widely represented. Specialists are interested in electronic warfare systems, including those designed to combat drones.
One of the stars of the forum in Russia is the Volat MZKT - 690003 (BTR-V2) heavy armored personnel carrier. It was first shown at the MILEX-2021 military-technical salon, held in Minsk in June. Now-the premiere in Russia.
"Volat" is a trademark of the Minsk Wheel Tractor Plant. In the Belarusian language, this word means-a hero. And all the MZKT machines in their size and power have always been a match for the name. The BTR-V2 was no exception.
It is a four-wheel drive armored combat vehicle with a wheel formula of 8x8, weighing 19900 kg. The armored personnel carrier is floating, equipped with two water-jet propellers that provide a speed of up to 10 km/h on the water. On land, this heavy armored personnel carrier can reach speeds of up to 100 km / h.
The main task of the armored personnel carrier is to deliver personnel to the places of combat operations. At the same time, it is able to provide serious fire support to units in combat, including in the fight against tanks. The BTR-V2 is armed with a combat module from the BMP-2, including a 30-mm 2A42 automatic cannon, a 7.62-m PKT machine gun paired with it and an anti-tank guided missile launcher. The original layout of the power compartment became an undoubted advantage of the BTR-V2 over all currently existing similar armored personnel carriers, including Russian ones. The engine and the hydro-mechanical gearbox are placed on a single subframe. This makes it possible to dismantle the power unit with all systems without draining the working fluids in a very short time. Which is very important in the conditions of military operations.
Of course, those who represent the BTR-V2 at the Army-2021 do not expect that the Russian Armed Forces will immediately be interested in them. Now a similar Russian heavy armored personnel carrier "Boomerang"is being promoted to their arsenals. But "Army-2021" is an international military - technical forum, which brings together representatives of the armed forces of almost all countries of the world. They will definitely pay attention to the armored car from the MZKT, since they know the products of the Belarusian defense industry perfectly well. And they appreciate it for its high reliability, excellent combat characteristics and quite an acceptable price.
Sergey Ptichkin