More BTR-4M and BTR-MDM airborne armoured vehicles for Russian airborne troops TASS 12212152

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Defence & Security News - Russia
 
More BTR-4M and BTR-MDM airborne armoured vehicles for Russian airborne troops.
The latest BMD-4M airborne infantry fighting vehicle and BTR-MDM armored personnel carrier will replace the obsolete BMD-2 and BTR-D in the Russian Airborne Force’s inventory by 2025, Alexander Klyuzhev, executive director, Kurgan Machinebuilding Plant, told journalists on Tuesday, December 22, 2015.
     
     
"The execution of the Russian Defense Ministry-awarded order for advanced BMD-4M airborne infantry fighting vehicles (AIFV) and Rakushka multipurpose armored personnel carriers (APC) is in progress. The number of the vehicles of the types to be made by 2025 will enable the paratroops to replace all of their obsolescent BMD-2s and BTR-Ds," Klyuzhev said.

He noted that foreign customers have taken an interest in the Russian Airborne Force’s latest hardware in 2015.

As was reported in the press, the Russian paratroops will start receiving battalion-size sets of BMD-4M AIFVs, BTR-MDM Rakushka APCs and upgraded 2S9 Nona self-propelled artillery systems in 2016.

The BTR-MDM Rakushka air-droppable APC is a BMD-4M derivative designed to replace the BTR-D APC that had been adopted for service as far back as the 1970s. Its combat weight equals 13.2 tons and carrying capacity - 2 tons. The vehicle mounts two 7.62-mm PKTM machineguns. It has a crew of two and carries a squad of 13. The APC’s maximum road speed is 71 km/h, maximum speed on water - 10 km/h and road endurance - 500 km.

The BMD-4M AIFV is a heavily upgraded BMD-4. It features an advanced hull, engine, running gear and other units. The BMD-4M is equipped with the Bakhcha-U fighting module with a 100-mm gun, a 30-mm gun and a machinegun.
     
     
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