Iranian Armed forces unveiled new BTR-60 personnel carrier armed with Sedad 23mm cannon 2808141.

The 23 mm cannon, which has been optimized under a project known as “Sedad”, is mounted on the BTR-60PB 8x8 armoured personnel carrier.

The BTR-60PB is Soviet-made 8x8 armoured vehicle personnel carrier (APC) which was developed in the late 1950s to replace the BTR-152 6x6 APC and was first seen in public in 1961. The standard BTR-60PB is equipped with a one-man turret mounted in the centre of the vehicle. For the Iranian version, the turret is removed and the vehicle is fitted with a ZU-23-2 anti-aircraft weapon system.

The ZU-23-2 is a Soviet-made 23 mm anti-aircraft twin-barreled automatic cannon. It was designed to engage low-flying targets at a range of 2.5 km as well as armoured vehicles at a range of two kilometres (km) and for direct defense of troops and strategic locations against air assault usually conducted by helicopters and low-flying airplanes.

Thanks to the new optical device installed on its top, the ZU-23-2 cannon of the new BTR-60 Sedad can be controlled from inside the vehicle, eliminating the need for a gunner to operate the weapon outside the personnel carrier. According to our first analysis of the vehicle, a CCD camera is mounted on the top of the weapon station to provide day/night firing capability.

The Iranian military experts and technicians have in recent years made great headways in manufacturing a broad range of indigenous equipment, making the armed forces self-sufficient in the arms sphere.