Ukraine Army National Guard develops upgraded BTR-80 Joker armed with 4 SPG-9M recoilless guns 13081

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Upgraded BTR-80 8x8 armoured with SPG-9M recoilless gun
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Wednesday, August 13, 2014 03:22 PM
 
Ukraine Army National Guard develops upgraded BTR-80 Joker armed with 4 SPG-9M recoilless guns
The Ukrainian National Guard Regiment in Kalinosky has launched a modernization program for its fleet of BTR-80 8x8 armoured personnel carrier, called the "Joker". A BTR-80 was upgraded with new armour protection using slat armour system and the turret is fitted with four SPG-9M recoilless guns.
     
The Ukrainian National Guard Regiment in Kalinosky has launched a modernization program for its fleet of BTR-80 8x8 armoured personnel carrier, called the "Joker". A BTR-80 was upgraded with new armour protection using slat armour system and the turret is fitted with four SPG-9M recoilless guns.
The Ukrainian BTR-80 Joker is armed with four SPG-9M 73mm recoilless guns mounted on the turret.
     
The standard BTR-80 is fitted with one-man manually operated BPU-1 turret which is armed with one 14.5 mm KPV heavy machine gun and one 7.62 mm PKVT coaxial machine gun. For the BTR-80 Joker, the standard armament will remain operational, but the turret is fitted with four SPG-9M 73mm calibre recoilless gun.

The SPG-9 is light, and is normally transported by vehicle, and carried into position by its two crew.

The SPG 9 fires a fin-stabilised round with either a HEAT (High-Explosive Anti-Tank) or HE (High-Explosive) warhead. The HEAT round can penetrate up to 300mm of armour thickness. It has an effective range of 800 m with an overall engagement range out to 1,200m.

According the Ukrainian chief engineer designer Ivan who has developed this new upgrade of BTR-80, the Joker can be more efficient in difficult environment where multiple launch rocket systems as the BM-21 Grad cannot be used. The vehicle could be a new weapon system especially adapted for urban warfare.

The BTR-80 can fire at a distance of 500m with high accuracy to target a window in a building, with the possibility to fire four rounds at the same place to destroy sniper or heavy machine gun position. In this case, the enemy will be destroyed with minimum damage for the building.

The BTR-80 Joker is also fitted with armoured kit using slat armour to increase protection against anti-tank missiles and self-propelled grenades as RPG-7. Front, rear and each side of the vehicle are equipped with slat armour.

Slat armour uses lightweight aluminum alloys to provide the RPG protection of steel armor but with substantially lower weight. This armour system maintains the integrity of the vehicle, using proven technology providing a simple yet, effective solution.

A video released on Internet shows BTR-80 Joker during trial and firing tests. The new vehicle seems to be successfully tested and ready to be deployed.