In Russia developed new BTR-87 Armoured personnel carrier as a private venture by «Military Industrial Company» (Russian acronym – VPK) for export, reported military-informant.com.
The BTR-87 wheeled armored personnel carrier being developed for the export in country operators of BTR-70 and BTR-80. The vehicle has a conventional layout similar to western designs with the driver’s and commander’s compartment at the front part of the hull, the engine and transmission compartment in the the front right, and the troop compartment at the rear. The troops enter and leave the vehicle either through the rear doors or the roof hatches.
The main armament of the BTR-87 prototype is 30mm dual-feed automatic cannon. The gun can fire armour piercing-tracer (AP-T) projectiles, high-explosive fragmentation-incendiary (HEF-I) and high-explosive-tracer (HE-T) ammunition.
The secondary armament of the vehicle includes a 7.62mm PKTM coaxial machine gun. The turret incorporates two-axis stabilisation, new sighting channels, and three forward-facing 81mm smoke grenade launchers on each side. The firing elevation ranges from -7° to +70°.