MOSCOW. May 22 (Interfax-AVN) - The armored tank support vehicle will soon be adopted for service with the Russian Armed Forces, Nikolai Malykh, director general of the Uralvagonzavod company from Nizhny Tagil, told Interfax-Military News Agency Monday.
"The vehicle passed the official trials successfully and was sent for minor retrofits following the tests," he said.
According to him, if ordered, Uralvagonzavod is ready to start mass-production of the vehicle in 2007.
"It was initially developed as a future export vehicle, but the Russian armed forces took an interest in the vehicle, and it was refurbished to meet their specification requirements," Malykh said, adding that the vehicle is in demand in the international market.
The BMPT vehicle was derived from the T-72 tank. It has two independent weapon systems, the first one mounted in the turret and consisting of a twin-barrel 30-mm 2-42 cannon, a PKTM modernized Kalashnikov heavy machine-gun and four Ataka ATGM launchers, all operated by the gunner and the commander. The second weapon system includes the weapons accommodated in the hull, which are two AG-17D grenade launchers capable of effectively killing targets at the ranges up to 1,000-1,200 m. The weapons of the vehicle allow it to deliver defensive fire and kill lots of various targets, from tanks, ATGM operators and grenadiers to aerial vehicles.
The crew includes five personnel - the commander, the gunner, the driver and two operators of grenade launchers.
According to earlier reports, lots of foreign countries are interested in the vehicle, including India, Germany, France, Great Britain and even the U.S. No rivals to the new vehicle have been developed in the rest of the world so far.