Negotiation about BT-3F with Indonesia is Under Way

Chief Designer of SKBM: a new tracked armored personnel carrier is being created for the Defense Ministry

Designed by the design bureau of the Kharkov Tractor Plant, the MT-LB tracked armored personnel carrier is obsolete and needs to be replaced. It will be replaced by the newest BT-3F machine, which is developed under the code "Armor". Sergey Abdulov, Chief Designer of the Special Machine-Building Design Bureau of Machine Building, told TASS on the fields of the International Military Technical Forum "Army-2017" how the new armored personnel carrier for the Russian army will be, as the "Kurganets-25" test and what will change in the modernized BMP- 3.

Let's start with BT-3F, this is a new project, so tell us more about it.
- The main direction of application of the new machine is the replacement of MT-LB and MT-LBU. BT-3F is a more advanced and more protected armored personnel carrier. Initially, the question of creating such a machine was supplied by a foreign customer to replace the BTR-50s in service.


Nevertheless, one must understand that in our country there are potential customers for this machine. For example, there are a number of enterprises that want to create different types of weapons on the basis of BT-3F - in particular, communications and control technology, command and staff cars and so on.

What is the status of this car? Is OCD open?
- We carry out a full-scale experimental design work commissioned by the Ministry of Defense under the code "Armor".

It is known that Indonesia wants to buy such an armored personnel carrier, are they negotiating with them?
- Negotiations are under way. By the way, cooperation with this country has been carried out for a long time. For example, our Indonesian partners have been using BMP-3F for several years in our production and are very satisfied.