Iraqi Army to receive BTR-80 APCs

Poland's Bumar Group has confirmed that it will complete deliveries of some 115 BTR-80 armoured personnel carriers (APCs) to Iraq by January 2006.

The APCs were ordered by the Iraqi Ministry of Defence (MoD) under an approximately USD30 million contract for service with the Iraqi Army.

Until recently, 66 of these vehicles were in use with the Hungarian Armed Forces, while the remainder of the order will be fulfilled from the stocks of "one of the former Soviet Union countries", a defence source told JDW.

The Hungarian vehicles for the Iraqi Armed Forces, mainly BTR-80As, have been used by Hungarian detachments deployed to the Balkans and Iraq.
source


Here is some pictures of the vehicles....









Looks like it will be a good vehicle for patrols around the cities, and urban warfare. What do you think?

Its an excellent APC for its role, which isnt really urban combat, but it will do for the most part. The entire vehicle is proof against small arms and the front proof against light AT weapons, like RPGs.

Good armament, and Im rather surprized they are buying one of the more advance models when cheaper BMPs and BTR-70s are around, probably at a fraction of the cost.

When I was in Kosovo, we got a call from the Russians that2 of their soldiers were drunk and took off in a BTR and asked if we could help track them down and stop them. My section and a russian crew found them, as well they spotted us, they took off across some fields, the BTR is excellent for rough terrain at high speed. They tried going through some villages to lose us, but it didnt have the manouverability to be quick in tighter areas. The BTR we were travelling with made our driver work to keep up. The drunk guys in the BTR ran into our anti tank crew and had a small showdown. They sobered up a bit when they realized they were seconds away from being killed.
Incidentally, the drunk guys were sent to the Chechnya front lines for punishment.

Originally posted by Vass
Incidentally, the drunk guys were sent to the Chechnya front lines for punishment.

That got to hurt....

Back to topic.

The APC above looks great against urban warfare. but how well can it perform against RPG shots agains its top and sides?

looks like three different versions what arms do they have?

Second picture is a "standard" BTR80 and it has 14.5mm HMG, the First picture is of a BTR-80A fitted with a 30 mm 2A72 automatic gun and 7.62 mm PKT coaxial machine gun.
There are allso versions fitted with the Kliver turret with a 30-mm gun, 7.62-mm coax MG, thermal sights, day sights, and (four) Kornet ATGM launchers. And a 2S23 version with 120-mm self-propelled combination gun (howitzer/mortar)
All i know about BTR-80s armour is that an APILAS should penetrate it easily from all directions, and a good hit from a LAW (M72 or RPG-7V for example) should penetrate provided that it wount "bounce off" due to the well sloped hull. Top is extremely voulnerable to any AT weapons. It's crew/passengers are allso well protected from mine blasts.
And when it comes to urban combat it's best atribute is the ability to fire the 30mm gun at high angles for example to the upper level windows (or helos)

Nice, hopefully they can keep the terrorists away...

A strong APC from a good ally.
My only other question would be how many gallons/litres of Armor All was used to do those tires in the photos.





seekerof

thanks for the info about the types they will be getting i think they are good addition for the Iraqi army!