As for the BTR60/70 and OT64 here is a bit more. You can decide yourself
which of the two is biggest...:-) I don't have plans for either of the
two vehicles, just a bunch of slides etc which I took one time when I had
the opportunity. Not much good I am afraid.
OT64 Length 7.44 m
Width 2.50 m
Hieght 2.30 m without turret
2.71 m with turret
Weight 12.9 T
Engine 180 HP Diesel
Range 650 Km
Speed 95 km/hr road
9 km/hr water
Armour 10mm Front
6mm Side (top same on closed versions)
Ground Clearance 46cm
Gradient 58% (52 Deg.)
Hindrance 50cm
Did you note the outlet of the bilge pump hanging over the port side of the
OT64, just in front of the turret when you were at Budges' ? As far as I
remember it was about 20mm in diameter (I remember it being quite large).
This suggests to me that the bilge pump (located in the engine compartment
with its inlet through the grill in the bulkhead to the crew compartment,
at floor level) was expected to take quite a load. This again suggests to
me that they had problems with the door seals, although I'm only guessing
when I say that. Did you also note that there was no suction inlet to the
bilge pump in the driver compartment?
By the way I remember seeing an OT64C with a Sagger antitank missile
mounted on the right hand side of the turret.
I don't remember them having a command version, although they may have
had. I know that only the Poles and Czechs had OT64. They were never
issued to Russian regiments.
BTR60P Length 7.22m
Width 2.83m
Hieght 2.28m without MG
2.50m with MG
2.50m with turret
Weight 10 T
Engine 2x90 HP Petrol
Range 500 Km
Speed 80 km/hr road
10 km/hr water
Armour 13mm Front
10mm Side (top same on closed versions)
Ground Clearance 40cm
Gradient 58% (52 Deg.)
Hindrance 60cm
Now the BTR60 was used everywhere by Russian forces. A motorised infantry
division was issued with 287 of them, an armoured division with 9. A
motorised infantry regiment was normally of 2 types, one based on BMP,
which used 1 BTR60PU (command version) at company level. The other type
of MOTINF regiment was based on BTR, which were used at all levels.
Such a regiment was normally issued with 47 of them, 1 of which was a
BTR60PU. An armoured regiment normally had 7 BTR60PU attached. A scout
battallion in an armoured division or MOTINF division had normally 16
BTR attached, 7 of which were BTR60PU (lots of command vehicles in a
scout battallion due to losses). An artillery regiment had 6 BTR60 PU.
The BTR60PU doesn't have a turret, but has a radio direction finding loop
placed just over where the turret is normally placed, a pump antenna for
long distance communication just in front of the direction finding loop
(which must have givven them a radio dead cone facing forwards) and two
mounting poles, one at the front and one at the rear, for mounting a
dipole (if I remember rightly). This dipole operated on a frequency of
about 10.7 Mhz, which was one of the bands we used in Lithuania. Mind
you that wasn't surprising, since the gear we were using was robbed from
a BTR60PU.....:-) By the way, the range for the 14.5 mm MG was 2000m and
for the 7.62mm MG, 1000m.
As for the missile carrier you mentioned, I don't know what it was, but
I do know they used SS-21 Scarab (18 of them in an Army) as a tactical
missile launcher. It has 3 big axles (the Scud B laucher has 4, split in
2 pairs of 2). Missile range was 100km and reload time was 1 hour. As far
as ICBM's go, though, this is outside my particular field so I can't help
you on that.
Gerry