Iranian Armed forces unveiled new BTR-60 personnel carrier armed with Sedad 23mm cannon 2808141

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Defence & Security News - Iran
 
 
Thursday, August 28, 2014 01:31 PM
 
Iranian Armed forces unveiled new BTR-60 personnel carrier armed with Sedad 23mm cannon.
Lieutenant Commander of the Iranian Army Ground Force Brigadier General Kiomars Heidari underlined the high capabilities and advancements made by the Iranian defense industry in designing and manufacturing military equipment, and said his forces have recently received a new version of the BTR-60PB armed with 23 mm anti-aircraft twin-barreled automatic cannon.
     

Iranian army BTR-60PB with Sedad 23mm anti-aircraft weapon system.
     

The 23 mm cannon, which has been optimized under a project known as “Sedad”, is mounted on the BTR-60PB 8x8 armoured personnel carrier.

The BTR-60PB is Soviet-made 8x8 armoured vehicle personnel carrier (APC) which was developed in the late 1950s to replace the BTR-152 6x6 APC and was first seen in public in 1961. The standard BTR-60PB is equipped with a one-man turret mounted in the centre of the vehicle. For the Iranian version, the turret is removed and the vehicle is fitted with a ZU-23-2 anti-aircraft weapon system.

The ZU-23-2 is a Soviet-made 23 mm anti-aircraft twin-barreled automatic cannon. It was designed to engage low-flying targets at a range of 2.5 km as well as armoured vehicles at a range of two kilometres (km) and for direct defense of troops and strategic locations against air assault usually conducted by helicopters and low-flying airplanes.

Thanks to the new optical device installed on its top, the ZU-23-2 cannon of the new BTR-60 Sedad can be controlled from inside the vehicle, eliminating the need for a gunner to operate the weapon outside the personnel carrier. According to our first analysis of the vehicle, a CCD camera is mounted on the top of the weapon station to provide day/night firing capability.

The Iranian military experts and technicians have in recent years made great headways in manufacturing a broad range of indigenous equipment, making the armed forces self-sufficient in the arms sphere.