The experimental Ukrainian BTR-60М Khorunzhiy armored personnel carrier manufactured by the Praktika Research-and-Production Association was first seen on the front line.

Militarnyi reported about this.

At the beginning of the Russian invasion, the BTR-60М was still undergoing production tests and was not adopted or allowed to operate by the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Previously, the troops did not report their use.

The armored personnel carrier caught on the video has a number of characteristic differences, which may indicate that this particular vehicle is not the one that was previously exhibited at expositions or appeared in tests.

First of all, the vehicle does not have cameras for inspection by the driver around the perimeter and on the upper frontal part of the hull, which were present in the experimental version of the vehicle with the hull number “240”. It could be seen in the photo from the tests.

The vehicle received new armored protection for the driver’s viewing window, and the taillights were moved from the bottom to the top. There are also minor differences in the structure of the hull compared to previous versions.

The armored personnel carrier also received an open machine gun turret for the shooter similar to other vehicles of this company such as Kozak-2М1.

It is possible that the armored vehicle on the video was later manufactured as another experimental model, but was not publicly presented.

Recall that this is not the first time that prototypes of military equipment have made it to the front line. Thus, Militarnyi published information about the Ukrainian BTR-4MV1, which took part in the defense of Kharkov as well as the offensive operation Balakliya-Kupyansk.

BTR-60М Khorunzhiy

The BTR-60 is a deeply modernized version of the Soviet BTR-60PB. During the modernization, the vehicle suffered a complete replacement and rearrangement of all units, including a new armor, only the undercarriage of the armored personnel carrier remained unchanged.

The armor hull is made of modern armor and has a high level of armor protection. The new hull increased the level of bullet resistance in the front and side projections to the level of PZSA-4 (protection against firing from SVD and AKM with a 7.62-mm bullet from 10 meters).

The armored personnel carrier has a modern compartment layout with a motor compartment in the front right part, a driver compartment in the front left part, and a larger landing compartment in the rear part of the hull.

The vehicle received a modern Deutz diesel engine, which helped significantly increase fuel efficiency and traction characteristics. It also helped to improve a new automatic transmission, fire extinguishing system and auxiliary power plant for power supply, a modern climate and ventilation system, aft ramp, round-robin system, situational awareness of the crew.

Praktik NGO also conducted factory tests in 2021 of the upgraded BTR-60 Khorunzhiy with the Turkish SARP KPVT remote combat module equipped with a KPVT 14.5mm heavy machine gun and thermal sight.