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Azerbaijan refuses BTR-3 and BTR-4 armored personnel carriers offered by Ukraine

16 September 2013 15:16 (UTC +04:00)

Baku – APA. Iraqi Army refused to include Ukrainian-made BTR-4 armored personnel carriers in its armament, APA reports quoting the Russian media.

The Iraqi government didn’t accept and sent back 42 BTR-4 armored personnel carriers laden ship departed from Ukraine in March this year. As a result of it, the ship moored on Indian coasts has been put under arrest.

Iraq has taken this step for the defects of BTR-4 armored personnel carriers. Especially, the gross errors committed during welding of facilities resulted in the adoption of such a decision.

The Ukrainian side presents BTR-4 as a new armored carrier produced at the international level through national capabilities in recent years. BTR-4 having previously been exported to Thailand was included in the armament of Ukraine last year under the order of former Defense Minister Dmitry Salamatin. BTR-4 armored personnel carriers have been supplied with “Parus” combat module.

According to Ukraine's export control system, 40 BTR-4, 8 BTR-4K, 9 BTR-80UP-KR and 2 BTR-80UP-R were sold to Iraq in 2012. Iraq purchased 420 BTR, 80 BTR-4K command vehicles, 30 BTR-4Ksh command and staff vehicle, 30 BSEM-4K armored ambulances and 10 BREM-4 armored recovery vehicles from Ukraine within the agreement signed by Ukrspetseksport state-owned arms trading company in 2009.

During the last decade, Azerbaijan also purchased 150 BTR-70, 3 BTR-3u and 17 BTS-5B armored recovery vehicles from Ukraine.

According to information obtained by APA from its military sources, Azerbaijan refused to buy BTR-3 and BTR-4, which were offered by Ukraine a few years ago, because of welding and transportation problems arose from the first batch. The same problems were also observed in BTR-4.

“According the most important indicators, BTR-3 and BTR-4 don’t differ from previous BTR-70 and BTR-80 indeed. The armored defense has not been tightened, management of the complex remains as difficult as before,” – said the source.

According to the source, during the tests conducted by Azerbaijan in mountainous conditions, BTR-70 armored personal carriers modernized by local experts have demonstrated higher maneuverability and performance than Ukraine-produced BTR-3 and BTR-4. At the same time, the management of vehicles has been simplified.