Скачать или смотреть Serbia unveils upgraded M-80 IFV

The Serbian Ministry of Defence (MoD) published photos of the prototype of the upgraded M80AB1 infantry fighting vehicle (IFV) at a demonstration at the Nikinci testing centre on 30 December, nearly two years after the Serbian Armed Forces (VS) announced plans to modernise the M-80A.

The upgraded vehicle features new armoured plating, a one-man 30 mm turret, and optoelectronics.

Nenad Miloradovic, Assistant Minister of Defence for Materiel Resources, said that the modernisation of the M-80A is one of the priorities for the MoD and its Military Technical Institute (VTI) in Belgrade.


"One of the basic requirements of the modernisation is to significantly increase the ballistic protection of this vehicle and to increase firepower," he explained, adding that its interior and parts of the crew accommodation were rearranged and engine power increased to compensate for the increased weight.


Miloradovic said the vehicle turret is new, with greater ballistic protection, a new optoelectronic system with a long-range thermal imaging camera, and more powerful weapons, including a 30 mm gun, eight 30 mm automatic grenade launchers, a 7.62 mm coaxial machine gun, and two launchers for modernised Malyutka 2T5 radio-guided and 2F and 2T wire-guided anti-tank missiles.



Colonel Zvonko Marić of the Planning and Development Department of the General Staff of the Serbian Armed Forces points out three main reasons why the Serbian Armed Forces submitted a request for modernization of the BVP M-80A infantry fighting vehicle to the Military Technical Institute.



The first reason is because there is a respectable number of such assets with the Land Forces and the Land Forces have high hopes for these assets in the future. The second task is to significantly improve the combat capabilities of this vehicle, thus widening the technological gap between the generational armaments, and we are witnessing that the surrounding countries are also arming themselves with or modernizing such or similar assets, which would be the third reason why all this is happening – says Colonel Marić.






Sources: Janes.com/Ministry of defence Republic of Serbia