Ukraine Adds New Light BTR-4E To Its Arsenal

KIEV, Ukraine -- The Ukrainian Defense Ministry has added the new light BTR-4E armored personnel carrier to the arsenal of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, the ministry's press service reported on Tuesday. Defense Minister Dmytro Salamatin signed a respective order on July 24. "The receipt by the army of such a modern type of military equipment confirms the capabilities of Ukraine as a manufacturer of high-technology products, and provides an opportunity to intensify the work of defense enterprises," he said. Salamatin said that the production of the BTR-4Es and its various models help Ukraine not only expect to sell this military equipment abroad, but also become a powerful global exporter of armored vehicles. The ministry said that the BTR-4E had been designed by the Kharkiv Morozov Machine Building Design Bureau (Kharkiv) in cooperation with Ukrainian defense enterprises, and 100% equipped with Ukrainian-made armaments - a ZTM-1 30mm automatic cannon produced at the Kamianets-Podilsky Fine Mechanics Plant, a Luch anti-tank missile system, a KBA-117 grenade launcher and a machine gun produced at Kyiv-based Mayak Plant, etc. All of the samples have been combined into a single fire control system, also created by Ukrainian producers. The ministry said that in terms of its technical characteristics the BTR-4E is equal to foreign models, while in terms of its fire capabilities it even surpasses them. "Over the last years Ukraine has created a fundamentally new model of armament that is not characteristic of the previously traditional school of domestic tank construction. This is the basic platform for the further creation of the modification line of military hardware," the ministry's press service quoted Andriy Artiushenko, the director of the ministry's department on the development and procurement of arms and military equipment, as saying. Ukraine has already established the mass production of BTR-4Es, which are also exported to customers in the Middle East region, the ministry said. As reported, Ukraine will supply 420 BTR-4Es to Iraq as part of a contract signed with the Iraqi Defense Ministry in 2009. The contract designed for 3-3.5 years is estimated to be worth $457.5 million.