About the book: year / Supplement to the magazine "MODEL CONSTRUCTION" At the beginning of the Second World War, a new type was created and became widespread military equipment - armored personnel carrier. Its appearance reflected radical changes in the tactics of combat operations by ground forces. Not a single offensive operation was carried out without the participation of armored personnel carriers. The role and importance of this type of military equipment in World War II can be judged by production volumes: 22,578 units were produced in Germany, 67,706 in the USA, about 76,000 in Great Britain and the Commonwealth countries. The Soviet Union did not produce armored personnel carriers during the war , but received 8522 units under Lend-Lease, which worked well in the Red Army. Two of them - the wheeled all-wheel drive Scout MZA1 and the half-track M2 - served as prototypes for the first domestic armored personnel carriers of the post-war period - BTR-40 and BTR-152. These vehicles became the first mass-produced armored personnel carriers of the Soviet Army and contributed to the creation of motorized rifle troops that replaced rifle troops. The development of new Soviet multi-wheeled armored personnel carriers began in 1957 - 1958 and was actually carried out on a competitive basis. By the beginning of the 60s, prototypes of the six-wheeled ZIL-153, eight-wheeled GAZ-49, Rubtsovsky wheeled-tracked “object 19”, Mytishchi “560” and Kutaisi “1015B” and “1020B” were built. The BTR-60P (GAZ-49) adopted for service became the founder of a whole family of armored fighting vehicles, the representatives of which - BTR-60PB, BTR-70 and BTR-80 - are today in service with the Russian Army, border and internal troops, as well as the Marine Corps.