The PTS is a

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

tracked

amphibious Amphibious means able to use either land or water. In particular it may refer to: Animals * Amphibian, a vertebrate animal of the class Amphibia (many of which live on land and breed in water) * Amphibious caterpillar * Amphibious fish, a fish ...

transport. PTS stands for ''Plavayushchij Transportyer - Sryednyj'' or medium amphibious transport vehicle. Its industrial index was Ob'yekt 65. Introduced in 1965, it is large, with a substantial payload of 10 tons, two to four times the capacity of the

BAV 485 The ZIS-485, army designation BAV (Russian, БАВ, большой автомобиль водоплавающий - ''bolshoi avtomobil vodoplavayushchiy'', ''big floating vehicle''), is a Soviet amphibious transport, a copy of the WWII Americ ...

, and better cross-country performance, at the cost of somewhat higher purchase costs because it is tracked. The most common model is the improved PTS-M that is powered by a 350 hp diesel engine.

Description

The PTS has a boxy, open watertight

hull Hull may refer to: Structures * Chassis, of an armored fighting vehicle * Fuselage, of an aircraft * Hull (botany), the outer covering of seeds * Hull (watercraft), the body or frame of a ship * Submarine hull Mathematics * Affine hull, in affi ...

, with six road wheels per side, front drive sprocket, rear idler sprocket, and no

return roller Continuous track is a system of vehicle propulsion used in tracked vehicles, running on a continuous band of treads or track plates driven by two or more wheels. The large surface area of the tracks distributes the weight of the vehicle b ...

s. Like the BAV 485, and unlike the DUKW, it has a rear loading ramp. The crew is seated at the front, leaving the rear of the vehicle open for a vehicle, which can be driven (or backed) in, rather than lifted over the side. To aid in facilitating this, the engine is under the floor. Propulsion in water is by means of twin

propeller A propeller (colloquially often called a screw if on a ship or an airscrew if on an aircraft) is a device with a rotating hub and radiating blades that are set at a pitch to form a helical spiral which, when rotated, exerts linear thrust upon ...

s, in tunnels to protect them from damage during land operations. The PTS-M also has a companion vehicle, the PKP, a boat-like amphibious two-wheeled trailer, with fold-out

sponson Sponsons are projections extending from the sides of land vehicles, aircraft or watercraft to provide protection, stability, storage locations, mounting points for weapons or other devices, or equipment housing. Watercraft On watercraft, a spon ...

s providing stability on water; the combination allows the PTS-M to accommodate an artillery tractor,

field gun A field gun is a field artillery piece. Originally the term referred to smaller guns that could accompany a field army on the march, that when in combat could be moved about the battlefield in response to changing circumstances ( field artille ...

(up to medium caliber), its crew, and a quantity of ammunition, all in one load.

Specifications

*Top speed: (road) *Range:

Variants

* PTS-2 * PTS-3 * PTS-4 In 2014, the

Russian Defense Ministry The Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation (russian: Министерство обороны Российской Федерации, Минобороны России, informally abbreviated as МО, МО РФ or Minoboron) is the govern ...

intends to purchase an undetermined number of PTS-4s, which underwent acceptance trials in 2011. The vehicle will be fitted with a remotely operated

machine gun A machine gun is a fully automatic, rifled autoloading firearm designed for sustained direct fire with rifle cartridges. Other automatic firearms such as automatic shotguns and automatic rifles (including assault rifles and battle rifles) a ...

and a multi-fuel engine. The PTS-4 weighs 33 tons, with a payload of 12 tons on land (18 tons on water). Projected maximum road speed is , with an expected maximum speed in water of . Unlike its predecessors, it uses

T-80 The T-80 is a main battle tank (MBT) that was designed and manufactured in the former Soviet Union and manufactured in Russia. The T-80 is based on the T-64, while incorporating features from the later T-72. The chief designer of the T-80 was So ...

suspension components. The fully enclosed cab offers protection against

small arms A firearm is any type of gun designed to be readily carried and used by an individual. The term is legally defined further in different countries (see Legal definitions). The first firearms originated in 10th-century China, when bamboo tubes c ...

fire and splinter. Production began in 2014.

Users

The PTS-M was adopted by the

Soviet Army uk, Радянська армія , image = File:Communist star with golden border and red rims.svg , alt = , caption = Emblem of the Soviet Army , start_date ...

and

Warsaw Pact The Warsaw Pact (WP) or Treaty of Warsaw, formally the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance, was a collective defense treaty signed in Warsaw, Poland, between the Soviet Union and seven other Eastern Bloc socialist republic ...

forces, and has been supplied to Egypt, the former Yugoslavia, Iraq, Uruguay, and other nations. * * - PTS-M (used during operation Badr) * * ( Indonesian Marine Corps) * * - 12 PTSM * * - 15 PTS-2 *

Russian separatist forces in Donbass The Donetsk People's Militia and Luhansk People's Militia (formerly also called Russian separatist forces in Donbas) are pro-Russian paramilitaries in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, which have been fighting the Armed Forces of Ukraine in ...

- PTS-2 * - 2 PTS in service *

Former users

* - 4 PTS-2 *

* - 51 PTS-2 * * - 282 PTS-M retired

* - Passed on to successor states: * *

References

Notes

Sources

*Hogg, Ian V., and Weeks, John. ''The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Military Vehicles'', p. 309, "PTS Tracked Amphibian". London: Hamblyn Publishing Group, 1980. *

External links

Photos of the PTS-M on Prime PortalHungarian PTS-M walkarounds
{{PostWWIISovietAFVS, APC Amphibious military vehicles Military vehicles of the Soviet Union Military bridging equipment Tracked amphibious vehicles Military vehicles introduced in the 1960s