Indonesia’s Marine Corps have been expanding their amphibious ship and shore-to-shore transport capabilities.
Already equipped with the BAE Systems LVTP7 and Russian-supplied BTR-50 tracked amphibious vehicles, they also ordered 50 Kharkiv BTR-4 eight-wheel drive armoured vehicles from the Ukraine in 2014. However, reportedly the marines may be reconsidering the BTR-4s, or at least reducing their numbers, in favour of a new offering from the Tractor Plants Concern developed for the Russian Naval Infantry.
To this end, the BT-3F weighs 18.5 tonnes has a crew of three and can carry 14 soldiers, using the Kurganmashzavod BMP-3 tracked amphibious infantry fighting vehicle as its chassis. First displayed in 2016, the Marine Corps would likely replace its older BTR-50 vehicles with the BT-3F. The local company PT PAL Indonesia developed and promoted to the marines in 2008 a modernized BTR-50 known as the PAL-AFV.
