Partner 2025: Serbia showcases improved BTR-80A

The Serbian BTR-80A upgrade displayed at Partner 2025. It is an ongoing development that is yet to possess an official designation, and may change as the project progresses. (Janes/Christopher Petrov)

The Serbian state-owned Military Technical Institute (MTI) has presented a BTR-80A upgrade at the Partner 2025 defence exhibition held in Belgrade from 23 to 26 September. The upgrade was developed following a request from the Serbian Ministry of Defence to MTI to remedy some of the shortcomings of these formerly Hungarian vehicles.

The main element to the BTR-80A upgrade is a protection increase through the application of appliqué armour across the front of the hull as well as the vehicle's sides (though the additional side armour does not extend down past the engine compartment). According to an MTI representative at the exhibition, this has increased the vehicle's protection to where its armour can now resist calibres of up to 20 mm from the front, and up to 14.5 mm from the sides.

The windscreens, which have been a rare feature for vehicles of this type but are a consistent feature for the BTR series, have been covered with armoured plates. Because of the inherent limitations of periscope devices for maintaining situational awareness for the front-seated driver and commander, daylight and thermal cameras have been added for the commander in lieu of the now absent windscreens. Other protective measures have included a jamming kit mounted on the roof above the dismount compartment for detecting and jamming small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).