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Guys! Rather then wasting time and money - buy THIS http://armor.kiev.ua/Tanks/Modern/btr90/

This design has been in operation and combat for 40 years.
Air droppable - Yes
amphibious -Yes
impervious to any known weapons - Yes*
can carry 10 soldiers inside (more outside).

I also want to make 2 remarks.

No. 1. Some of you love so much these special terms - LAV or Infantry Carrier or whatever. But the guy who will shoot at it doesn't care about it's name and "designed role"! There are only TARGETS in the field. So the best device is one that moves fast, is hard to spot out and can make first your enemy to be the target. Other arguments are good for marketing department only.

No. 2. I might missed something but why all of you using this term - RPG? Actually this is abbrevation from the "Ruchnoy Protivotankoviy Granatomyet" - in russian it means "Hand Anti-tank Launcher" (originally designed by Germans in WWII). No English term for this simple yet powerful device?

* joke :)
PS. If first link doesn't work - try this
http://www.pobeda.ru/prival/weapon/st590_bronetehnika/bron_st_w590_btr-80.html

or just look for btr-80 (or 60 or 90).

Welcome to Free Republic.

In a previous thread, Pioneering Army Unit to Debut in Iraq the similar profiles of the Stryker, BTR-60 and BTR-80 were noted. Most of the potential adversary states American troops might confront use Soviet and Russian BTR-series vehicles. Friendly fire is a big problem in our Army. Our television networks never fail to show angry widows and mothers tearfully demanding heads to roll every time such a tragedy occurs.

It would be interesting to compare the dimensions, weights, mobility, protection, and firepower of the BTR-90 and the Stryker, but it would be a purely academic exercise. None of our generals want to become vice presidents of Russian arms manufacturing companies when they retire.

Oh by the way--Welcome to FR. My "are you a former Soviet soldier" comment was not meant to be insulting, hope you didn't take it that way...I was just commmenting on the links you kept posting.

I am currently sponsoring a former Soviet officer and his family here in the US for the next year while he is attending a military school here. He is now a high ranking oficer in one of the Baltic States. A great family who endured many hardships under the old Soviet regime but is doing great things now that his country is free.

When you here stories like his it makes those of us who have never had to break free from repressive regimes realize just how fortunate we have been, and just how superb folks like that man and his family are.

Anyway, good posts. Keep them coming!

This design has been in operation and combat for 40 years.
Air droppable - Yes
amphibious -Yes
impervious to any known weapons - Yes*
can carry 10 soldiers inside (more outside).

Excellent recon vehicle, but of course several have fallen to mines and repeat RPG fire from the dukhai in Chechnya. Accordingly, like the Israelis, the Russians and Ukranians have been at work on personnel carrier versions of obsolete T54 and T55 tank chassis, removing the turrets and reworking the interiors for infantry accomodation. They're not anphibious or easily air-droppable, of course, but VERY cost-effective and offer considerably more protection than either older BTR60/70/80 vehicles or BMD 1 or BMD2 vehicles, of which there are already plenty of enough to go around. See for instance the T55-based DPM Convoy Escort Vehicle for example of the former Soviet way of thinking what was required for such tasks; I posted pics of the Israeli Achzarit personnel carrier version of such a T55 rebuild earlier in this thread.

Actually, Russian BMD comes pretty close to offering the results needed, though something a little better than the 30mm autocannon is needed. 9M123 khrizantema missile launcher, successfully fitted to BMP-3, should do it.