History[]
The BTR-70 is an eight-wheeled armored personnel carrier (Russian: бронетранспортер, BTR stands for Bronetransportyor literally "armoured transporter"), originally developed during the late 1960's under the industrial designation GAZ-4905. On August 21, 1972, it was accepted into service and would later be exported to the Warsaw Pact and other allies. Introduced as a successor to the earlier BTR-60, it most closely resembles a BTR-60PB. Other improvements with the BTR-70 include heavier armor plating and tires less prone to puncture. In other respects, the vehicle is very similar to the BTR-60PB, with a more powerful petrol engine configuration and armament of a primary heavy machine gun and secondary PKT machine gun on a roof mounted turret.
Like the vehicle's predecessor, it is fully amphibious with minimal preparation. A licensed Romanian copy was designated the TAB-77 and had various improvements and changes to make local production easier, including a better turret and different engines. The vehicle was armed with a heavy machine gun, either a 14.5 mm or 12.7 mm. The 2S14 Sting is a Russian prototype of the BTR-70 with an 85 mm gun. It's a tank hunter, but not much else is known about it.
In game[]
The 2S14 Zhalo-S is a quick wheeled tank with a devilishly high rate of fire, the highest in the game. It’s very easy to dish out a lot of damage in a couple of seconds. The only downfalls of the tank is the damage, health, ammo types available to the tank, and a complete lack of armor. It’s best played as a hit and run tank, using your mobility to get around enemies and circle them while whittling down their health with your extremely high fire rate. Overall, it’s a somewhat underwhelming tank, but can be great in the right hands.
Pros and Cons[]
Pros
- High manueverability
- Extremely fast reload
- Fast turret rotation
- Modest damage
Cons
- Thin armor
- High profile
- No access to HE and HEAT making it difficult to engage low armored targets
- Wheel chassis makes it impossible to do tank turns on the spot.