At the beginning of the Second World War, a new type of military equipment was created and became widespread - an armored personnel carrier .. Its appearance reflected radical changes in the tactics of combat operations by ground forces. Without the participation of armored personnel carriers, no offensive operation was carried out .. The role and importance of this type of military equipment in the Second World War can be judged by the volume of production: in Germany, 22,578 units were produced in the United States - 67,706, in the UK and Commonwealth countries - about 76,000. The Soviet Union did not produce armored personnel carriers during the war, but received 8,522 units under the Lend-Lease, which proved themselves well in the Red Army. Two of them - wheeled all-wheel drive "Scout" MZA1 and semi-tracked M2 - served as prototypes for the first domestic armored personnel carriers of the post-war period - BTR-40 and BTR-152. These machines became the first mass armored personnel carriers of the Soviet Army and contributed to the creation of motorized rifle troops, which replaced the small arms.. The development of new Soviet multi-wheeled APCs began in 1957-1958 and was actually conducted on a competitive basis. By the beginning of the 60s, prototypes of the six-wheeled ZIL-153, the eight-wheeled GAZ-49, the scarlet wheel-tracked "object 19", the Mytishchi "560" and the Kutaisi "1015B" and "1020B" . were built. Adopted BTR-60P (GAZ-49) became the ancestor of a whole family of armored combat vehicles, whose representatives - BTR-60PB, BTR-70 and BTR-80 - are now in service with the Russian Army, border and internal troops, as well as marines.