The Ukrainian Defense Forces have been bolstered by Romanian TAB-71M armored personnel carriers. Video footage displaying these armored vehicles being loaded onto tractors was posted on social media. The initial batch of TAB-71M APCs joined the Ukrainian military last year. Nonetheless, precise details on the quantity of armored vehicles and their origin remain uncertain. Prior to Russia’s full-scale invasion, these armored personnel carriers were not part of the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ arsenal.
The TAB-71M armored personnel carrier is a licensed variant of the Soviet BTR-60PB APC, manufactured in Romania during the Warsaw Pact era. The primary distinction from the Soviet APC is the engine swap; two French Saviem 797-05 engines are fitted. Several modifications exist, including a version with an M-37M 82mm mortar mounted in the troop compartment.
The TAB-71M was produced from the early 1970s until the early 1990s at the Fabrica de Masini Grele Speciale special heavy engineering facility in Bucharest. The vehicle’s crew is made up of three people, with eight soldiers in the troop compartment, and standard armaments include two machine guns.
It is known that the TAB-71M served in the Armed Forces of both Moldova and Romania. In 2017, Bucharest decided to replace them with a more modern model.
According to recent information, Moldova had 110 armored personnel carriers of this model, Romania had 247, and approximately 40 additional units were manufactured for Yugoslavia, but the number that remained after the nation’s collapse is unknown.