| The BMD vehicles superficially resemble the BMP-1, although they are considerably smaller. Turreted versions have a BMP type turret with varying
main armament and a 7.62-mm coaxial machine gun mounted on the right side of the main gun .The BMD, however, also has two additional 7.62-mm
machine guns, one mounted in each of the front bow corners. The troop compartment has overhead armor cover but only one firing port on each side and
one in the rear from which the mounted infantrymen can fire their weapons.
The vehicle has an independent suspension consisting of five small road wheels with the idler at the front and the drive sprocket at the rear. There are
four track-return rollers. The independent suspension combines a hydraulic system for altering the ground clearance and maintaining track tension with
pneumatic springs, which enables the ground clearance to be altered from 100 to 450 mm.
The vehicle is fully amphibious, being propelled in the water by two water-jets at the rear of the hull. Before entering the water a trim vane stowed on the
glacis plate is erected at the front of the hull. The vehicle has electric and manual bilge pumps, a gyro-compass, engine pre-heater, smoke-generating
equipment, NBC system and a centralized ethylene-bromide fire-extinguishing system as fitted to other former Soviet armored vehicles.
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