The last Soviet-era tracked transporters
The collapse of the Soviet Union occurred just at the point when a new range of secondary military vehicles was in the final stages of development, and in some cases already entering service with the Soviet Army. The new vehicles were intended to replace the generation designed and introduced into service in the 1960s and early 1970s. The 1990s was a tumultuous time in the Russian Federation, and the former Soviet Union generally, and the country struggled. The defence industry suffered as many others did during this period, but despite this Soviet military design institutes and manufacturing plants continued to work on the next generation of military vehicles.
However, primarily due to a lack of orders from the Russian Ministry of Defence, many vehicles designed during these years never reached series production. Some manufacturers survived by concentrating on export with one such example being the Kurgan-developed BMP-3 infantry combat vehicle which entered service with the United Arab Emirates long before the Russian Army was issued with large quantities of series production vehicles. For military production plants and design bureaus, the 1990s was a matter of financial survival.
