What is this on this BTR-80?

Ryan ... At best guess i would say its one of the new generation of white light or IR lights ..seen plenty of pics of the BTR family with lights mounted above the gun and i know that the new family of super powerful lights look a hell of a lot like that one .
Looks similar to the ones mounted beside the commanders .50 on some Abrams tanks .

Phill

Phil maybe correct.
My first thought was a new gen of night vision.
I know it is exposedto the elements but it
looks slaved to the zpu 14.5. It looks like a
1/2 assed field mod from the troops using
that BTR. A factory mod would have been protcted by the turret.

Or they just put it there to torture geekss like us....LOL

Cheers,

John

Hey guys it could also be a laser range finder / designator. The same devise has been spotted on some BMP-3 turrets in place of ht e IR light. Seeing how there is no updated sighting system for the BTR-80, the crew could use it to range targets or possible laze for incoming rounds.

These are naval marine BTR-80s, they all seem to have them

Nice find and pics. My guess is a form of sighting device instead of a high power light...but that is ONLY speculation.

Hello everyone, now I´m certainly no expert, but could
this be a form of IR dazzler as seen on the T90. If you
look at the fotos you can see that it is not coaxially
mounted to the main armament. I know that the Thermal Imaging
detector on the Chally 1 followed the main gun and even the
huge IR search light on the Chieftain follwed the 120mm also.
Paul

Laser range finder.

http://russianarmya.my1.ru/kartos/bmp-3_2.jpeg