The Arzamas Machinery Construction Plant is the largest manufacturer of wheeled armoured fighting vehicles in Russia.

Past products have included the BRDM-1 and BRDM-2 scout cars and the BTR-60/BTR-70/BTR-80 and the latest BTR-80A 8x8 armoured personnel carriers (APCs).

While the BTR-80/BTR-80A are adequate for most battlefield missions, their size makes it difficult to fit them with heavier weapon systems.

Development of the BTR-90 is understood to have commenced in the early 1990s, with the first prototype completed in 1994. It is essentially a scaled-up version of the BTR-80 with improved armour protection and greater payload, which, in turn, enables a wider range of weapon stations to be installed.

The BTR-90's overall layout is almost identical to the earlier BTR-80/BTR-80A vehicles: the commander and driver are seated at the front, with the troop compartment and turret in the middle and the power pack at the rear.

The first example of the BTR-90 was fitted with the complete two-person turret of the Kurgan Machine Construction Plant BMP-2 infantry fighting vehicle (IFV). This is armed with a 30mm 2A42 cannon, a 7.62mm PKT coaxial machine gun and a 4,000m-range roof-mounted anti-tank guided weapon.

More recently the BTR-90 has been fitted with a new turret. This is a further development of the turret installed on the BMP-3 IFV that is armed with a 100mm gun. As well as firing conventional types of ammunition, it can also fire a laser-guided projectile fitted with a tandem high-explosive anti-tank (HEAT) warhead.

This turret is also fitted with a 30mm coaxial cannon, a 7.62mm coaxial machine gun and smoke grenade launchers. Asa computerised day/night fire-control system is installed it has a high hit probability against stationary and moving targets.

As a fully amphibious vehicle, the BTR-90 is propelled in the water by one water jet at the rear of the hull at a maximum speed of 8km/h.