Vintage tanks encounter modern warfare challenges
Russian soldiers pose in front of armoured personnel carriers. These are the nearly antique BTR-50s developed in the 1950s. We discuss whether these relics of the past are helpful for anything and where the Russians are sourcing them from.
The Russians are facing increasing challenges in replacing lost equipment. According to the list maintained by the group Oryxspioenkop, there are as many as 7,229 infantry fighting vehicles and armoured personnel carriers. However, these losses are only those confirmed with photos, so the actual number may be two or three times higher.
Initially, the Russians retrieved equipment from post-Soviet stockpiles, which, due to outdoor storage, resembled strategic junkyards. From there, the Russian industry took the equipment's shells for thorough rebuilding. Before the full-scale war in Ukraine, the Russians seemed inexhaustible, but now they have hit rock bottom.
Equipment from the 1980s-1990s is depleted, and examples from the 1970s have also been exhausted. This creates the need to turn to equipment from as far back as the 1960s, like T-62 tanks, or even the 1950s, such as T-54/55 tanks or BTR-50 carriers. Apparently, even BMP-1 infantry fighting vehicles and MT-LB carriers are gone, leaving the BTR-50. The photos below were most likely taken in the fall, but as is often the case with war realities, they are published with a delay of several months.
BTR-50 - A relic better than nothing or a tractor
The roots of the BTR-50 personnel carriers trace back to 1952 when designers created a tracked transporter based on the chassis of the PT-76 amphibious light tank. The prototype, designated as object 750, was positively evaluated, and serial production of the BTR-50 transporter began in 1954 and lasted until the 1970s.
Structurally, it was still an open transporter, which was the World War II standard, before military equipment started being produced according to NBC (nuclear, biological, and chemical weapon) regulations. This quickly led to the BTR-50 being replaced by hermetically sealed vehicles.
The open design, however, has one advantage: the excellent situational awareness of the transported troops, who are protected only by steel sides with a thickness of about 1 cm. Such armour can currently be penetrated even by a standard NATO 5.56x45 mm bullet with an SS109 projectile at a distance of less than 100 metres. Meanwhile, the lack of a roof means that a grenade or Molotov cocktail thrown inside the transporter would create chaos for the transported troops.
The only plus of this design is the tracked undercarriage, which performs much better in difficult muddy terrain than wheeled traction, and the ability to float. The BTR-50 is capable of moving at a maximum speed of about 43 km/h on paved roads and swimming at a speed of about 11 km/h.
The BTR's crew consists of two soldiers, and the transport compartment can fit 12 fully equipped soldiers. It is currently an extremely outdated vehicle, and its only advantage is that it is better than civilian Ladas, tractors, or the soldiers' own feet.
