The BTR-50P Was The Soviet Army’s Main Fighting Vehicle … In 1954. Now It’s Back, Replacing Russian Losses In Ukraine.

The BTR-50P Was The Soviet Army’s Main Fighting Vehicle … In 1954. Now It’s Back, Replacing Russian Losses In Ukraine.

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It seems the Russian army is reactivating old tracked fighting vehicles. As in, really old.

In late February, photos circulated on social media depicting BTR-50Ps on heavy military flatbed trucks after technicians recovered the vehicles from long-term storage somewhere in Russia.

It’s not hard to surmise what’s happening. After suffering deep losses in Ukraine, the Russian army is getting desperate for replacement vehicles. New production alone is inadequate to make good write-offs.

The BTR-50P is a 15-ton, diesel-fueled armored tractor with two crew and space for up to 20 passengers. It usually packs a heavy machine gun.

The Soviet Union developed the BTR-50P in the early 1950s. It entered service in 1954 and, for the next 12 years, was the Soviet army’s main fighting vehicle. BTR-50 crews would haul infantry into battle, protect the soldiers as they dismounted then support them with its machine gun.

The BTR-50P is lightly-armed and thinly-armored, however. When the heavier, and more heavily-armed, BMP-1 debuted in 1966, thousands of BTR-50Ps cascaded to second-line units.

The BTRs hauled artillery, engineers and anti-aircraft guns until MT-LB tractors began displacing the older vehicles from those roles, too.

As of last year, the Russian army operated just a handful of geriatric BTR-50Ps. Each around as old as Russian president Vladimir Putin, who is 70.

That the Russians held onto a few BTR-50Ps should come as no surprise. “Russia sees no need to completely change out its inventory of older vehicles, and instead has adopted a hybrid approach towards modernization,” Lester Grau and Charles Bartles explained in their definitive The Russian Way of War.

But these operational BTR-50Ps performed secondary support roles far from any front line. Meanwhile, a couple thousand of the old armored tractors rusted away in storage.

Just a few months ago, it would have been inconceivable for a BTR-5oP to roll into Ukraine. But that was before the Russians and their mercenary allies lost more than 3,000 fighting vehicles: BMP-1s, BMP-2s, BMP-3s, wheeled BTRs and MT-LBs.

The Russians have written off so many newer fighting vehicles that they’ve had no choice but to reactive older ones to replace them. So few BMP-3s and BMP-2s are left that the Kremlin is pulling out of storage hundreds of 1966-vintage BMP-1s.

The BTR-50P is what you’d expect the Russians to turn to as stocks of BMP-1s also run low. Which is not to say the Russian army will deploy BTR-50Ps close to the front, where they’d be easy targets for any Ukrainian soldiers with heavy machine guns.

Rather, BTR-50Ps should free up newer—but not new—MT-LBs in support units, allowing them to roll forward and take the place of some of those thousands of BMPs the Ukrainians have destroyed.

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