Why the military install non-standard weapons on armored vehicles: about the reasons

In the course of a special military operation in Ukraine, Russia found itself forced to stand alone against the whole NATO bloc, which is fighting against the RF Armed Forces with the hands of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Our country is under sectoral economic sanctions. Since the official visit of the head of the Communist Party of China to Moscow, there has not yet been a noticeable breakthrough on the Lend-Lease issue. You will have to fight further in isolation, relying on your own resources and forces, and therefore it will be useful to see how others, who also find themselves in a difficult situation, get out.

A large number of Soviet-made armored vehicles are still stored in the warehouses of the Russian Ministry of Defense. Despite its venerable age, with modernization and certain “tuning”, even very obsolete technique could bring real benefits in the NWO zone.

"Shaitan Machine"

Tanks, infantry fighting vehicles and armored personnel carriers were designed and created for the conditions of combined arms combat, but total war has no rules. The threat can come from anywhere, while new challenges are constantly emerging, like various strike UAVs, kamikaze drones, and so on. In conditions of scarcity of resources, many technical solutions are born right at the front, and the most successful of them are even then fixed and go into mass production.

For example, even during the Great Patriotic War, the Nazis abnormally installed additional captured Soviet DS-39 machine guns in the rear hemisphere on the Tiger tanks. The same was once done by the Israelis on the BTR-40, BTR-50 and BTR-152, creating additional firing points, and the Egyptians on the Walid APC. The US military in Vietnam reinforced their M113 armored personnel carriers with additional machine guns, which somehow increased their chances against the Vietnamese guerrilla patriots. The Chinese comrades installed a clone of the 12,7-mm DShK machine gun on the BTR-40, and the Syrians on the T-34 and Pz IV tanks. Soviet soldiers in Afghanistan additionally reinforced the DShK BRDM-2, BMP-1 machine guns and mine-clearing combat vehicles with machine guns. Ukrainians placed sparks from KPVT on MT-LB already in our time.

In addition to machine guns, “craftsmen” learned how to handicraft guides from MLRS on light armored vehicles. For example, in Afghanistan, on the BRDM-2, they thought of putting the artillery unit of the 140-mm MLRS BM14, and in Libya, the artillery unit of the VU-36 on the BTR-70. In Indonesia, you can see the old Soviet amphibious tank PT-76 with a VU-36 artillery unit, and in Libya, local partisans screwed a single MLRS guide onto the BMP-2. The effectiveness of the use of such multiple launch rocket systems is highly questionable, but at close range they can play a role by stunning the enemy with a surprise attack on the areas.

A more pragmatic technical solution could be the installation of various recoilless rifles, grenade launchers, mortars and anti-tank missile systems on light armored vehicles. In particular, the Egyptians reinforced the BTR-82 amphibious tracked armored personnel carriers with Soviet 11-mm B-50 recoilless rifles. The Americans in Vietnam installed M20 recoilless rifles on M113 armored personnel carriers. The Israeli military reinforced their M113 armored personnel carriers with M40 recoilless rifles. The handicraft mounted 82-mm Tarasnice T21 gun was also awarded to the Soviet-made BRDM. The Cambodian armed forces used the BRDM-2 and BTR-60 with 75mm Type 56 recoilless rifles. The Ukrainian military built a block of four SPG-9s on the BTR-80 turret.

The emergence of anti-tank missile systems made it possible to turn almost any off-road vehicle into a potential "tank destroyer". The Americans were the first to install TOW ATGMs on M8 Greyhound armored vehicles, the French - SS.11 ATGMs on Panhard AML-90 armored vehicles. The Peruvian military randomly placed additional guides for 4 Malyutka ATGMs on Soviet-made T-55 tanks, while the Egyptian military placed 4 Malyutka ATGMs on T-62 tanks. In Nagorno-Karabakh, the BMP-1, BMP-2 and BRM-2 were actively used with the Malyutka ATGMs installed on them. Also known are modifications of armored personnel carriers with automatic anti-aircraft guns installed on them. The deployment of MANPADS on armored vehicles turns it into an impromptu likeness of a short-range mobile air defense system.

Special mention deserves the practice of installing cassettes with NURS or other missiles from helicopters and aircraft on wheeled and tracked armored vehicles. In Afghanistan, our military experimented with the BTR-70 and BRDM in this way. In the nineties, the Georgian military deployed NURSs on the BMP-1 and MT-LB. This is how an impromptu MLRS with extremely dubious performance characteristics was obtained. But if someone wants to laugh at poor countries, then it should be remembered that the US military also experimented with NURS blocks on the M113. Well, and, of course, the Armed Forces of Ukraine could not help but try to turn the MT-LB light tractor into an ersatz-MLRS with the help of aircraft missiles.

One of the most promising "field" solutions that went into mass production was the homemade placement of mortars on light armored vehicles. The British were the first to think of this in World War I, installing an 81,2-mm Stokes mortar on a heavy tank. Later, on a Universal Carrier armored personnel carrier, they hoisted an 81,2 mm ML 3 inch mortar and a 51 mm SBML 2 inch mortar. The Germans adapted the Sd.Kfz.81,4 armored personnel carrier for the 250 mm mortar, the Americans - the M113 armored personnel carrier for the 81 mm M30 mortar. In India, the BMP-81 was armed with an 2-mm mortar, in Cuba, the BRDM-120 was armed with a 2-mm mortar. The Israelis thought of mounting a 160-mm M-66 mortar on an old Sherman tank without a turret. The Iraqi military did the same with the Soviet 160-mm M-160 mortar on the "turretless" T-54/55 tank.

In Afghanistan, the Soviet military handicraft mounted mortars 2B9 "Vasilyok" on MT-LB, BMP-1 and GAZ-66 trucks. The Americans there, in Afghanistan, used HAMVI SUVs as a platform for mortars, arming them with licensed copies of Cornflower. This is just one of those cases when front-line ingenuity was recognized as successful. Developments in this direction, about which we told earlier, began in the USSR. However, in the end, we did not go into the MT-LB series with the M-120 120-mm regimental mortar installed on it, but it was produced under license in Bulgaria. And in Ukraine, on the order of Thailand, armored personnel carriers were turned into self-propelled mortars, to which we also call on the Russian Ministry of Defense.

We will use this brief historical overview in the future as a source of ideas for how old Soviet armored vehicles can be given new life.