BTR-50


The BTR-50 is a Soviet tracked amphibious armoured personnel carrier based on the PT-76 light tank chassis. The BTR-50 was developed in 1952 and entered service with the Soviet Army in 1954. It ceased production in the USSR in 1970, but production continued in Czechoslovakia until 1972 and there is suggestion that it still produced by some foreign companies. It has the ability to transport up to 20 fully equipped infantrymen, and can be armed with nothing, a 7.62 mm SGMB medium machine gun, or a 14.5 mm KPV heavy machine gun. It saw notable service in the Six-Day War, the Yom Kippur War, and most recently in the Russo-Ukrainian War.
The BTR-50 shares similarities with two other APCs developed independently, the OT-62 TOPAS and the Type 77. While the OT-62 is an improved copy of the BTR-50 developed jointly by Czechoslovakia and Poland, the Type 77 is based on the Type 63 amphibious light tank developed by the People's Republic of China, which was developed from the PT-76.

Description

Like the PT-76, the BTR-50 has a flat, boat-shaped hull. Unlike the PT-76, it has a new superstructure added to the front of the vehicle. The hull of the BTR-50 is made of all-welded steel with the crew compartment in the front, the troop compartment in the center and the engine compartment at the rear. It has the ability to transport up to 20 fully equipped infantrymen, who sit on benches that run across the full width of the troop compartment. They embark and disembark the APC by climbing over the sides of the hull.
The driver sits in the center of the front of the hull and has three vision blocks and periscopes located at the top of the sloping glacis plate. During night operations, the center periscope can be swapped for the TVN-28 night vision device, which gives the driver clear vision up to 60 meters. The driver has a small hatch that opens upwards—while it cannot be used to leave the vehicle, it can be opened in relatively safe areas for extra vision. In combat, the hatch is closed and the driver can use a vision block.
There is an emergency hatch under the driver's seat. The commander, who sits on the left side of the vehicle at the front, has three vision blocks and periscopes in a projecting bay. On top of this bay is a cupola that opens forward and can be locked vertically. It has a vision block facing forward. The vehicle can operate in temperatures from −40 °C to +40 °C.
The torsion bar suspension consists of six evenly spaced large rubber-tired road wheels with a drive sprocket at the rear and an idler at the front. The road wheels are hollow to assist its amphibious capabilities. These wheels increase the APC's buoyancy by 30%. There are no track-return rollers. The first and last road wheels have a hydraulic shock absorber, the steel tracks have a single pin and 96 links each when new. There is a small, thin, horizontal skirt over each track.
The BTR-50 is powered by a V-6 6-cylinder 4-stroke in line water-cooled diesel 240 hp engine at 1800 rpm. This has a road speed of 44 km/h with a cruising range of 400 km. The vehicle can negotiate 30° side slopes, ascend 60° gradients, cross 1.1 m high vertical obstacles and 2.8 m wide trenches. The engine has a cooling system and a pre-heater, intended for ignition when the air temperature is −20 °C or below. The APC has a five gear manual shaft-type transmission system similar to that in the T-34/85 medium tank.
The gearbox has four forward and one reverse gear. The vehicle has a side clutch that enables it to make turns, mechanical transmission and a bandbrake. The vehicle has three fuel tanks, two on the right, at the front of the engine compartment and one at the rear. The total fuel capacity is 400 liters. The vehicle has four mounts for external fuel tanks located on the rear of the hull. The two on the hull corners are for a flat external tanks, whereas the two in the center are for a drum-type of tank.
The BTR-50 is amphibious thanks to its flat, boat-shaped hull, which is hermetically sealed and ensures minimal resistance when the APC is afloat. It can swim after switching on the two electric bilge pumps. Erecting the trim vane improves the stability and displacement of the vehicle in the water, and prevents water from flooding over the bow of the APC. Swapping the driver's periscope for a swimming periscope enables the driver to see over the trim vane. There is a manual bilge pump for emergency use.
In the water, it is propelled by two hydrojets, one on each side of the hull. The inlets are under the hull, the outlets are at the rear. There are additional assistant water-jet inlets on both sides of the hull over the last road wheels. The rear outlets have lids that can be fully or partially closed, redirecting the water stream to the forward-directed outlets at the sides of the hull, thus enabling the vehicle to turn. This system was designed by N. Konowalow. It is the same system as the one used in the PT-76. The vehicle's low freeboard of 15 to 20 cm and lack of a snorkel means that it can only swim in the calmest waters.
Its armor is composed of homogeneous, cold rolled, welded steel—it is very thin by modern standards, 13 mm at the front, 10 mm on the sides and top and 7 mm at the rear. While its maximum armor could protect it against small arms fire and small artillery shell fragments, it cannot protect it against.50-caliber machine gun bullets and larger shell fragments. Although its front armor might protect it against 7.62 mm small arms fire, that same fire can sometimes penetrate the sides. The vehicle is equipped with an IR driving light and an IR searchlight. It lags behind other Soviet armored fighting vehicles as it has no fire protection systems and, with the exception of the BTR-50PK variant, it has no nuclear, biological or chemical protection systems, which significantly reduces its effectiveness.

Service history

The BTR-50 was developed in 1952 and entered service with the Soviet Army in 1954. It was first shown in public in November 1957. It served in the motorized rifle regiments of tank divisions and mechanized brigades in the Soviet and East German armies. A typical mechanized brigade consisted of three battalions, each of which had 30 APCs and a command vehicle. They were replaced in front line service by the BMP-1 IFV. Command vehicle variants were employed by many Warsaw Pact armies.
BTR-50s were used by Egypt and Syria during the Six-Day War, a number of which were captured by Israel. Some vehicles were then re-used by the Israeli Army. Both sides used BTR-50s during the War of Attrition. During Operation "Raviv", an amphibious raid across the Suez Canal, three T-54 tanks and six BTR-50s were used to wreak havoc behind Egyptian lines.
BTR-50s were again employed by Egypt, Syria and Israel during the Yom Kippur War. During this conflict, BTR-50s, along with T-54s and T-55s, were used by the IDF during the fighting in and around the city of Suez. Israel captured additional BTR-50s from the Egyptians and Syrians. Some of Israel's BTR-50s were later transferred to the South Lebanon Army.

Russo-Ukraine War

In February 2023 it was reported that Russia had reactivated some BTR-50s from storage and deployed them during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In October 2023, the first example of a Russian BTR-50 being deployed in frontline combat in Ukraine appeared, with at least one BTR-50 being visually confirmed as destroyed by Ukrainian anti-tank mines northeast of Avdiivka in Donetsk Oblast during a large-scale Russian offensive against the city.
As of 9 May 2025, Russia is visually confirmed to have suffered 11 BTR-50 losses.

Variants

Former USSR

  • BTR-50P – The first production version with an open troop compartment. The vehicle had no integral armament, but it did have a pintle mount for a 7.62 mm SGMB medium machine gun. Early production BTR-50P models had folding ramps at the rear of the hull to enable either a 57 mm ZiS-2, a 76.2 mm ZiS-3 or an 85 mm D-44 anti-tank gun to be loaded and fired on the engine decks. The weapon could also be fired when the vehicle was afloat, but only when the water-jets were in operation. This system had one great flaw, the muzzle of the gun was usually over the open personnel compartment and as such submitted any occupants to a considerable amount of concussion and fumes. These ramps were absent in later production models.
  • * BTR-50P – Converted into an artillery portee vehicle. This version carried its gun in the crew compartment, thus placing the muzzle of the gun outside the vehicle. While seen mostly carrying the 57 mm ZIS-2 anti-tank gun, there were also two other variants of this vehicle that carried anti-aircraft weapons.
  • ** ZTPU-2 – BTR-50P converted into a self-propelled anti-aircraft gun, armed with twin ZPU-2 14.5 mm heavy machine guns. Prototype.
  • ** ZTPU-4 – A BTR-50P converted into a SPAAG armed with quadruple ZPU-4 14.5 mm heavy machine guns. Prototype.
  • * BTR-50P – Converted into a Forward Air Control vehicle with a second superstructure on top of the first.
  • * BTR-50P – Converted into an NBC reconnaissance vehicle with a second superstructure on top of the first.
  • * BTR-50P – Has a longer nose section.
  • * BTR-50PA – BTR-50P armed with a 14.5 mm KPV heavy machine gun on a pintle mount at the front of the troop compartment.
  • ** BTR-50PA with its heavy machine gun mounted on the commander's cupola.
  • * BTR-50PK – A BTR-50P fitted with an armored roof, the troops embarking and disembarking the vehicle via two rectangular roof hatches that open to either side. There is also another rectangular roof hatch at the front of the roof. It was armed with a pintle-mounted 7.62 mm SGMB medium machine gun. This variant has an NBC protection system. The vehicle had two ventilators, one at the front of the troop compartment on the right and one at the rear, also on the right. It is likely that these vehicles were mostly upgraded from BTR-50Ps. Another production run of the BTR-50PK had a single firing port on each side of the superstructure. They were rarely seen in use as APCs as the majority consisted of specialized variants, such as command vehicles, before being replaced by another batch with two firing ports on each side of the superstructure.
  • ** BTR-50PK – Fitted with a locater light in the center of the engine deck. This variant was issued to Soviet marine and assault river crossing units.
  • ** BTR-50PK – Converted into a training vehicle with four cupolas on top of the roof.
  • ** BTR-50PK – Has a longer nose section. Used by marine units.
  • ** UR-67 – Mine-clearing vehicle equipped with a UR-67 rocket launcher system which has three launchers firing UZP-67 or UZR-3 tubes filled with explosives. The UZP-67 or UZR-3 are carried in a fabric tube container carried inside the hull. The mine clearing procedure is composed of driving the vehicle to the edge of the minefield and aligning it before the rockets are fired from its elevated launcher at the rear of the vehicle. The rocket tows the line charge, which is secured to the launcher vehicle, across the minefield. The line charge is then positioned by the vehicle crew and detonated to clear any mines in its vicinity. The cleared lane is usually 60 m to 150 m long and 2 m to 5 m wide. The vehicle has a crew of three. Some of the vehicles were based on the BTR-50PK, others were based on the PT-76. They were known in the west as the MTK and MTK-1. Only a small number remain in service, most have been replaced by the UR-77.
  • ** BTR-50PN – Early command vehicle with three radios and three whip antennas. Only a small number were built.
  • ** BTR-50PU – Unarmed command vehicle. It carries a crew of 10 and has an armored roof with oval hatches and four whip antennas. Most of the BTR-50PUs have two projecting bays on the front of the vehicle and BTR-50PU. The two bays are the same shape, unlike in the OT-62 TOPAS, which is otherwise very similar in appearance. The vehicle has ten seats, of which four are for the commander and his staff, four are for the radio operators and two are for the vehicle's commander and driver. The staff compartment has a collapsible table, a second small table for the commander, two hammocks and three ladders. An emergency escape hatch is provided in the floor of the vehicle and the vehicle has thermal insulation. Specialized equipment consists of KN-2 and KP-2 navigation devices; an AB-1-P/30 1 kW generator ; R-105, R-105U and R-113 VHF radios; a R-112 HF transceiver, a R-311 HF receiver; a collapsible 11 m mast antenna for the R-105U; a light 10 m telescopic mast for the R-112; a R-403BM relay-set; R-120 intercom and a P-193A 10-line field telephone switchboard with six TAI-43 field telephones and four cable reels, each with 600 m of two-wire cable. The navigation system includes a gyro course indicator and course plotter. Some vehicles have different numbers of stowage boxes in different arrangements on the rear engine decks. Some vehicles have a second generator.
  • *** BTR-50PU with a longer nose section.
  • *** BTR-50PU-2 – An improved version with more modern radio equipment, most probably the R-123 and the R-130M. It is externally similar to the BTR-50PU, but has a portable generator located immediately behind the troop compartment.
  • *** BTR-50PUM – A modernised variant, it is equipped with a large AMU telescopic antenna mast and R-123, R-130, R-326, R-405D and T-218 radios. This model has a square antenna stowage box on the right front side of the hull.
  • *** BTR-50PUM-1 – latest model with a crew of up to 8 and fitted with the same radios as mounted in the R-145BM : R-111, R-123MT, R-124 and R-130M.
  • ** MTP-1 – A technical support vehicle with a raised troop compartment and a light crane.
  • ** Polyesye – A civilian version of the MTP-1.