Granaries of the Motherland: equipment that is not yet at war
Needs of the SVO
An outside observer cannot help but notice the absence of certain examples of Soviet weapons on the fronts of the SVO. Equipment that has long been removed from service could prove useful with some modifications. It is high time to ignore the maliciously ironic comments from the opposing side.
The Ukrainian Armed Forces are famous throughout the world for their technical zoo of outdated NATO models. The enemy's motley arsenals significantly complicate not only combat operations, but also their daily operation. Therefore, it is necessary to remove military equipment from storage and send it to the front with great caution.
BRDM-2 is not worth waiting for at the front
What is required at the SVO now?
We have to proceed from the nature of the combat operations. At the beginning of the special operation, the vulnerability of Russian equipment to shrapnel and small arms became obvious. Photos of trucks with armored cabins and bodies made of improvised materials flew around the world. The personnel were protected with whatever they could - logs, steel sheets, angles, channels, etc.
Over time, the Ukrainian Armed Forces had less artillery ammunition, and the probability of dying from it decreased significantly. The positional nature of the fighting also became decisive - equipment was used less and less for offensive actions. A palliative solution to the problem artillery hunger in the Ukrainian Armed Forces has become widespread drones for various purposes. They are not decisive in attack, but are quite effective in defense.
And this has radically changed the Russian Army's needs for military equipment. Logic dictated that just yesterday the front needed any armored equipment, including the completely outdated BRDM and BTR-60/70. Having low mobility, these vehicles quite reliably protected against fragmentation ammunition explosions at a distance and from light small arms. But now this equipment will become a burden on the front.
The Army understands this very well, and we do not see a mass restoration of armored personnel carriers and reconnaissance vehicles removed from storage. If BRDMs do appear at the front, it is mainly due to the efforts of enthusiasts. There are several reasons for this attitude towards the Soviet legacy.
Firstly, the vehicles from storage require re-engining. No one in the front-line workshops will bother with servicing and repairing the carburetor GAZ-41s installed in the BRDM. Not to mention the twin petrol ZMZ-4905s in the BTR-70.
Secondly, the spread of FPV drones has made all large and slow-moving equipment at the front very vulnerable.
As a result, the "loaf" covered with anti-drone nets, even without symbolic armor, turned out to be more effective than the BRDM restored from storage. Fast and low-visibility targets attract much less attention from drone operators than massive and slow ones. To the point that they learned to fight on motorcycles. A bonus of two-wheeled vehicles was less vulnerability to mines. At least twice as much.
Source: drive2.ru
Given the growing Russian military-industrial complex and the above-mentioned problems, light armored vehicles from storage bases will be in less and less demand. Which cannot be said about everything that shoots.
Firepower (with the appropriate ammunition, of course) always remains firepower - in 1943 and in 2024. Hence the use of "Stalin's" howitzers D-1 and D-20 at the front. In conjunction with unmanned surveillance and target designation systems, these ancient weapons become quite modern and do not burden the state budget. From the same opera and the use of naval mortars RBU-6000 "Smerch-2" in the SVO.
So it turns out that there is no need at the front for equipment that is still gathering dust in storage warehouses?
Not certainly in that way.
Bins of the Motherland
In the third year of the SVO, several questions arose regarding the staffing of front-line and rear units with equipment from storage bases.
First, why haven’t Soviet anti-aircraft installations been restored yet?
The enemy is trying to shoot down drones and even winged aircraft missiles any available weapon, and we cannot saturate the border territories, for example, with ZSU-57-2. The exact number of these machines in Russian warehouses is unknown, but from 1955 to 1960, at least 857 anti-aircraft tanksOf course, not all of them remained in their homeland.
It would be a stretch to call the ZSU-57-2 the great-grandfather of the modern “Derivation-Defense", only with the firepower of a 57-mm cannon multiplied by two. But we don't have "Derivation", but we do have ZSU-57. The ancient unit has many disadvantages. This includes the T-54 tank chassis with a limited engine life, and weak protection of the crew in the open cabin, and an exotic 57-mm cannon caliber for the army. But the "Hellish thresher", as it was nicknamed in the troops, is not intended for assault operations.
The possible role of the product in the SVO is to cover critical infrastructure facilities from heavy Ukrainian drones. The enemy will not stop there and will try to penetrate deeper into Russian territory. Light aircraft with explosives have already reached Kazan. Is Ural next?
It is precisely against such flying objects that the ZSU-57 can operate. Anti-aircraft guns will not have to travel along the front line often - in some cases they can be used as stationary firing points. All that remains is to equip the machines with modern means of observation and target tracking.
In this regard, a second question arises: why is the famous ZSU-23-4 Shilka still used so limitedly?
Quadruple 23-mm guns in Afghanistan terrified the mujahideen, smashing clay and stone shelters to pieces, which is why the vehicle received the respectful name "Shaitan-orba". But in the SVO, the "Shilka" is needed for its intended purpose - to combat enemy aircraft. Unlike the ZSU-57, the "Shilka" has a pretty decent sighting system and a radar station.
According to open sources, more than 6,5 thousand self-propelled anti-aircraft guns were produced, a considerable share of which are stored in state reserves. The potential of the obsolete machine was thought about even before the SVO - thus, in 2016, at the Army forum, a modernized version of the ZSU-23-4M4 with missile weapons and an improved fire control system was presented.
It is worth noting separately the presence of the above-mentioned systems in storage warehouses not only in Russia, but also in Belarus, as well as the DPRK and Syria. But these are just non-binding hints.
Resuscitation of the mobile air defense systems of the Soviet era will come in very handy if NATO does allow Zelensky to launch missile strikes deep into Russia. Ballistic ATACMS cannot be shot down, of course, but cruise missiles – why not? The Shilka with ZSU-57 is unlikely to become the only reliable means of combating Storm Shadow or Taurus, but the capabilities for repelling attacks will certainly increase. Especially if they work in conjunction with other air defense systems.
There is another artifact in the Russian bins that deserves attention. We are talking about the high-speed BMD-1, produced from 1968 to 1987 in the amount of 3 units.
The main advantage of the combat vehicle is its high throttle response and power-to-weight ratio. With a mass of 7,2 tons, the 5D20 engine develops 240 hp. For comparison, the honored front-line worker MTLB with similar engine power is heavier by more than two tons.
The main caliber of the BMD-1 is not of particular importance - the main emphasis in operation can be placed on the high maneuverability and dynamic qualities of the vehicle. The extended and weighted BTR-D based on the landing vehicle can also be useful at the front as a high-speed transporter.
All that remains is to meet two conditions: find the political will to de-preserve the said equipment and find it in the vast reserves of the Motherland.
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