As of: March 16, 2024, 9:30 p.m
By: Karsten Hinzmann
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Life-threatening emergency solution: recruits on a T-62 tank - after the turret has been amputated, the soldiers can be transported into battle in the resulting crater with reasonable protection.
(Symbolic image) © Vladimir Smirnov/Imago
Born out of necessity: Because the Russians lack transporters for their soldiers, they amputate old battle tanks.
A deadly solution for the grenadiers.
Avdiivka – “A tank is better than no tank,” writes “whatsitallabout” – with this the reader of the Austrian
Standard
comments on a report about “Frankenstein tanks”;
old T-62 main battle tank from Soviet times, which Ukraine converted and used as an armored personnel carrier to transport its soldiers safely into the Ukrainian war.
The defenders against Vladimir Putin's invading troops made a virtue out of necessity.
“I think both sides would also take T-34s etc. if they are in large numbers and the price is low.
Unless you as a soldier have a lot of anti-tank defense, even a tank from 1945 is intimidating,” writes “whatsitallabout”.
Apparently the leadership of the Russian army now thinks so too.
“Since Russia no longer has any special combat vehicles, it is becoming creative ... and desperate,” comments the US magazine
Forbes
on the Russian army's current actions of amputating T-62s and sending them back to the front as armored personnel carriers without a turret.
Russia's ranks of armored personnel carriers have apparently bled to such an extent that old battle tanks are being repurposed in new ways: old battle tanks from the Cold War are coming out of storage and back to the front as a do-it-yourself solution - at least that's what military bloggers in the Avdiivka area want to see have.
Forced creativity: Putin sends his soldiers into battle in a golf cart
One of these workarounds was a 1960s T-62 tank with its turret removed, leaving a free space in its 32-ton hull for infantry to hide.
The other was a 35-ton BTS-2 engineer vehicle, based on a T-54 tank from the 1950s, which apparently had to be replaced by a crane and winch to create protected space for grenadiers.
Both sides are inventive.
Ukraine had already crossed a T-62 main battle tank with a BMP-2 turret, deploying an armored transport vehicle with thicker armor than usual, a 30-millimeter on-board gun and room for soldiers,
Forbes
reported.
However, the Russian invading army is probably in even worse material trouble than its opponents and has therefore now mobilized comparatively cheaply: with a golf cart-like vehicle.
After appearing sporadically at the front, they are now arriving en masse.
Back in November, Moscow announced that Russia would procure more than 2,000 “Desertcross 1000-3” off-road vehicles from the Chinese company Shandong Odes Industry.
Purchase price: less than 17,000 euros per vehicle.
The reinforced golf carts are said to have appeared almost simultaneously in Zaporizhzhia in the south and in Donetsk, Luhansk and Kharkiv in the east.
Gigantic bloodletting: Putin has lost more than 7,500 armored vehicles this year alone
For
Forbes
military journalist David Ax, this is a clear case of material disintegration of the Russian invading army: “As golf carts increasingly replace purpose-built infantry fighting vehicles in Russian service, the occasional home-building of infantry fighting vehicles that some enterprising technicians have employed with a decommissioned main battle tank is actually a real concern represents progress for the increasingly shabby Russian army in Ukraine.” The bloodletting of Putin's troops is actually gigantic: from February 2024 alone, according to consensus estimates from various media outlets, Russia is said to have lost at least 3,500 armored personnel carriers, well over 1,000 armored vehicles and almost 3,000 battle tanks.
As in most military movements, speed is a crucial aspect in almost every military combat situation - this is what the motorized riflemen are brought in for;
Their name in the West is Panzergrenadier.
The Panzergrenadier goes back to the German tank general Heinz Guderian.
This meant that they would be equipped with a special armored vehicle, the armored personnel carrier, so that they could fight both mounted and dismounted.
Their main task was to support armored formations, i.e. mainly to protect and support battle tanks.
In the armies of the East the name is different, but their task is the same.
“Panzergrenadiers also sit under fire.
Then the tailgate opens and you’re in the middle of the battle.”
Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Spranger on the Bundeswehr website.
In fact, the golf carts seem to be almost the last line;
Russia has been plundering its reserves since the annexation of Crimea ten years ago.
“Vladimir Putin has already ordered T-14 Armata main battle tanks, and now he is having another 3,000 units of the T-80 completely modernized.
The only question is: What does Moscow want with so many tanks?” – eight years ago, Stern
pondered
this question at length;
the answer is now clear.
In the Ukraine war, the stocks of main battle tanks of Russia's invading army are dwindling rapidly.
And the T-80 appears to continue to be considered the workhorse of the Russian army.
That's why it is now being revitalized again, as the
militarywatch
magazine reports.
Just like the inventory of armored personnel carriers is being replenished by all possible means.
Slow supplies: Putin is producing fewer new vehicles than needed
Forbes
speculates that the Russian leadership is becoming increasingly desperate and is lagging behind in losses with its estimated production of 30 armored personnel carriers per month.
The decline in Russian weapons production was contradicted in part by Stern
in January
: “British intelligence estimates that Russia produces more than 100 battle tanks every month.
This assessment confirms statements by Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu.
This will compensate for the current losses.” In fact, the use of the China buggies is certainly due to the lack of armored vehicles, as the golf carts can transport up to six shooters to the front in addition to the driver - but they are completely unprotected even against fire from small arms .
With a corresponding impact on the number of fallen soldiers, as
Forbes
summarizes: “Shortly before March 4th, Russian troops in several 'desert cruisers' attacked the Ukrainian garrison in Yampoliwka in eastern Ukraine - and were destroyed.
Four days later, on March 8, military bloggers identified three abandoned Desertcross after a failed platoon-sized attack by Russian forces outside Avdiivka.
Six days later counted
“Analyst Andrew Perpetua said another four Desertcross vehicles were damaged and destroyed.”
The high level of wear and tear on people and material on the Russian side was often due to the partially inadequate armor of the Russian vehicles.
Roger Näbig writes in the magazine
Internationalepolitik
: “The fundamental lack of soldiers further meant that Russia's now technically more modern and more powerful equipment could not develop its full potential.
In addition, the Russian army did not have enough motorized or mechanized infantry as well as intelligence and reconnaissance forces to protect its communication lines and supply convoys in Ukraine more effectively.” The extent to which the “Desertcross” can reverse this trend remains questionable.
Deadly transport solution: Putin lets soldiers take off with almost no cover
The Russian soldiers in the stripped-down battle tanks are just as defenseless as they are in the golf carts.
The crater left by the tower offers little cover and makes it difficult to dismount.
Panzergrenadiers fight in two ways: mounted on the tank and as dismounted infantry.
In mounted combat, the on-board machine cannon is primarily used.
But on-board machine guns and anti-tank systems are also available.
In addition, the grenadiers can fight over the side of the ship.
This means that they fight enemy infantry forces with machine guns, assault rifles, grenade pistols or hand grenades from the top of the tank hatches without leaving the protection of the tank.
This, in turn, is hardly possible in a converted main battle tank - it simply lacks the protected options for egress or targeted combat from the vehicle.
Even if Russian soldiers continue to often go into battle sitting on the tank because the ammunition in Russian tanks is at high risk of explosion.
“The Panzergrenadier closes the gap between classic tank combat and infantry combat,” explains Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Spranger on the Bundeswehr website.
“Panzergrenadiers also sit under fire.
Then the tailgate opens and you are in the middle of the battle.” The commander of the 371 Panzergrenadier Battalion contradicts the comment-happy reader of the Austrian
Standard
- without competitive material, the chance of the mission being successful decreases, not to mention: then, above all, your own survival becomes important unlikely.