Weird Russian vehicle with 80-year-old naval turret may serve air defense role

The wacky improvised armored vehicles the Russian military is building (80-year-old naval guns mounted on slightly degraded armored chassis) make a little more sense.

There are hints that the Russians plan to deploy these Frankenstein monsters as a crude air defense system along with a reconditioned ZSU-23-4 gun carriage.

The first MT-LB-2M-3s — a vintage 1950s MT-LB armored tractor with a vintage 1940s 2M-3 naval turret, top and bottom 25mm cannons — was released in early March. began appearing in Ukraine and its environs.

These are the latest in a long series of Franconian vehicles that Ukrainian and Russian armed forces are increasingly relying on to make sizable losses of modern vehicles, and one to Russia’s wider war against Ukraine. year.

The MT-LB-2M-3 does not work in the infantry support role. Its high turret makes it easy to spot even from a distance. Its cannon lacks range compared to more modern weapons. Its hull is lightly armored.

but video The information, which circulated online on Friday or earlier, suggests that Russia plans to deploy the MT-LB-2M-3 in air defense missions, not against ground, but against air. Someone spotted a train hauling Franconian cars alongside his ZSU-23-4.

The ZSU-23-4 has four 23 mm cannons with radar cues in turrets on tracked chassis. The ZSU-23-4 was the primary front-line short-range air defense system of the Soviet Armed Forces for two decades starting in the late 1960s. Starting in 1982, the Russian military replaced his ZSU-23-4 with his 2K22, armed with his 30mm cannon and missiles.

However, Russia has lost so many air defense systems in Ukraine, including at least 13 2K22s, that it pulled the old ZSU-23-4 out of storage and replaced it with the MT-LB-2M and We are starting to send them out to the front together. -3 seconds.

It is not entirely clear what the Franken vehicle will offer the Russian air defense battery. The ZSU-23-4 has a radar, but it has a narrow field of view and short range. But MT-LB-2M-3 seems to be completely manual.

Maybe useful against quadcopter drones. But against Ukrainian helicopters and fighter jets, it’s probably worse than useless. They probably intend to kill the crew.

However, the MT-LB-2M3 may kill the unfortunate crew. Faster If the Russians tried to send strange vehicles into direct combat with combat-hardened Ukrainian brigades.