Vietnam Re-Operates BTR-50 Armored Vehicle

07 Juni 2017

BTR-50 of the Vietnam (all photos : QPVN) 

After a long absence, recently BTR-50 armored vehicles of the Viet Cong tanks have been seen on duty during the exercises.

The silhouette of the BTR-50 was not shown in the clips shot by the QPVN Channel, but by some preliminary characteristics the body can be identified as the BTR-50.

The BTR-50 has a very similar body frame to the PT-76 tank. Rather, the BTR-50 is a version used for combat mission development from the PT-76.

The BTR-50 was an amphibious tanker manufactured by the Soviet Union in the early 1950s based on the PT-76 amphibious tank chassis. Thousands of BTR-50s were manufactured by the Soviet Union during the period 1954-1970 and exported to dozens of countries around the world, including Vietnam. It is noteworthy that the BTR-50 was a rare tank armored vehicle developed by the Soviet Union during this period. Almost, afterwards the Soviet Union focused solely on tire armor.

According to some documents, in 1971, Vietnam received the first BTR-50 armored vehicles. In addition to the BTR-50PK firstly join to the Army, the BTR-50PK was later converted to the Navy by the formation of the Marines.

BTR-50 armored vehicles has a combat weight of 14.5 tons, 7.08m long, 3.14m wide, 2.03m high. The design of the car is considered boat-like PT-76. However, the structure in the car is completely different from the front cockpit, the middle compartment and the rear compartment.

According to the manufacturer, the BTR-50 is capable of carrying up to 20 soldiers in the car, they will be out by the huge roof door. This design makes the soldiers in danger on the battlefield when out of the car will face immediately with the enemy fire.


The BTR-50 is 13mm thick steel armor on the front of the body, 10mm on the sides, 10mm on the roof and 7mm on the tail.

(KienThuc)