BTR-152

Before the Great Patriotic War, the Red Army armored cars were to colloquially called armored cars. Based on the experience of fighting the Great War and the Civil War armored cars were planning to apply directly in combat like light tanks. The Great Patriotic War, which is often called the "war of engines", showed that the armored cars in many ways lose to tanks, but the army ess in dire need of a somewhat different type of wheeled or tracked armored vehicles - armored personnel carriers (APCs). This combi machines were designed primarily for the delivery of personnel, weapons and ammunition to the place of combat operations, and the ability to carry the various types of weapons and serve as a prime mover.

Like trucks, armored personnel carriers came in various sizes and capacities. Successful model of light armored personnel carriers after the war GAZ developed on the basis of the engine, transmission and axles 2.5-tonne two-axle truck GAZ-63, it had adopted under the name BTR-40. But the army needed another, heavier, has an increased storage capacity and a load capacity of armored personnel carriers. It is logical that it commissioned the design of the Moscow Automobile plant immeni Stalin [ZIS] on the basis of 4-ton three-axle truck ZIS-151.

Lead designer Boris Fitterman also participated in the work of the designers ZIS VF Rodionov, AP Petrenko, PP Tchernyaev, N.I.Orlov and others. Originally planned to create two unified models - wheel ZIS-152, and ZIS-153 half-track. According to the results of prototype testing has been accepted into service only wheel modification. Number 152 in the index APCs meant just a model ZIS. According to the adopted in the postwar years, the numbering system of the Soviet models of vehicles, The car factory named after Stalin stood out "hundreds" of numbers from 100 to 199.

Bronetransporty - literally "armored transporter". The first version of the BTR-152 wheeled armored personnel carrier was produced in 1950. Serial production of the BTR-152 ZIS mastered in 1950, and a military parade Nov. 7, 1951 On these machines were first held on Red Square. The creators of armored personnel received the Stalin Prize. However, shortly after its receipt BM Fitterman was arrested as an "enemy of the people" and for several years served time in prison.

The basis of the armored personnel carrier was not the frame, but the carrying welded armored hull. In those years, the outer sheets of the armored hull tried to impart a maximum inclination so that they effectively threw bullets and shrapnel, protecting the crew, the landing force, the engine and the cargo. The thickness of the armor was from 3 to 10 mm. The classic layout with a long engine compartment in front saved people if an armored personnel carrier drove the front wheel on a mine. The vehicle hull is of all-welded construction, engine and transmission are at the front of the vehicle. The crew consists of a driver, co-driver, and up to 17 infantry who normally board the vehicle through the rear entry hatch. The driver and the commander entered through the side doors.

The six-cylinder in-line petrol engine of an armored personnel carrier was unified with the engines of post-war trucks ZIS-150 and ZIS-151. But for heavier all-terrain vehicles, it was forced, they increased the volume of the cooling system, they used a shielded (not interfering with the transmission of radio waves) ignition system. The transmission repeated a set of technical solutions characteristic of the ZIS-151 truck. Mechanical 5-speed gearbox, transfer case, separate drive with cardan shafts to the middle and rear axles were also unified to the maximum with truck units.

However, the BTR-152 differed from the ZIS-151 in a fundamental innovation that significantly increased maneuverability. In the 40s, tests of various samples of off-road vehicles showed that, ideally, off-road truck should be equipped with shed tires on all wheels, and the track width of all axles should be strictly the same. Shed wheels lay one track in the dirt or snow, and the twin-wheel rear wheels of conventional trucks are forced to break through the excess track, which significantly interferes with the movement of the car. However, the American truck of the Studebaker US6 war, which became the first mass all-wheel drive truck in the Red Army, had rear dual-ply tires that were traditional for the time.

However, the creators of the armored personnel carrier, unlike the designers who worked on the truck, did not put forward such requirements - they did not have to take any foreign models for a similar purpose as a basis. Therefore, for the first time, the BTR-152 used single-wheel wheels for all axles with low-profile wide tires. Thanks to the successful operating experience of the BTR-152 on the off-road, by the end of the 50s, the ZIS-151 was replaced with a modernized ZIL-157 truck with lean-to tires like an armored personnel carrier.

In the 1950s, a system of centralized tire inflation was tested for modifications with the BTR-152B index, which allowed it to continue driving when a shotgun or a shotgun was pierced � the driver was only required to turn on the pump in time. Also, this system allowed "to unleash" tire pressure in order to drive through a piece of shaky soil, and then quickly pump up the same compressor. The use of such a device was highly appreciated by the legendary Marshal of the Soviet Union G.K. Zhukov, who served as Minister of Defense. In 1955, the BTR-152B went into series with external tire inflation pipelines, which prominently protruded near the wheels. After some time, an improved pumping system was developed with internal hoses passing through the crankcases of bridges and hubs. It, following the example of the BTR-152V1, was obtained by ZIL-131, Ural-375 and other domestic SUVs.

Production ended in early 1960s, and in Russia the vehicle was replaced by the BTR-60.P series. While long withdrawn from Russian service, this vehicle remains operational in a number of other countries. The BTR-152 series has seen service with Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Bulgaria, Cambodia, China (as the type 56 APC), Congo, Cuba, East Germany, Egypt, Finland, Hungary, India, Iran, Iraq, North Korea, Poland, Romania, Soviet Union, Syria and other countries. Israel used BTR-152 series vehicles, but it is unlikely that these were actually purchased from the Soviet Union. Like other Warsaw Pact equipment in the Israeli arsenal, the BTR-152s were most likely captured during wars with Egypt and Syria.