What’s old becomes new as the broader war being fought across Russia and Ukraine enters its fourth year. During the Second World War, the armies sure, the British Army in particular, bolted steel spreads on the most sensible of tanks and used the resulting “funny” to temporarily erect bridges over breaches to reduce sensible cars on the battlefield.
Eighty years later, in Kursk Oblast in western Russia, deployed Russian airborne troops changed the BTR-D air attack cars: stacking what appear to be the wooden floors on the 13-ton 13-ton cars and rolling them into rivers. In the muddy riverbeds, makeshift car surfaces serve as bridges.
Kriegsforscher, a Ukrainian drone operator supporting the 20,000 Ukrainian troops who forged a 250-square-mile salient salient from Kursk in August, one of the funnels of the BTR-D bridge. Open-source analysts scouring social media for evidence of broken and destroyed armored cars have known at least one more.
The weirdos seem to be most active at the western end of the Kursk salient, where Russian paratroopers have been counterattacking since November. To attack Ukrainian forces in and around the village of Darino, the Russians will first have to cross the Snahist River. The Ukrainians are relentlessly bombing civilian bridges and any traditional spans or pontoons that Russian engineers are building in Kursk, and they are also targeting the Russians’ specially built bridge vehicles, which are giant and bulky.
Hence the pivot to the fun BTR-D. They are as vulnerable to Ukrainian mines, missiles, artillery and drones as any fighting vehicle, i. e. very vulnerable, but may be less vulnerable than consistent with manual bridges or slow engineering vehicles. A BTR-D is heavily protected, but at least it’s fast, with a top road speed of nearly 40 miles consistent with the hour.
The Ukrainians have eliminated at least two fun BTR-D since November. But DIY cars helped Russian troops cross the Snahist river several times and start conquering domain around Darino.
Sources:
1. Kriegsforscher
2. Moklasen
3. Control map of Ukraine
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