BTR-50P Amphibious Armored Personnel Carrier

The BTR-50P is based on the chassis of the PT-76 light amphibious tank with a new superstructure added to the front of the vehicle. The hull of the BTR-50P is made of all-welded steel with the crew compartment at the front, open-topped troop compartment in the centre and the engine compartment at the rear. The torsion bar suspension consists of six rubber-tired road wheels with the drive sprocket at the rear and the idler at the front. There are no track-return rollers. The first and last road wheel stations have a hydraulic shock absorber and the steel tracks each have 96 links when new. The 20 infantrymen sit on bench seats which run across the full width of the vehicle and enter and leave by climbing over the side of the hull. Armament consists of a pintle-mounted 7.62 mm SGMB machine gun. When the BTR-50P was originally introduced there were ramps at the rear of the hull to enable a 57 mm anti-tank gun M1943 (ZIS-2), 76 mm divisional gun M1943 (ZIS-3) or an 85 mm division gun D-44 to be carried and fired from the rear decking. The weapon could also be fired when the vehicle was afloat, but only when the water-jets were in operation. The engine used in the BTR-50P is one half of that fitted to the T-54 MBT. The vehicle has three fuel tanks, two in the right forward side of the engine compartment and one at the rear. The BTR-50P is fully amphibious and propelled in the water by two water-jets at the rear of the hull. The only preparation required before entering the water is to erect the trim vane at the front of the hull and switch on the two electric bilge pumps. There is a manual bilge pump for emergency use. Steering is accomplished by opening and closing the two doors over the rear water-jets: to go left the left water-jet is covered and to turn through 180ø the left water-jet sucks in water and the right water-jet pushes it out. The basic BTR-50P has no NBC system.