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Caid’s suggestion # 95
I would like to suggest an interesting armored car for Russia, the BAD-2
The BAD-2 was a development ECO OGPU PVO & Design Bureau of the Izhora Pant under the command of N.Ya. Obukhov in 1932. The vehicles were designed in parallel to the BAD-1 and aimed to offer vehicles capable of working on the ground, river, and railroad. Russia is a large country with a sparse population (particularly in the east half) the lack of infrastructure was reducing the ability to defend the large country with the conventional slow tanks. the BAD-2 was intended to offer a higher mobility and tactical advantage over the tanks. The vehicles built in a boat-like chassis were designed to float and cross the river or lake. The rear wheels could be added with a track for better mobility on soft ground. the wheels could also be replaced to run on the railroad which crosses the whole country. The trial was fairly successful, the vehicle could float while being difficult to navigate. The railroad conversion was also working fine. However, the vehicles were plagued with reliability and production problems. It was officially and publicly presented in 1933 during the Leningrad parade. The Red Army ordered 25 of those vehicles but only 15 could be produced with the current material available. Further production and reliability issues forced the order to be cancelled. In 1934, the prototype was scrapped as it seemed irrelevant and the project was completely abandoned.
Firepower
The main armament is the 37mm B-3 (5-K). This gun is a fairly decent early tank gun that is capable of penetrating 50mm of armor at a short distance with an APHE round. The 37mm gun is placed in a central turret and can turn on 360°. The elevation of the gun is unknown, but given the placement of the rear turret and the cabin, it might have a limited depression at around -8° which remains decent. I would suppose a vertical fire arc of -8°/+20° would be a good guess. The 37mm carry 60 rounds which is a decent amount for the game’s need. There is no coaxial in the central turret but a 7.62mm LMG is placed in the front on the right side of the driver and an additional 7.62mm LMG is placed in the rear turret and can fire at about 270° toward the rear.
Mobility
The vehicle is underpowered for its weight. Powered by a Gaz-AA engine, it will only have 40 hp for 4.7 tonnes. This greatly reduces the mobility of the vehicle but still allows it to reach 50-60 km/h on the road. It is also amphibious with a propeller at the rear. The propeller continuously turns even if it’s not in the water as long the wheels turn as they are attached to the same system. The vehicle can reach between 4.5 and 6 km/h on the water.
Protection
The armour of BAD-2 is weak. It would barely protect against LMG at combat distance. That mean at close range, the LMG can penetrate it. The crew of 4 men is fairly spread out in the rear half of the vehicle and the engine at the front provides for some protection for the crew. The vehicle is also fairly large and offers a lot of flat sides, but at the same time, it does have 2x 20L smoke generators placed on each side of the vehicle to cover its movement or just annoy your teammates behind at the spawn.
Sources
- https://inf.news/en/military/ed7af27ce77ef848f1f275dbd1865ae7.html
- FLOATING ARMORED VEHICLES FOR THE RED ARMY | MODEL CONSTRUCTION
- BAA-2: the first Soviet floating armored car
- Soviet BAD-2 Amphibian | Secret Projects Forum
- https://imagery.vnfawing.com/PDF-Archive/Russian-Armored-Cars-1930-2000.pdf
- BAD-2 - Wikipedia
- BAD-2 | FirearmCentral Wiki | Fandom