GAZ-50: Brezhnev Battle Bus

Bingo567 · May 13, 2026, 9:34pm

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GAZ-50

This suggestion for the GAZ-50, a Soviet infantry fighting vehicle made in 1971.
This is essentially a prototype BTR-70 with the BMP-1’s turret.

History

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The GAZ-50 was designed by the famous Gorky Automotive plant in 1971, based on the earlier GAZ-49-which was adopted by the Soviet Army as the BTR-60PB. The modification entailed upgrades to both firepower and automotive components. in regards to firepower, the BPU-1 turret was replaced by the single-man turret from the BMP-1. this gave it the 73mm “Grom” cannon as well as a launcher for Malyutka anti-tank missiles. for the automotive improvements, new and more modern and powerful V-shaped 8-cylinder carburetor engines with a capacity of 115-120 hp were mounted in the rear of the hull, providing a maximum speed of 80km/h. A separate brake drive has been introduced, providing independent braking of the first and third pairs of wheels from the second and fourth, and a system for disconnecting the power transmission from the engine from the driver’s seat has been installed, which allows, in the event of one engine failing, to quickly disconnect it and operate only on the other - the one that is in working order. While the GAZ-50 was not adopted, a later variant with a more modest 14.5mm KPV turret would eventually be adopted as the BTR-70.

Specifications

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Crew: 2
Main weapon: 73mm 2A28 “Grom” (40 rounds)
Secondary weapon: 9M14M “Malyutka (4 missiles)
Machine gun: 7.62mm PKT (2000 rounds)
Reload: 6s
Armor: 6-10mm on the hull, up to 26mm on the turret
Weight: 13t
Max speed: 80 km/h

In game:
This would basically be a BMP-1 with much better mobility at the cost of armor protection. It’s also important to remember that it would NOT be able to use the Konkurs missile that the BMP-1 gets with the BMP-1P module, as the GAZ-50 was never modified in this configuration, although it most likely could have. With all that considered, I think it would fit neatly in the tech tree between the 2S19M1 and the IT-1.
Why add this?
The BTR series are a very historically important series of vehicles which currently are only represented by the BTR-80A and the BTR-80AT. The GAZ-50 would not only fill the gap between the 2S19 and IT-1, but it would also be a great representation of the earlier BTR-70 which saw major use by Warsaw Pact militaries.

Pictures:

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