The first Franken-BRDM appeared in Donetsk in April 2023.
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If necessity is the mother of invention, desperation might be the father of…whatever: a nasty, all-too-conspicuous DIY Ukrainian modification of the classic Soviet-era BRDM-2 scout car.
Among the many types of improvised vehicles that Russian and Ukrainian workshops have produced in the 15 months since Russia expanded its war on Ukraine, there are some clear winners.
The Ukrainian MT-LB-12 self-propelled gun, for example. Also: several Ukrainian Frankenstein fighting vehicles and engineering vehicles based on captured Russian T-62 tanks. And anything on either side that comes armed with the powerful 57mm S-60 cannon.
And then there are the losers. Perhaps most notable are the awkward unguided anti-aircraft guns that Russian technicians created by welding 80-year-old naval turrets to 70-year-old armored tractors.
The Ukrainian BRDM-2 mods that first appeared this spring are a close second. Oleksandr Tixxenko, deputy of the Lviv regional council, revealed the first Franken-BRDM in April during a visit to the eastern front of Donetsk.
Reporting on “the combat units currently holding the defense on the country’s eastern borders,” Tixxenko circulated a photo of a BRDM-2 scout car with a tall superstructure in place of its usual turret armed with machine guns.
The mod appears to transform the eight-ton, four-person scout car, with its four wheels and 140-horsepower gasoline engine, into a light armored personnel carrier. The removal of the turret and its bustle creates an empty volume within the hull of the vehicle that should accommodate several infantry.
But the Franken-BRDM pays for its extra troop capacity with a new, very tall superstructure that could make it a much easier target for Russian gunners. It was always risky to send a lightly protected BRDM into harm’s way. It’s even riskier when the vehicle is more than 10 feet tall. It is almost twice as tall as usual.
Ukrainian armed forces can’t get enough APCs. This is evident in Kiev’s willingness to find some use for almost any old personnel carrier or infantry fighting vehicle that one ally or another pulls out of long-term storage and donates to the war effort Thin skinned BMP-1 from the 1960s. Weird ex-Australian cargo carriers. UK Tiny Spartans.
But these BRDM mods, several of which have appeared since April, speak of a new level of desperation. There is no evidence that any of the Franken-BRDM were knocked out. But that could be because there is no evidence that the Ukrainians have allowed the odd APCs near the front line.
