The Russians Made Armored Personnel Carriers Out Of Old T-62 Tanks

A recent failed Russian assault, apparently in eastern Ukraine, left behind what one Ukrainian blogger described as a “cemetery” of wrecked armored vehicles. Most of the 14 or so wrecks are the usual types, including old T-62 tanks and MT-LB armored tractors.

But a couple of curious new tracked vehicles are among the tanks and tractors. With five road wheels on each side and a tall, seemingly improvised superstructure, the vehicles appear to be do-it-yourself armored personnel carriers based on surplus T-62 chassis.

Old and awkward, the apparent T-62 APCs aren’t much to look at. But that doesn’t mean they can’t work. It’s worth noting that the Ukrainians have transformed several captured Russian T-62s into DIY infantry fighting vehicles and engineering vehicles.

All things being equal, a turretless T-62’s 33-ton armored hull, matched with a 580-horsepower engine, should offer a reasonable degree of protection and mobility to any infantry who can squeeze into the empty space where the turret bustle used to be.

The problem for these vehicles—and all other armored vehicles in Russia’s 35-month wider war on Ukraine—is that all things aren’t equal. No vehicles stand a chance in massed assaults across a no-man’s-land buzzing with explosive drones.

The blogger who posted the video of the vehicle cemetery didn’t specify the location. But the lack of snow and the recent reports of a massive Russian assault involving a lot of T-62s seem to point to Chasiv Yar, a fortress town in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk Oblast that Russian forces have been trying and failing to capture for the better part of a year.

It’s apparent from the density of the vehicle cemetery that a large assault group ran into stiff Ukrainian resistance—and was quickly destroyed. This is the usual way of things as the wider war grinds toward its fourth year.

Infantry attacking on foot can avoid drawing the attention of Ukraine’s omnipresent first-person-view drones, so it’s still possible for the Russians to advance against the outnumbered Ukrainians—albeit slowly and at great cost.

“But once in a while, an attempt is made to speed up the process with an attack by an armored group,” a Russian blogger explained. “Every time, the Ukrainians completely destroy it with FPV drones, taking anywhere from 20 to 60 minutes.”

Expect to see more T-62-based APCs as Russia’s vehicle losses exceed 15,000 and purpose-built APCs become rarer. Also expect these improvised vehicles to suffer the same fates as the more sophisticated tracked BMP-3s and wheeled BTR-82s they’re replacing.

Rolling out under skies swarming with tiny drones, “all the armored vehicles burn before reaching the enemy,” the Russian blogger wrote.