Latest news with #GAZ-69
Forbes
29-04-2025
- Automotive
- Forbes
Russian Troops Rolled Into Battle In A Yellow School Bus
A Russian bus on the front line in Donetsk. Chinese-made golf carts. Belarusian motorcycles. Lada compact cars, bukhanka vans and antique GAZ-69 trucks. Surplus electric scooters from Russia's thriving scooter rental industry. At least one locomotive. As Russia's stocks of armored fighting vehicles (AFVs) run low, Russian regiments and brigades in Ukraine are turning to civilian vehicles to transport troops into battle. The most recent addition to this arsenal of ex-civilian vehicles, many of them up-armored with anti-drone cages, might be the most comical: a school bus. On or just before Sunday, a Ukrainian drone operator spotted a yellow school bus parked near the front line in eastern Ukraine's Donetsk Oblast, the locus of the fighting in the east. The bus may have broken down. It may have gotten stuck while trying to go off-road on the soft terrain that's typical of springtime Ukraine. At least one explosive first-person-view drone barreled in, striking the bus and lighting it ablaze. As a battlefield transport, a bus is less than ideal. 'Civilian vehicles are better than walking but will obviously not provide any protection or fire support' with vehicle-mounted guns, explained analyst Jakub Janovksy. 'So assaults with them instead of proper AFVs will be more costly and more likely to fail. They are also unlikely to be able to cross trenches, razor wire and other anti-infantry obstacles.' A Russian car with add-on anti-drone armor. But the Russians have little choice. Verified Russian losses in the 39 months since Russia widened its war on Ukraine include 17,000 vehicles and other pieces of heavy equipment. That's more vehicles than many armies have in their entire inventories—and more vehicles than Russia's sanctions-squeezed weapons industry can produce in three years. Annual production of new tanks and infantry fighting vehicles in Russia might total 1,100. The Kremlin has complemented its newly built vehicles with Cold War-vintage vehicles its technicians pulled from vast storage yards. But even these yards are depleted now. 'A lot of what remains is in a terrible state,' Janovksy said. Hence the golf carts, scooters and cars—and the bus. The Donetsk war bus wasn't the first-ever bus to go to war in recent years. Islamic State militants and their most fearsome opponents, the Kurdish Peshmerga, both modified civilian vehicles for combat use in the 2010s. The big difference between the ISIS and Pesh battle buses and Russia's own battle bus is that the former usually wore a lot of add-on armor to protect them from enemy fire. The Russians often add protection to their civilian assault vehicles, but there's no evidence they gave the bus in Donetsk this treatment. Maybe there was no time. Maybe the engineers who fit cars and trucks with improvised armor weren't ready to give a much bigger vehicle the same treatment. Abandoned, immobile and totally lacking protection from the drones that are everywhere all the time over the front line in Ukraine, the Russian bus was an easy target.
Forbes
31-03-2025
- Automotive
- Forbes
Russian Troops Attacked Enemy Lines In A Bright Turquoise Light Truck
A museum-quality LuAZ-1302. The 1952-vintage GAZ-69 truck that Russian forces in Ukraine are adding to their inventory as stocks of purpose-made combat vehicles continue to decline isn't a good vehicle—at least, not for its new mission hauling Russian infantry into battle across the drone-patrolled, mine-infested, artillery-pocked no-man's-land. But at least it has a hard top that might offer some protection from the elements, if not from a 100-pound artillery shell. The same can't be said of another Soviet-vintage civilian-style vehicle that recently appeared on the Russian side of the 700-mile front line of Russia's 37-month wider war on Ukraine: the LuAZ-1302. Ironically, the light off-road truck is a Ukrainian product, built between 1966 and 1992 at a pair of factories in southern and northern Ukraine. As Russian losses of armored vehicles crest 20,000 in three years, far outstripping the capacity of Russian industry to directly replace each wrecked tank, infantry fighting vehicle and armored personnel carrier, Russian regiments routinely attack on foot or in civilian cars, vans, trucks, all-terrain vehicles and motorcycles. The aftermath of the 31-bike assault, featuring a turquoise LuAZ-1302. But one recent Russian assault was notable for how many unprotected vehicles it involved: four ATVs, 10 heavier vehicles including at least one open-topped LuAZ-1302 and a startling 31 motorcycles. Ukrainian drones and artillery made quick work of the assault group. And as the smoke and dust cleared and the Russian survivors ran and crawled back toward their lines, the 3,000-pound LuAZ-1302—damaged and immobilized—stood out for its bright turquoise paint job. 'Rare turquoise assault Lada unlocked,' quipped analyst Moklasen, mistaking the LuAZ-1302 for a Lada compact car. Given how many Ladas have rolled toward Ukrainian positions, usually on a one-way mission, the mistake is forgivable.
Forbes
29-03-2025
- Automotive
- Forbes
Russia's Latest Combat Vehicle Is A Truck From 1952
An up-armored GAZ-69. The GAZ-69 was one of the earliest Soviet off-roads vehicles. The first example of the 3,500-pound, four-wheel-drive truck rolled off the assembly line at the Molotov plant in Moscow in 1952. The last was completed in 1972. Developed in the late 1940s, the GAZ-69 is—generously speaking—an 80-year-old design. It's also one of the latest vehicle types to roll into battle with the Russian army in Ukraine. Recent photos have depicted GAZ-69s near the front line of Russia's 37-month wider war on Ukraine. At least one deployed GAZ-69 has been fitted with anti-drone screens. The arrival of the aged off-road vehicles is the latest evidence of the Russian military's accelerating de-mechanization as losses of purpose-made armored vehicles and other heavy equipment exceed 20,000. To put into perspective how many vehicles that is, the entire British military operates around 18,000 vehicles. Losing far more armored vehicles than they can replace through new production or by retrieving older vehicles from long-term storage, the Russians increasingly depend on civilian vehicles not just for battlefield logistics—but also for direct assaults on Ukrainian positions. 'I guess this Lada storming is the norm now?' open-source analyst Moklasen mused as they scrutinized yet another video feed from a Ukrainian drone unit blowing up Russian Lada compact cars attacking Ukrainian positions in late January. But civilian vehicles are even more vulnerable to mines, artillery, drones and missiles than armored vehicles. Up-armored trucks and civilian vehicles such as vans, trucks, compact cars and all-terrain vehicles—that is, golf carts—now account for around 70 percent of Russian losses, according to one recent survey. In switching to civilian transport, Russian regiments risk accelerating their de-mechanization as the civilian vehicles get destroyed even faster than the increasingly precious armored vehicles, resulting in greater demand for even less suitable modes of transportation such as electric scooters and even horses and donkeys. The only other alternative, of course, is for Russian troops to walk into battle. The de-mechanization of the Russian military doesn't mean Russia can't sustain an offensive and incrementally advance in Ukraine. The Russian armed forces still have more people and, incredibly, more vehicles than the Ukrainians—and they're willing to expend them for modest territorial gains. But the loss of militarily appropriate vehicles does constrain Russian forces. De-mechanized Russian regiments might overwhelm and push back Ukrainian brigades under certain circumstances. But realistically, these hollowed-out regiments can't exploit the resulting gaps in Ukrainian defenses.
