PST 72054 BTR-50PK

The tracked armored personnel carrier BTR-50 was developed at the turn of the 1940s and 1950s, and entered service with the Soviet Army in 1954. Serial production of the vehicle took place in the years 1954-1970. The vehicle was powered by a single 240 HP diesel engine and took up to 20 landing troops! The crew consisted of two people: the commander and the mechanic-driver. The main armament of the basic version was a single SGMB machine gun, caliber 7.62 mm. The BTR-50 transporter was created on the basis of the PT-76 floating tank, using many of its components. However, it was clearly distinguished from it by the lack of a turret in the central part of the car, a raised front part of the hull and an open transport compartment in the rear part of the car. In the 1960s, the BTR-50 was one of the basic armored transports of the Soviet mechanized brigades. In the course of serial production, several variants of the BTR-50 were created, differing mainly in the main armament, but also in the use of an armored landing compartment also from the top (versions: BTR-50 PK) and a systematic reduction in the number of landing troops - up to 8 soldiers in the BTR-50 PUM -1 introduced in 1972. The BTR-50 was exported to many Warsaw Pact countries, including Poland, where it was thoroughly modernized and renamed OT-62 TOPAS.