Ob'yekt 19

Ob'yekt 19 (Object 019) was an experimental armoured infantry fighting vehicle developed in the Soviet Union in the mid-1960s as a competitor in the programme that produced the BMP-1. It was a hybrid: a 4x4 wheeled vehicle with an additional track unit that could be lowered between the front and rear axles for rough ground.

Development

The design was a collaboration between the Moscow Higher Technical School (MVTU) named after Bauman and the design bureau of the Altai Tractor Plant, today's Rubtsovsk machine-building plant. A model was built in 1964 and a full-scale running prototype followed at the Altai plant in 1965. The hybrid running gear added complexity without bringing real benefits, and trials found its cross-country ability and handling poor, so the project was dropped. The vehicle later went to the armour museum at Kubinka and was first shown to the public in February 2000 at an armoured-vehicle display at Bronnitsy.

Design

The welded armoured hull, proof against small-arms fire, resembled that of the BRDM-2. The driver sat front left with the commander to his right, a one-man turret was in the middle, and the infantry sat around the fighting compartment, leaving through roof hatches at the rear. The track unit used hollow road wheels from the PT-76 amphibious tank, and switching from wheels to half-track mode took 15-20 seconds, either standing or on the move.

Armament was a 73 mm 2A28 smoothbore gun with a coaxial 7.62 mm machine gun and a launcher for Malyutka anti-tank missiles. A 300 hp water-cooled diesel at the rear gave a top speed of about 80 km/h on roads, and two water jets drove it at around 10 km/h afloat. Combat weight was 13.1 tonnes and the hull was 6.83 m long and 2.87 m wide.