Hope you all had a good week as we look into beginning yet another one. This time, we're featuring a few shots of the Soviet Anti-tank Armored Car: the BRDM-3 (officially, they are still known as BRDM-2, as the BRDM-3 is a different version that carries 4 ATGMs). If you think German names are long...Russian names are even longer. BRDM = Boyevaya Razvedyvatelnaya Dozornaya Mashina, or "Combat Recon/Patrol Vehicle". Official Russian Designation: 9P148.
Armed with 5 x AT5 Spandrel ATGMs, the 9P148 is able to carry about 20 ATGM which are guided using sights located in the front of the vehicle. Also, there's a hatch behind the launch tubes for the loader to load the missiles after the previous salvo has been used. Reload time for each launcher is estimated to be about 25 seconds.
If we thought that the launch tubes were just stuck up there (like I always did), think again...the 9P148 has the ability to bring up/down its launch tubes through an actuated system, which looks pretty cool to me. The launch tubes also track along with the sight in front...but do mind the excessive wind noise in the video.