BA-3/6

The BA-3 and BA-6 were Soviet heavy armoured cars, a pair of closely related designs that carried a 45 mm main gun in a turret of the kind used on contemporary tanks. The BA-3 was developed in 1933 and the slightly changed BA-6 followed in 1936. Both were based mostly on the earlier BA-I, and most of the BA-3 production used the Ford-Timken chassis, a six-wheel-drive modification of the American Ford AA truck, while the last batch and the BA-6 moved to the Russian GAZ-AAA chassis built at Gorky. A total of 221 BA-3 cars were built before production ended in 1935, and 386 BA-6 cars followed between 1936 and 1938. Their weak point was mobility, because the weight limited them to roads or very hard ground, although auxiliary tracks could be fitted over the rear wheels to make a half-track. The BA-6 gained sponge-filled GK tyres that resisted small-calibre fire. They fought in the Spanish Civil War, at Khalkhin Gol, in the Winter War and in the opening phase of the war against Germany, and were replaced by the BA-10.