Zavod Korpusov - Early Years
The purpose of creating armor production at the Vyksa Plant of Crushing and Grinding Equipment (DRO) was the solution of the defense tasks of the state. The plant was instructed to organize the production of hulls for armored vehicles. It was technically challenging, because in a short time, it was necessary to prepare qualified personnel, master the latest technologies for that time and adjust production to the highest requirements. It is not a secret for anyone that both then and now we need armor not to demonstrate at parades, but to protect our Fatherland, strengthen its military power and ensure the peaceful and safe life of citizens. And this task, the plant performed with honor.
Using the experience of creating the first armored car on the Ford-Timken chassis, the design bureau of the Izhora plant at the beginning of 1932 produced a new model of an armored vehicle, designated BAI - Armored Izhorsky. Even before the start of field testing, it was decided to deploy the mass production of BAI. Originally it was planned to produce armored cars at the Izhora plant, but due to the heavy load of the enterprise by other orders, this had to be abandoned.
On August 3, 1932, by the decision of the USSR Government, the Vyksa Crushing and Grinding Equipment Plant, was allocated for the production of armor and the manufacture of armored vehicles. By the end of 1933, 90 cars left the factory gates, another 19 BAIs were assembled in early 1934, after which their production ceased.
In the course of production of the D-8 and D-12 designers of the Izhora plant developed a turret armored car, which received the designation FAI (Ford-A Izhorsky). As the name implies, the Ford chassis was used as a base, the production of which was established at the Nizhny Novgorod Automobile Plant. New perspective layout of the machine led to a significant increase in its height (up to 2240 mm) and weight, which reached 2 tons. Nevertheless, the combat qualities and usability of the crew in the new armored vehicle improved significantly.
Production of FAI began in 1933 at the Izhora plant in Leningrad, then it was transferred to the Vyksa Plant, where it lasted until 1936. In total, during this time, 676 armored cars were produced, and since 1934, the domestic GAZ-A chassis, the licensed version of the Ford-A, was used. In 1936, the FAI changed the production of the BA-20 armored car, developed on the more powerful and reliable passenger chassis GAZ-M1.
The situation with the production of light armored vehicles by the FAI began to straighten out only in 1934, when the Vyksa Plant handed over 135 armored vehicles (including 10 pieces made in 1932), of which 115 FAI handed over to the Red Army and 20 to the OGPU headquarters. Moreover, in the spring of 1934, FAIs were manufactured on the chassis of the domestic GAZ-A passenger car, which was an analog of Ford.
The peak production of the FAI was in 1935, when the Vyksa plant handed over 452 armored vehicles (442 for the Red Army and 10 for the OGPU). The following year, the Red Army received another 110 FAIs, after which their production was discontinued. Thus, for all the time of production, the plant manufactured 697 FAI armored vehicles, of which 667 arrived in the Red Army, and 30 in the OGPU part.
The next serial armored car produced at the company was the BA-20, created by the designers of the Gorky Automobile Plant based on a two-axle GAZ-M1 passenger car (the legendary Emka), which the plant began production in 1936. Their production continued until the very beginning of the Great Patriotic War. The BA-20 armored car, its modernized model BA-20M and BA-20 railway, adapted for movement, both on ordinary roads and on railway tracks, was the most widely produced wheeled combat vehicle of the Red Army.
In total, in various versions, 2114 armored vehicles of this type were produced. Vyksa armored vehicles took part in hostilities on the Khalkhin-Gol river and the CER, in the Soviet-Finnish war, in Spain, and then on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War.
It should be said that in September 1941, the Vyksa Plant became part of the newly created People's Commissariat of the Tank Industry and became known as Plant No. 177. Its main products were the armored hull and the towers of the T-60 and T-34 tanks, the release of which was given priority. Therefore, the production of BA-20M faded into the background. And with the adoption of the light all-wheel drive armored car BA-64, designed at the Gorky Automobile Plant, a decision was made to curtail the manufacture of armored vehicles BA-20M.
On March 9, 1942, by the resolution of the State Defense Committee No. 1415ss, Plant No. 177 (formerly Vyksa DRO) was ordered to stop production of BA-20M armored cars. However, despite these orders, the plan for the production of BA-20M at plant number 177 in May was exceeded - instead of 25, 66 cars were handed over. In addition, in June, 2 BA-20Ms were produced from the existing stock of hulls and chassis, another 14 vehicles were handed over to the Red Army in July, after which the production of armored vehicles at plant No. 177 was discontinued. Thus, for all the time of mass production from 1936 to July 1942, 1567 BA-20 and BA-20M armored vehicles of all types were manufactured at the DRO plant (No. 177).
In 1936, in the design office of the Gorky Automobile Plant under the direction of engineer V. Grachev on the basis of GAZ-A, a three-axle GAZ-AAAA was designed and manufactured. Despite the fact that the car showed good results in tests, by that time GAZ-A had already been removed from production. Therefore, in 1936, Grachev designed the GAZ-21 trio-axle on the basis of the new GAZ M-1 passenger car, the production of which was developed at the Gorky Automobile Plant.
The GAZ-21 used a converted chassis and wheels from the GAZ M-1, rear axles, balance spring suspension, box, gear changes (with minor modifications) and the cab from the truck GAZ-AA. To improve the overcoming of vertical obstacles under the bottom of the car (between the front and second axles) small diameter wheels were attached.
The tests of the prototype GAZ-21 were quite successful - for example, in the second half of 1937, the car traveled more than 10,000 km in different regions of the Soviet Union in various road conditions, showing good maneuverability. Since the beginning of 1938, preparations began for the development of the mass production of the GAZ-21 at the Gorky Automobile Plant, but it was soon abandoned in favor of developing a 4x4 car wheel. In parallel with the development and testing of the GAZ-21 prototype, the ABTU RKKA entered into an agreement with the design bureau of the Vyksa Plant to "manufacture a prototype and design an armored car on the chassis of a 3-axle vehicle from GAZ-AA and M-1 units." The manufacture of the sample was included in the 1937 plan.
Under the contract for experimental work with ABTU RKKA, the Vyksa plant in 1937 was to produce three prototypes of armored vehicles: BA-21, BA-22 and BA-23. The first one was based on the GAZ-21 chassis, the second one - the GAZ-AAA and the third one - on the GAZ-22 (three-axle chassis 6x4, the further development of the GAZ-21).
The BA-21 armored car was finally accepted by the representative of the ABTU RKKA on February 9, 1938. In parallel with the development of the BA-21, the designers of the Vyksa Plant - Kalyasnikov, Miroshin, Sukhov and Leontyev - were designing a similar armored car on a reinforced three-axle GAZ-22 chassis. This armored car was originally called BA-23, and since 1938 it was renamed LB-23 (LB - Lawrence Beria).
On June 10, 1938, D. Pavlov, the head of the ABTU of the Red Army, approved "tactical and technical requirements for the design and manufacture of the LB-23 light reconnaissance 3-axle armored car on the GAZ-22 reinforced chassis." LB-23 was made only in the first half of 1939.
However, the LB-23 remained only in the prototype - by that time it became clear that using a chassis with a 6x4 wheel formula for the manufacture of light armored vehicles did not provide much benefit compared to a 4x2 chassis. The best passability of the three-axle was reduced to zero by the increasing mass of the armored car due to the large size of the chassis. It became clear that it was necessary to switch to the use of a 4x4 all-wheel-drive chassis in the design of a light armored car.
It should be said that in the summer of 1940, at the Vyksa Plant, on the instructions of the military chemical department of the Red Army, a BA-23X armored car (chemical) was produced, which in some documents passes as LB-23X. This armored car was made on the chassis of the ZIS-6.
Work on the creation of the first domestic all-wheel drive armored vehicles began in NATI. Here in 1937–1938, on the basis of the GAZ-AA truck, they designed a 4x4 all-wheel drive chassis designed for an armored car. The armor case for it was developed by NATI specialists together with the designers of the Vyksa Plant DRO.
The armored car, which received the designation BA-NATI (and then LB-NATI), was manufactured at the Vyksa plant in September 1939, in the factory documents the car passed as BA-8 NATI. After preliminary runs and modifications, LB-NATI was sent to the NIBT training ground. Tests of the car were conducted from November 25, 1939 to March 20, 1940.
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