http://vk.com/juchkovsky?w=wall151630709_7596%2Fall

He says he bought two BRDMs (like the one in the article) for ~$40,000 each, and a BTR-80 (a relatively new fighting vehicle) for ~80,000. The difference is that the vehicles are fresh (new from old stock/conservation) and they "come with all the accessories, if you know what I mean" (wink-wink, nudge-nudge, say no more).

Maybe the guys from the South-East really did buy their stuff at the surplus store, like Putin said.

According to the same source, a tank (with all accessories included?) would cost ~$200,000.

it is surplus store not available for others :) The guy in the original article bought a vehicle which just a step from "a 7-ton piece of junk" - at least it was playing that role for many years at the military base what it was bought from. The hardware in your post's link came from a kind of "limited access surplus store" which was used at the beginning. Currently a lot of the rebels' hardware, including armored vehicles and tanks, are in very good condition and of pretty good "model year" :) - for example among the rebels' main battle tanks are pretty modern, latest version of T-72 (still, in addition to the newest T-90, used by Russia (and only by Russia, ie. it hasn't been exported) ) with all the bells and whistles (navigation/targeting hardware, reactive armor, active protection system, etc...)

Note: of course not all the hardware is that good and new. Two other main sources of the hardware are captured (and in many cases i suspect actually bought while reported as captured as many people in Ukrainian army and government are reluctant, to say the least, to fight the rebels or are just corrupt - also check out the stories about "lost" and "prepared for sale to unknown buyer" tanks at Kharkov tank factory (cool photos just to get a scale of possibilities http://thehiat.blogspot.com/2012/06/kharkov-armoured-repair-... ) :) hardware of Ukrainian army in Donetsk/Lugansk region and the hardware the Ukraine left in Crimea which was trafficked into Donetsk/Lugansk.

You'd think with the hundreds and thousands of supposed Russian-only heavy equipment and tanks being reported by CNN, Ukraine, and the State Department, all maned by highly trained Spetsnaz crews, that have been rolling across the Russian boarder with dozens of Satellites orbiting above and thousands of phone cameras on the ground there would be more to the story then a few questionable pics of one or two questionable model of tanks in or or two questionable locations and times.

There's a site[1] that tracks captured/destroyed tanks and other hardware based on photo and video evidence from both mainstream and social media. It's interesting to see how the hardware changes hands (sometimes more than once), but predominant flow is definitely Ukraine->Rebels.

[1]: http://lostarmour.info/spoils/

It's entirely obvious by now that there are large numbers of Russian troops and military vehicles operating in Eastern Ukraine. They were fighting directly with Ukrainian forces before the ceasefire and probably still are now to a lesser extent. The other irregular forces have clearly been helped directly by Russia allowing them to operate freely on Russian territory, with manpower and training from the Russian military, and food, hardware and supplies from Russian military stocks.

Putin eventually admitted after the fact that the little green men in Crimea were Russian soldiers. Only fools would believe any claims that they're not deeply involved in what's gone on in Donbass and other parts of eastern Ukraine.

Ukraine is a large exporter of tanks, mainly to 3rd world countries - they have tanks built for export that were not available to the army until now. These export vehicles showed up over the last weeks, because the army was clearly running out off their preferred T-64, etc.

Pleasantly surprised one of the first comments answered my question in thus saving me the time to write this comment instead of first relooking up the belarusian amount in the article and then quick conversion.

Nicholas Moran, who is the armor history expert for the World of Tanks video game, has made several videos about interesting vehicles in the collection on his YouTube channel (TheChieftainWoT). The amusing part is watching him trying to shoehorn his height into some of them. Especially the Soviet designs, since crew comfort was far down on their list of design priorities.

It's about 6mpg. Not great, not as bad as I would have guessed.

But yes, engines have come a long way. I remember being amazed at 450lb-ft of torque on diesel work truck. The new Fords push something like 860lb-ft.

Power determines how fast you will accelerate, how fast your top speed is, etc. It's all about conservation of energy.

Torque, reliability, serviceability and maximizing defense contractor profits probably rank as much higher priorities for the military than pure horsepower.

A pressurized cooling system is a liability on a battlefield unless its REALLY worth it. (I don't remember if a 50s chevvy has a pressurized cooling system... I'm guessing not)

EDIT: it does have a turret. Still not a tank.

EDIT2: the main armament is a machine gun. Totally not a tank.

Imagine article "How to build website in assembler" to learn author meant writing it in javascript but it's close enough.

the title is still misleading. when you read the title you really think the guy actually bought a tank. most people, even military amateurs, don't know what a BRDM2 is. it could have been a 70s tank.

Press will write "Poland to buy 1000 tanks". Inside the article 100 tanks and 900 support vehicles, most of them wheeled.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/14/us/police-armored-vehicle-...

So if you don't like what he did, its a tank.

syrians built their own armored vehicles.

Hahahaaaaa, brilliant! The kind of things you would never be able to do in a western country "Think of the insurance liabilities!"

This culture became so strong that the Health and Safety Executive started issuing rebuttals in an effort to protect the brand.

http://www.hse.gov.uk/myth/

Here's one example:

http://www.hse.gov.uk/myth/myth-busting/2014/case317-store-n...

Hint: they speak German.

...

The problem you are likely to encounter are: where the country of origin will allow it to go and what countries will allow it to transit their borders. For older military hardware like this unless you declare you are planning to import into some war-torn region of Africa there is unlikely to be any problems exiting the country with it. You might have to pay someone a small bribe if you're in a corrupt country.

As far as transiting other countries, it is basically a nightmare. You can't just carry military hardware across other countries. The only reason the US can move its hardware through other countries is because of defense agreements, etc. It'd be far easier but financially impractical to just airlift the thing out. If you could get it to a port and cram it into a shipping container that'd be ideal, but then you have to find a carrier that will carry military hardware. I can't imagine many carriers would be happy about that fact. If you could find one, you'd basically wait 2-6 months and then pick up your stuff at a port somewhere in the US.

http://www.mod-sales.com/direct/vehicle/related/45842/Saxon....

Edit: One of these "Combat Engineer Tractors" would be ideal for tasks around the garden:

http://www.mod-sales.com/direct/vehicle/,37,/35549/CET.htm

Edit 2: Why is the MOD selling Corvettes???

http://www.mod-sales.com/direct/vehicles/,109,/American_Cars...

http://jalopnik.com/5537629/the-140-mph-chase-cars-of-the-us...

Maybe U2s were operating from RAF bases and they thought it was polite to use US cars?

For example - on holiday myself and a friend decided to paddle "as far round the coast as we can" in an inflatable dingy and a crate of beer. We met some naked hermits round the coast, and things just went weirder from there. We still laugh about it 15 years later.

Life is about creating experiences for yourself that you'll remember. Often those experiences aren't going to happen by making sensible choices...

That seems incredibly dangerous to do. It is good to hear you survived.

http://www.armyjeeps.net/armor1.htm

Could it be made street-legal? I'm serious.

Unfortunately getting insurance on antique / kit / custom cars can be a little problematic if you intend to heavily use the vehicle. So you can get insurance for a 5 ton or an original ford model T or a modern kit car replica model T relatively cheaply and easily IF you stay under 500 miles per year on the odometer. It would be quite unaffordable to insure if you commuted 40 miles per day like my little commuter car.

And the main thing. Right now I'm in the active process of polishing it up, getting my license and documents. This will take some time, but after it's all done, I will start the gnarliest road trip livejournal has ever seen...

To drive a tracked vehicle, there are separate licences; but quite a few farmers have them for moving their tractors through roads.

Every day in my city I see some off road vehicle that has never been off a road, and could have been replaced by a $9k cheaper car and this BRDM, doing everything better but just in separate packages.