The Broneavtomobil 20(BA-20) was a 2.5-ton light armoured car developed in the Soviet Union in 1934 and was produced until 1942. The BA-20 was armed with a 7.62mm DT machine gun and had a top road speed of 53mph. Over 4,500 of these vehicles were produced in the 8-year period. The armoured car was designed primarily for reconnaissance and scouting purposes. By 1938, the upgraded BA-20M communication version was introduced which was essentially same vehicle but with a whip-style antenna instead of the external frame antenna. The BA-20 was conceived using the chassis from the civilian GAZ-M1, which in turn, was a modified version of a Ford design. While the chassis was made by the Nizhny Novgorod factory, the body was built at the Vyksinskiy plant where the final assembly of the BA-20 occurred. An interesting feature of the BA-20 and BA-20M was the design of the tyres that were filled with cork so that it was impervious to bullets and shrapnel. Another later modification was the BA-20ZhD which was designed to travel on railway tracks by replacing the wheels with metal rail-type wheels. The BA-20 first saw combat during the Spanish Civil War serving with the Republican Army. They were also pushed into Russian combat service against Japan in 1939 during the Battle of Khalkin Gol. In 1939, the Red Army used large numbers of BA-20s in the invasion of Poland and also during the winter war against Finland circa 1939-40. Many BA-20s were captured by the Finns and pushed into service against the Red Army.
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