The former (in the later versions) has the armored roof while the earlier versions had none. Why is that? Were the initial BTR-60's supposed to be a cheapo successor to the former, which also had the NBC protection system? In which case I would think that the BTR-50 would actually be more desirable as far as being in a combat situation!

The BTR-60 did not replace the BTR-50. The BTR-60 was a replacement for the BTR-152 armored car, which also had an open fighting compartment. The reason the open top BTR-60 design was selected was due to its simplicity and being the cheapest of the options at the time to produce. The next version had a fully enclosed troop area, which cost the space of two troops inside it.

Hi Tom;

Remember Now; Your Talking about Two Different vehicles, one Tracked and the other Wheeled. As for the BTR-60 in its early Mk; it was Opened Toped and used as A Infantry transport vehicle, as was the BTR-50 ! Only Later were they Closed Top versions seen. The 60 when it first came out was designed to be able too keep up with the other vehicles in A Blitzkrieg type of Assualt, the 50 was of A more Robust type of vehicle and could traverse over rougher ground.
Also when they were Closed Up they were Less Vulnerable too Enemy Fire.

CHEERS; MIKE.

Just to add that the 50PK had a weapons mount that could only be fired by someone sitting in the front compartment- although I believe the idea was to have troops up front with their individual weapons too. The 50 was also based on the running gear of the PT-76 so it was excellent for amphibious operations and was used extensively by Iraq in their marshy areas during the Iran-Iraq war- the Iranians used captured ones too for the same reason. Strangely, the 50 was also built with the flat rear deck to accommodate stowage like a particular size of field gun- it could be rolled onto the top and secured there so it was quite a versatile piece of armor compared to the more straightforward APC design of the 60 but then again, the 60 was better suited for quite a number of roles- hence the number of variants produced for specialized use.

H.P.

Frenchy- great stuff- you helped jog my memory too as I have seen that pic before. I remembered I did a review of the 50PK and there are some references pictures of the 50 in the thread here if anyone is interested.