The Russian army has begun to increasingly use old BRM-1K armored reconnaissance vehicles in assaults.

The relevant analysis was made by Richard Wereker, author of the website “Tracking Russia’s Losses”.

Thus, according to his observations, the Russian army began to use BRM-1K vehicles more and more often, starting in the third quarter of 2024.

The highest figure was the first quarter of 2025, during which the Russians lost about 2% of these vehicles compared to the total losses of infantry fighting vehicles and armored personnel carriers.

At the same time, he notes that the losses of this model of vehicle, which was developed on the basis of an infantry fighting vehicle, account for 20% of all losses of vehicles based on BMP-1.

The use of these vehicles in assaults is associated with heavy losses of specialized armored personnel carriers and infantry fighting vehicles by the Russian side, so the Russians are using specialized reconnaissance vehicles, converting them into vehicles for transporting personnel.

The BRM-1K itself was produced between 1973 and 1988 and had similar gun armament, but instead of a landing compartment, the space was taken by reconnaissance equipment and radio stations.

According to the analyst, about 3,500 units of vehicles based on the BRM-1 are currently in storage, so the number of losses will increase as the Russians search for means to transport attack aircraft.

It should be noted that the Russians, due to the decreasing role of old-generation specialized reconnaissance vehicles on the battlefield, are modernizing them by installing a new combat module with a 30 mm cannon.

During the modernization, the old turret was replaced by a single combat compartment with a BBPU-1 turret equipped with night optics, a 30 mm automatic 2A72 cannon, and a 7.62 mm PKTM machine gun.

This modernization should significantly increase the firepower of the vehicle against manpower and armored vehicles.

Ukrainian vehicles are also being modernized in a similar scenario, both by installing a 30 mm gun in the turret and in the form of BRM-1K hybrids with an artillery component from Nona-S.