In 1930, at the S. M. Kirov Plant in Leningrad, the idea of a motor armored car was born, which would not be inferior in firepower to light armored trains, and surpassed them in maneuverability and security. The design used the nodes of the medium tank T-28. In three towers, located in two tiers, 76, 2-mm PS-3 cannons of the 1927-1932 model were installed.
To the right of the gun, in all the towers and in the aft niches of the second and third towers, DT machine guns were installed in ball bearings, another one was located in a ball bearing in the stern of the motorized armored car. In addition, in the sides of the hull there were four Maxim machine guns, two per side. The body of the armored car was made of rolled armor plates, joined by welding. The thickness of the side of the hull is 16–20 millimeters, the deckhouse is 20 millimeters, the roof is 10 millimeters, and the towers are 20 millimeters thick. The side plates of the hull were located at an angle of 10 degrees to the vertical. The armored car, the mass of which was 80 tons, and the armament were controlled by a crew of up to 40 people.
The first model of a motorized armored car called MBV No. AE-01 was ready by November 7, 1936, but due to the identified shortcomings, factory tests began only on February 12, 1937 on the Leningrad-Pskov railway line. In parallel with the test of MBV No. 01, the Kirov plant began to manufacture the second copy of the motorized armored car. On it, among other improvements, the possibility of switching to the Western European track was planned. The second sample of the MBV motor armored car number AE-02 was accepted by the military representative of the ABTU RKKA at the Kirov plant on April 17, 1937 and sent for factory tests. At the beginning of July 1941, a crew was formed for the motorized armored car of MBV No. 02, and from July 20, it was given to armored train No. 60 for joint actions. Until the beginning of August, MBV No. 02 and armored train No. 60 supported our units in the Kingisepp-Moloskovitsy and Yastrebino-Moloskovitsy sectors. On August 13, the motorized armored car was subjected to intensive shelling by German artillery, which destroyed the railway tracks, but was able to get out of the affected area.
On August 18, MBV and armored train No. 60 were transferred to the area of the Chudovo station, where they became part of Major Golovachev's armored trains group. From August 21 to August 29, 1941, a motorized armored car as part of a group supported units of the 48th Army with fire from its guns, and on August 30 left for repairs to Leningrad.
By the directive of the headquarters of the Leningrad Front on January 24, 1943, the 14th separate division of armored trains was formed, which included the former armored train No. 30 "Stoyky" of the Red Banner Baltic Fleet and the motorized armored car MBV No. 02, which later received the name "Rapid". The armored trains received the following numbers - No. 600 "Steady" and No. 684 "Swift".
The 14th separate armored train division until August 1943 supported parts of the 23rd army with artillery fire, from August to December it operated near Sinyavino as part of the 67th army. In December 1943, the division was included in the 53rd Army and from January 1944 it participated in the battles to lift the blockade of Leningrad in the Kolpino, Sablino, Krasny Bor areas. At this time, armored train number 684 "Swift" was commanded by Captain L. Dochenko. During repairs at the Stalin Plant in the summer of 1943, MBV No. 02 was rearmed, replacing the L-11 cannons with 76-mm tank F-34s.
In May-June 1944, the 14th armored train division supported the 21st Army's offensive in the Sestroretsk direction with artillery fire, then covered the restoration of stations and the railway from air attacks until August.
After the war in 1948-1950, the car went through another modernization, but it turned out to be unsuccessful - the designers did not manage to ensure the normal cooling of the installed V-2 tank diesel engine. In 1952, the MBV-2 motorized armored car was sent to the museum in Kubinka, where it is located to this day.
