The most successful of the early Russian armoured vehicles was the Russo-Balt line of armoured vehicles. Most of them mounted machine guns, but a few mounted cannon.

The first and most popular car produced by Russian-Balt was the Type C - the heir to the Belgian Fondu 24/30hp. The Russo-Balt C was repeatedly modernized, with increases in power, upgraded frame and springs, and improvements to radiators, gearboxes and other components. By 1914, the vehicles being produced were the Russo-Balt Type C 24/40hp 18 Series, where the two-part model number denotes the nominal engine power and the maximum engine power.

With the outbreak of war, seven chassis were sent to St. Petersburg to the Izhora Factory, which served as the basis for a proposed fleet of Russian armoured cars.

Each vehicle was equipped with three 7.62-mm Maxim machine guns in a triangle arrangement that allowed them to fire on potential targets with at least two guns at a time. Two guns were fixed in the hull sides, and the third gun, mounted in the rear, could be switched from side to side as well as deployed against aerial targets through an opening in the hull roof.