Background
In December 1994, the Russian Army entered the breakaway Republic of Chechnya and attempted to seize the Chechen capital of Grozny. After this attempt failed, the Russian Army spent two months in deliberate house-to-house fighting before finally capturing the city.
During the first month of the conflict, Russian forces wrote off 225 armoured vehicles as non-repairable battle losses. This represents 10.23% of the armoured vehicles initially committed to the campaign. The Russians evacuated some of these 225 hulls to the Kubinka test range for analysis. General-Lieutenant A. Galkin, the head of the Armour Directorate, held a conference on their findings on 20 February 1995.
The results of the conference convinced the Russian Minister of Defence to stop procuring tanks with gas-turbine engines. Further, the analysis disclosed Chechen anti-armour tactics and the vulnerabilities of Russian armoured vehicles in urban combat.
Chechen combat groups would deploy cells of anti-armour hunter-killer teams. The sniper and machine gunner would pin down the supporting infantry while the antitank gunner would engage the armoured target. Teams deployed at ground level, in second and third stories, and in basements.
Normally five or six hunter-killer teams simultaneously attack a single armoured vehicle. Kill shots are generally made against the top, rear and sides of vehicles.
The elevation and depression of the Russian main tank guns are incapable of dealing with hunter-killer teams fighting from basements and second or third-story positions and the simultaneous attack from five or six teams negate the effectiveness of the tank's machine guns. The Russians attached ZSU 23-4 and 2S6 track-mounted antiaircraft guns to armoured columns to respond to these difficult-to-engage hunter-killer teams as they had the necessary elevation to be able to engage aircraft in the sky.
This dramatic loss of armour set the requirement for a dedicated anti-personnel vehicle, capable of engaging tank hunting-killer teams in positions that a tank could not engage, so as to reverse the tables back into favour of the tank.
TND’s Statement
The Russians have come up with an awesome bit of kit to do this, nicknamed “The Terminator” and probably has to be the most impressive armoured vehicle they have knocked out since the BMP-3.
The vehicle
The Russians decided to use the existing T-72 hull, as it was a compact size (the smaller it is , the better for canoeing in built area’s) and due to the number of them, it is less costly to maintain and operate. However its height was increased to accommodate the crew as there was no traditional turret to do this.
Two 2A42 30mm auto cannons are the principal weapon and sit centrally in the weapons station. They have a high but unspecified elevation and rate of fire of 600 rds/per min. They can fire a multitude of rounds - High Explosive - Tracer (HE-T), Armour-Piercing Discarding Sabot (APDS), High Explosive Fragmentation (HE-FRAG) and Armour-Piercing - Tracer (AP-T). A total of 900 rounds are stored in the vehicle.
The BMP-T is additionally armed with two AG-30 grenade launchers or two 7.62mm PKTM machine guns with an electromechanical drive and a day/night sight combined with the Agat-MR optronic sight. The additional weapons are arranged on fenders.
The turret-mounted 7.62mm machine gun provided with an electromechanical drive and the PNK sight serves as an auxiliary weapon. The BMP-T has a built-in dozer equipment for digging in. The vehicle can be equipped with the KMT-8 tread way mine plough and the EMT electromagnetic device.
4 Kornet ATGM systems are mounted on the sides (2 either side) of the weapons station. These fire the Kornet Anti-Tank Guided Missile, which can be fitted with various warheads to accommodate various roles including fragmentation for anti-personnel. The vehicle uses Fire control components of those used on the T-90s Main Battle Tank.
The crew compartment is equipped with NBC and fire extinguishing systems. The use of a tank hull means it has the same protection and can be fitted with Explosive Reactive Armour.
Its not known as to how many are in service with the Russian Ground Forces since it entered service in 2005, how ever in urban fighting environments 2 are deployed to protect 1 Main Battle Tank and in lesser built up area’s 1 is deployed to protect 2 Main Battle Tanks.
Export
As of 2010 there have been no exports of the vehicle, however the T-72 is heavily deployed among a multitude of nations, which means that they all can modify these vehicles in to the BMP-T.