Russian BMPT-2 has Now Been Handed Over to the Syrians.
Syria's President Bashar al-Assad stands in front of the BMPT-72 at the Russian air base at Hmeymim on June 27, 2017. Source: Reuters
Since less than a week ago, however, the Syrian army has begun operating a solitary BMPT-2. First seen during Assad's visit to Russia's Latakia air base last week, the Russian BMPT-2 has now been handed over to the Syrians.
"Reportedly it will fight with the renowned Liwa al-Quds unit which is headed for a new offensive against ISIS in eastern Hama. Liwa al-Quds ("Jerusalem Brigade") is a unit manned by Palestinian refugees which distinguished itself in the difficult battle for Aleppo city. Uralvagonzavod gets to test its vehicle in battle hoping this will lead to production orders, and the Syrians (Palestinians) get to use a potent Russian experimental weapon."
(Scott.net 4 July 2017)
"The tragic experience of the Chechen wars demonstrated the necessity to protect tanks that operate in urban conditions. An enemy soldier with a rocket launcher in a city street could blow up a tank that has to negotiate narrow streets. Tanks are also vulnerable in rugged terrain.
On Jan. 1, 1995, a column of the 131st Separate Motor Rifle Brigade was almost totally destroyed during an attack on the Chechen capital Grozny. 22 tanks and 45 armored personnel carriers were lost due to firing by Chechen militants while the column entered the city.
To avoid such tragedies, the Russian military command had started to use the ZSU-23-4 Shilka self-propelled anti-aircraft weapon to protect tanks. These weapons have limitations. The anti-aircraft weapons cannot operate in close contact with the enemy on the ground and they lack the proper systems to detect ground targets.
It’s because of the limitations of Shilka that the first Terminator was invented. The vehicle was designed by Russian company Uralvagonzavod in the late 1990s. It was built using the chassis of the T-90 main battle tank, and was armed with 2A42 automatic cannons, AGS-17 automatic grenade launchers, a PKTM machine gun, and four launchers for ATAKA anti-tank guided missiles.
The main disadvantage of the first Terminator was its high cost, since using the T-90 ‘s chassis for an armored fighting vehicle of this type turned out to be prohibitively expensive.
This version The new machine, BMPT-72 (aka Terminator-2), was built to fix both the major and minor disadvantages of its predecessor. It succeeded by having a mechanism to protect the ATAKA missiles launchers, a new engine, and an advanced fire control system.
But the main change was in the replacement of the expensive T-90 chasses with those of the obsolete T-72 tanks. This made the Terminator-2 more affordable."
(Egorov, Boris 30 June 2017 rbhtn.com)
The high costs were noted by Pat in an earlier post. It would appear, if the rbth.com reporting is accurate, the BMPT-2 will be mounted on a T-72 chassis to save rubles, and may as a consequence enter Russian service in lieu of the BMPT-3.