Russia’s Defense Ministry reported that the crews of the latest BMPT ‘Terminator’ tank support combat vehicles and upgraded T-72B3M main battle tanks practiced inter-operability at Ural proving ground near Chelyabinsk. The exercise was held as part of an experiment to learn to operate the latest ‘Terminator’ tank support combat vehicles in combat formations of the Russian Central Military District’s Guards armored division. The operational evaluation of ‘Terminator’ tank support combat vehicles was inspected by Russian Deputy Defense Minister Lieutenant-General Yunus-Bek Yevkurov.
The crews for the first time accomplished the tasks of supporting and covering tank crews in an offensive, operating in a single combat order. The firings were conducted from the BMPT “Terminator” tank support fighting vehicles’ entire armament that includes two 30mm 2A42 automatic guns, a 7.62mm Kalashnikov machine-gun, AG-17D automatic grenade launchers and Kornet anti-tank missile launchers. A batch of eight “Terminator”‘ tank support combat vehicles was delivered to the Urals armored division in December last year for its operational evaluation and for the personnel to learn to operate it.
When used in urban terrain, each main battle tank is deployed with two BMPTs. Outside of urban warfare that ratio is reversed with one BMPT protecting two main battle tanks. The introduction of such a vehicle makes urban fighting less stressful on MBTs and can relieve them of some of the workload so that they can concentrate on their main objective of engaging other MBT and hardened targets. The BMPT’s armor protection is equal to that of an MBT and its powerful armaments allow it to engage virtually every enemy formation while operating in a common battle formation. Due to the multiple weapons systems found on the BMPT, this vehicle is able to fire at multiple targets simultaneously. These features significantly help increase the combat effectiveness of tank units and decrease their losses from enemy close-combat assets.
The first stage of the experiment for using the BMPT “Terminator” tank support combat vehicle came to an end on the training ground of the Russian Central Military District’s Guards armored division in the Chelyabinsk Region, Urals. As the next stage of the experiment to evaluate its operation, the “Terminator” will be employed in combat formations of armored units with firings in a various tactical environment. A batch of eight “Terminator”‘ tank support combat vehicles was delivered to the Urals armored division in December last year for its operational evaluation and for the personnel to learn to operate it.
