According to the military newspaper Krasnaya Zvezda, the 90th Guards Tank Division is field testing the Terminator-2 Tank Support combat vehicle. The system has been under consideration and development for decades. Mechanized infantry, self-propelled artillery, and armored forces are supposedly mutually supporting. Artillery provides destruction to the front and flanks as infantry fighting vehicles and dismounted infantry protect tanks from enemy antitank systems and enemy infantry. Simultaneously, tanks protect the infantry fighting vehicles and dismounted infantry from enemy tanks and strong points. In practice, infantry fighting vehicles and carriers have problems keeping up with fast-moving tanks, their armor protection is too thin to survive at the point of the attack and battle drills between tanks and mechanized infantry frequently break down due to the lack of sufficient team training prior to combat. Artillery fire may be on or off target, or too early or too late.
The bottom line is that there is often too great a gap between the tanks and the mechanized infantry as the artillery lifts and shifts fire. The tanks are then vulnerable to enemy anti-tank guided missiles. As the article points out, the BMPT tank support vehicle, is designed to integrate within tank formations to protect the tanks from enemy anti-tank weapons and survive the occasional short round of supporting artillery fire. There have been several variations of this system during its development and it was previously mounted on a T-72A tank chassis. This version is mounted on a T-90 tank chassis. Crew size has varied from three to five—a function of being able to man the automatic grenade launchers simultaneously with the other systems.
(For more information, see Lester Grau and Chuck Bartles “A New System Preserves Armor Dominance of the Future Battlefield: The BMPT Terminator-2, Armor, April-June 2015 at https://community.apan.org/wg/tradoc-g2/fmso/m/fmso-monographs/195073.)
The BMPT is designed to fight within tank subunits to detect and destroy any targets that pose a threat to the tanks.
Source: “Yuriy Belousov, “Броню порвёт за наши танки (Will shred armor for our tanks),” Krasnaya zvezda, 2 December 2020. http://redstar.ru/bronyu-porvyot-za-nashi-tanki
The 90th Guards Vitebsk-Novograd Twice Red Banner Tank Division of the Central Military District has received new armaments for experimental employment including the Terminator-2 tank support combat Vehicle (BMPT). The Terminator-2 BMPT is, without exaggeration, a unique… combat vehicle unequaled in the armies of other nations in terms of its structural armor, all-around protection, improved systems for searching for and detecting targets, combined with the combat power of its multiple armaments and increased ammunition load. The engineers of the Urals Transport Machine-Building Design Bureau came up with the idea and development of the BMPT.
Colonel Andrey Sigarev, deputy commander of the Southern Urals tank formation for armaments, noted the following, with obvious satisfaction. “The Terminator-2 BMPT is equipped with an automated multiple armament system consisting of two 30-mm automatic cannons, a 7.62-mm PKTM-type [upgraded tank-mounted Kalashnikov machine gun] coaxial machine gun, two 30-mm AG-17D automatic grenade launchers, and two Ataka-T guided antitank supersonic missile launchers. The fire command and control system of the combat vehicle’s main armament makes it possible to recognize small targets on the battlefield at far distances, during the day, at night, and in adverse weather conditions. The presence of three operators in the BMPT facilitates the rapid detection and simultaneous destruction of several different targets withinin a 360-degree sector view. The onboard automatic armament has nearly twice the combat potential of modern BMP-type [infantry fighting vehicle] armored vehicles.”
The BMPT is designed to fight within tank subunits to detect and destroy any targets that pose a threat to the tanks. At the same time, despite its generalized technical designation, it is no longer correct to correlate the BMPT with the lineup of infantry fighting vehicles. The Terminator uses the T-90A tank chassis. Despite its seemingly massive dimensions and its hefty store of “payload,” this tank support combat vehicle proved to be highly mobile and maneuverable. The iron “heart” of the Terminator-2 is a 1,000 horsepower supercharger diesel engine. This impressive technical parameter makes it possible for the BMPT to carry out combat support within tank and motorized rifle subunits alike.
Tank company senior driver-mechanic Contract Service Corporal Igor Karpov stated that “The vehicle flies around the field.” He is one of the first Terminator operators in the South Urals division… “I have been driving tanks for years, yet I am impressed by the technical capabilities of the Terminator’s under-chassis. If I am offered the opportunity to continue my service in a BMPT subunit after this phase of experimental trials, I will agree without hesitation.”
The initial crews of the tank support combat vehicles …are already formed. The composition is not the usual tank crew. In addition to the standard crew of vehicle commander, driver-mechanic, and gunner-operator, the Terminator crew has two automatic grenade launcher gunners. According to Colonel Yevgeniy Kovylin, deputy commander of the tank division, the best specialists of the Terminator crews will become an instructor group to train future new-generation BMPT crews. “It is, however, too early to talk about this,” Colonel Kovylin noted. “The crewmen of today’s newly formed crews still have a lot to learn and master.”
During this winter training period, the BMPT crews will undergo a mandatory specialization retraining phase at the BMPT manufacturing plant. Only after this, the crews for these unique combat vehicles will participate in scheduled battalion, regiment, and division combat training drills and exercises. Prior to actual combat employment, the Terminator-2 BMPT has to be accepted for production. According to its basic concept, the BMPT moves within a tank subunits to, detect and destroy any targets that pose a threat to tanks. The developer of the combat vehicle guarantees that the Terminator will take out everything on the attack axis with ease: enemy grenade launchers, lightly armored vehicles, personnel carriers, infantry fighting vehicles, and tanks. The wide traverse and elevation of the automatic cannon enables them to hit targets on the upper floors of buildings and engage low-flying reconnaissance and combat aircraft. These field tests should confirm this.
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