Ex-Colonel of the General Staff Khodarenok explained why the Terminator-2 BMPT is used in Ukraine
The Russian Armed Forces used Terminator-2 tank support vehicles (BMPT) during a special military operation in Ukraine. Military observer of the Newspaper.En" Mikhail Khodarenok figured out what tasks this machine faces.
The Russian army has begun to use Terminator-2 tank support combat vehicles in Ukraine. An informed source told RIA Novosti about this.
"Together with tank platoons of BMPT, they participate in the fire defeat of Ukrainian positions, armored vehicles, calculations of anti-tank missile systems," the source said. According to the interlocutor of the agency, the participation of "Terminators" in the special operation will allow "to finally form the tactics of using these vehicles and determine their place in armored groups."
The experience of local wars and armed conflicts has shown that the greatest danger to armored combat vehicles in combat conditions in dense urban areas and on rough terrain are hand-held anti-tank grenade launchers (RPGs) and anti-tank missile systems (ATGMs).
Proceeding from this, the designers of Uralvagonzavod developed this combat vehicle on an initiative basis as a means of covering tanks from fighters equipped with RPG and ATGM. The Terminator was created on the basis of the T-72 main battle tank back in 2001, and began to be used in the military since 2011.
In 2018, ten Terminator BMPT entered the 90th Guards Tank Vitebsk-Novgorod Division of the Central Military District (CVO) in the Chelyabinsk region, the point of permanent deployment of the compound is the city of Chebarkul.
The Terminator-2 was first presented at the international military-technical forum Army-2015, and has been mass-produced since 2021. The main difference from the first model of the machine is the updated sighting equipment, which includes laser rangefinders, ballistic calculators and combined television and thermal imaging channels, and a crew reduced from five to three people.
It is noteworthy that the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation has been deciding for a long time whether to order this car and how to use it. There was a certain range of opinions in the Russian expert community. Many experts believed that in order to track tank-dangerous BMPT targets, it was necessary to have better detection and reconnaissance means than the tanks themselves. The capabilities of the "Terminator" in this sense do not exceed the capabilities of the tank's surveillance and fire control facilities.
At the same time, the tank significantly surpasses the BMPT in firepower. It has a 125-mm gun with a high-explosive fragmentation shell and an ATGM launched through the barrel.
The military campaign in Syria helped to show the advantages of the Terminator, where the Terminator proved to be a universal means of combating RPG and ATGM calculations in the city.
As for the armed confrontation during a special military operation, the units and units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine are currently saturated to the limit with a wide variety of anti-tank weapons - FGM-148 Javelin and NLAW ATGMs, M141 grenade launchers, Carl-Gustaf M2/M3, Panzerfaust 3 and many other Western systems.
In this regard, there is every reason to assume that the experience gained during the fighting in Ukraine in the use of BMPT will be thoroughly studied at the developer of this equipment, and all necessary changes will be made to the design of the armored combat vehicle. And this will lead to a significant increase in the combat capabilities of the Terminators and clarify all the conceptual foundations of the use of this type of equipment.
The opinion of the author may not coincide with the position of the editorial board.
Biography of the author:
Mikhail Mikhailovich Khodarenok is a military columnist for the newspaper.Ru", retired colonel.
He graduated from the Minsk Higher Engineering Anti-Aircraft Missile School (1976), the Military Air Defense Command Academy (1986).
Commander of the S-75 anti-aircraft missile division (1980-1983).
Deputy Commander of the anti-aircraft missile regiment (1986-1988).
Senior Officer of the General Staff of the Air Defense Forces (1988-1992).
Officer of the Main Operational Directorate of the General Staff (1992-2000).
Graduated from the Military Academy of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Russia (1998).
Columnist of "Nezavisimaya Gazeta" (2000-2003), editor-in-chief of the newspaper "Military-Industrial Courier" (2010-2015).
Mikhail Khodarenok