How to BMPT
The road to come up with a special purpose/tank support vehicle wasn’t easy! We all know the BMPT Terminator, but its roots also go back to the “Sovershestvovanie-88” plan! The Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant originally came up with two prototypes for such a platform: Object 781 and Object 782 (Sometimes called Object 781A and Object 781B). Both were based on a modified T-72B hull, with significant upgrades done to the lateral armour and both sporting a pair of 40mm grenade launchers mounted on the frontal glacis.
Object 781 and Object 782
Object 781’s main armament was composed of two independent turrets, each mounting one 30mm Shipunov 2A72 autocannon with its own 7.62mm coaxial machine gun. The setup was completed with a launcher for a pair of Kornet or Konkurs ATGMs and a pintle-mounted 12.7mm machine gun near the commander’s hatch. The crew was composed of 5 men.
Object 782 took a slightly different route as it came equipped with a turret mounting the same 100mm 2A70 gun as the BMP-3 with a 30mm 2A72 coaxial autocannon. A third 40mm grenade launcher was mounted on the turret.
Object 781 won the competition but the project was shelved in 1991 as the dissolution of the Soviet Union consumed all before itself. Soon after, the First Chechen war broke out (1995) and the lack of a specialized support vehicle made itself cruelly felt. Enters Object 787 Gadyuka BMPT: Terminator’s grandfather!
Object 787 Gadyuka BMPT
Again, the brainchild of the Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant, the Viper was built on the chassis of the T-72AV and covered in Kontakt-1 ERA. It sported two 30mm autocannons, two 12.7mm heavy machine guns, and two 7.62mm machine guns. With an additional two 68B20 rocket pods for good measure! The project was canned soon after due to a lack of budget, and this, despite some promising results on the firing range. However, despite the lack of funds, the idea of a HIFV (heavy infantry fighting vehicle) or Tank Support Vehicle never really went away…
The Birth of BMPT Terminator
UralVagonZavod presented its own Object 199 Ramka in 2000, armed with a single 30mm 2A42 and 4 ATGM launchers. This was a step in the right direction and work slowly progressed on that basis up until the production model of the BMPT Terminator was introduced in 2002!
Uralvagonzavod came up in 2013 with a BMPT-72 kit designed to be a direct retrofit for older T-72B and T-72M tanks. The kit also introduced improvements in the type’s capabilities. This model was primarily designed for export customers.
Deployment and Testing
Some BMPT-72 were sent to Syria in 2017 for field testing in realistic conditions.
Russia ordered the vehicle in 2017 and the first serial production units reached the Russian armed forces in 2021.
In 2022, a group of BMPT-72 supporting tanks were spotted in action near Severodonetsk and later in the direction of Bakhmut, the very first time the type was deployed in combat.
-RBM.
