BMP-2

BMP-2
Russian BMP-2 during a rehearsal for the military parade in Yekaterinburg, 6 May 2009.
Type	Infantry fighting vehicle
Place of origin	Soviet Union
Service history
In service	1980–present
Production history
Manufacturer	Kurganmashzavod
Produced	1980–present
Specifications
Weight	14.3 tonnes (15.8 short tons; 14.1 long tons)
Length	6.72 metres (22 ft 1 in)
Width	3.15 metres (10 ft 4 in)
Height	2.45 metres (8 ft 0 in)
Crew	3 (+7 passengers)
Armor	33 millimetres (1.3 in) (max)
Main armament	30 mm automatic cannon 2A42 9M113 Konkurs ATGM
Secondary armament	7.62 mm machine gun (PKTM)
Engine	diesel UTD-20/3 300 hp (225 kW)
Power/weight	21 hp/tonne
Suspension	torsion bar
Operational range	600 km (370 mi)
Speed	65 km/h (40 mph) (road) 45 km/h (28 mph) (off-road) 7 km/h (4.3 mph) (water)

The BMP-2 (Boyevaya Mashina Pekhoty, Russian: Боевая Машина Пехоты; infantry combat vehicle) is a second-generation, amphibious infantry fighting vehicle introduced in the 1980s in the Soviet Union, following on from the BMP-1 of the 1960s.

Although the BMP-1 was a revolutionary design, its main armament, the 2A28 Grom and the 9S428 ATGM launcher capable of firing 9M14 Malyutka (NATO: AT-3A Sagger A) and 9M14M Malyutka-M (NATO: AT-3B Sagger B) ATGMs, quickly became obsolete. Therefore, the Soviet Union decided to produce an updated and improved version of the BMP-1. The main emphasis was put on improving the main armament. In 1972, work got under-way to develop an improved version of the BMP-1.

During its combat debut in the Yom Kippur War, Egyptian and Syrian BMPs proved vulnerable to .50 calibre machine-gun fire in the sides and rear, and to 106 mm recoilless rifles. The 73 mm gun proved inaccurate beyond 500 metres, and the AT-3 Sagger missile could not be guided effectively from the confines of the turret.

Several Soviet technical teams were sent to Syria in the wake of the war to gather information. These lessons, combined with observations of western AFV developments, resulted in a replacement program for the original BMP in 1974. The first product of this program was the BMP-1P upgrade, which was intended as a stopgap to address the most serious problems with the existing design. Smoke grenade launchers were added to the rear of the turret and the manually guided AT-3 Sagger missile system was replaced with the semi-automatically guided AT-4 Spigot / AT-5 Spandrel system. The BMP-1P was in production by the late 1970s and existing BMP-1s were gradually upgraded to the standard during the 1980s.

The BMP-2 is broadly similar to the BMP-1. The most significant changes are:

In the centre of the vehicle is the welded steel turret, which seats the commander and gunner, both of whom have hatches. The commander sits to the right and has three day vision periscopes, a 1PZ-3 day-sight designed for anti-aircraft use with 1x, 2x and 4x magnification, an OU-3GA2 infra-red searchlight, a TNP-165A designator and a TKN-3B binocular sight with 4.75x day magnification and 4x night-sight magnification.