Warning: Use of undefined constant WPE_CLUSTER_ID - assumed 'WPE_CLUSTER_ID' (this will throw an Error in a future version of PHP) in /home/azuse/htdocs/www.azuse.cloud/wp-content/mu-plugins/wpengine-common/plugin.php on line 14

Warning: Use of undefined constant PWP_NAME - assumed 'PWP_NAME' (this will throw an Error in a future version of PHP) in /home/azuse/htdocs/www.azuse.cloud/wp-content/mu-plugins/wpengine-common/wpe-sec.php on line 63
{"id":168849,"date":"2025-04-24T07:00:45","date_gmt":"2025-04-24T11:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=168849"},"modified":"2025-04-23T17:47:44","modified_gmt":"2025-04-23T21:47:44","slug":"for-you-armor-nerds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=168849","title":{"rendered":"For you armor nerds"},"content":{"rendered":"

$\"\"$ <\/p>\n

Guess I am showing my age and Cold War roots on this one. Ran across a The War Zone article on rare armor vehicles seen in Ukraine.<\/p>\n

$\"\"$ <\/p>\n

I am guessing many remember the old BMP – they pretty well lead the way in armored fighting vehicles (as opposed to armored personnel carriers. The Boyevaya Mashina Pyekhoty 1<\/span>, aka BMP-1 (Infantry Fighting Vehicle-1), carried troops in relative safety and came equipped with a main gun, anti-tank missiles, a machine gun, and had firing ports on its sides and back. It’s also amphibious, a nice feature to have when fording streams or traversing bogs.<\/p>\n

Here’s a rarity – the BMP-55. Photos circulated this week on Telegram show what appears to be a one-off BMP the Ukrainians made by drastically altering an old T-55 tank chassis to make a heavy IFV.\u00a0 On a battlefield filled with armed drones, maybe all 28-29 tons of armor is comforting?<\/p>\n

$\"\"$ $\"\"$ <\/p>\n

The view of its rear is amusing – it says M113? Have to suspect that is a reference to our M113 personnel carrier. There are a lot of semi-obolescent T-55s around, so if the Ukrainians did decide to make this a production model, they would have a lot to work with.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

They also made a BMP-64, based on the ubiquitous T-64 Russian tank. Again, remove the turret, make it a squad carrier capable of causing some damage.<\/p>\n

$\"\"$ <\/p>\n

Armed with a 30mm auto-cannon, to my non-expert eye this sounds more analogous to our Bradley IFV, albeit at 40+ tons it obviously took much of the tank weight with it even though it, and the BMP-55,\u00a0 lost the turret.<\/p>\n

And let’s not leave out the opposition – the Russians have made a few surplus T-72s into IFVs as well.<\/p>\n

$\"\"$ <\/p>\n

Inspired by city counter-insurgency operations in Chechnya, the BMPT looks to retain more of its original aspect than the others above. Although rare it least it is not a one-off; according to the article at least one Russian unit fighting Ukraine has been equipped with these.<\/p>\n

The War Zone<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"