Duel of relics: Ukrainian and Russian BMP‑2s face off
The war in Ukraine is full of astonishing events. One of the more intriguing is an armoured duel between BMP-2 infantry fighting vehicles (IFV). We present the details of this clash and the performance of these machines.
In the video below, you can see how two BMP-2 IFVs encountered each other at a crossroads, one belonging to the Ukrainians and the other to the Russians. Most likely, thanks to the help of a reconnaissance drone, the Ukrainian vehicle started firing at the Russian one first.
The visible flashes suggest that the first shots were fired using a belt of 3UOF8 high-explosive incendiary ammunition, with each round containing about 48 grams of explosive-incendiary mixture. Subsequently, it appears that the Russians, in a panic, abandoned the targeted BMP-2, which the Ukrainians later captured. It seems that the BMP-2 did not sustain critical damage.
BMP-2 - an outdated relic of the Cold War
The BMP-2 is one of the most popular infantry fighting vehicles in the world, produced since the 1980s. It was developed as an upgrade to the BMP-1, where a 30 mm 2A42 automatic cannon was used instead of a 73 mm gun, significantly better suited for combating infantry and lightly armoured vehicles.
Like its predecessor, the BMP-2 can ford water obstacles, but weight requirements (approximately 15,000 kilograms) didn’t leave much reserve for armour. This significantly lags what Western IFVs offer, which sometimes weigh almost 40,000 kilograms, as only the front steel plate is designed to withstand armour-piercing rounds up to 23 mm. At the same time, the sides can be penetrated by an FN FAL rifle loaded with tungsten-core armour-piercing ammunition.
In practice, Ukrainians noted that 20 mm armour-piercing ammunition from a Marder 1A3 or 25 mm rounds from an M2A2 Bradley turn the BMP-2 into a proverbial sieve. On the plus side, the BMP-2 is fairly well-armed, but its combat capabilities in poor weather conditions or at night are severely limited due to the lack of passive night vision or thermal sight.
The BMP-2 has a crew of three soldiers, with an additional seven soldiers in the transport compartment. It is not a vehicle for modern warfare, but on the other hand, it's better than a pick-up truck.
