Military/Intelligence Bulletin 03/2018 – Ukraine unveils new support vehicle.

The vehicle is designed to provide armoured forces with close-range support and heavy firepower against infantry units with hand-held anti-tank weapons.

It is well known that tanks are not the best of weapons for engaging infantry in built up areas, the likelihood of hand-held anti-tank weapons an ever present threat.

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BMPT Strazh (Sentinel)

BMPT Strazh. Photo: wikipedia.org

Ukraine’s Zhytomyr Armoured Plant unveiled its new fire support vehicle at the Arms and Security Exhibition in Kiev. The vehicle is due to enter trials with the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence early 2018, with an expectation of orders following soon after.

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Source: IHS Markit/Samuel Cranny-Evans

The Strazh on display at the Arms and Security Exhibition in Kiev.

The vehicle is heavily covered in Explosive Reactive Armour, ERA, to protect it from Main Battle Tanks. The design is as a consequence of the experience gained by the Ukrainian defence forces operating in the Donbass region where a number of T-64s were lost in urban combat.

The Strazh is mounted with the Doublet remotely operated weapon station. its main armament is a pair of 30mm ZTM-2 automatic cannons mounted side-by-side, with two KT 7.62mm machine guns in-between them. In addition, on top of the turret is a 30mm KBA-117 automatic grenade-launcher, along with two pods of Bar’er-212 anti-tank guided missiles. The ZTM-2 cannons, Ukrainian version of the 2A42, are capable of defeating lightly armoured targets such as a BTR-70 at 1,500m.

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The Strazh is based on a T-64 Main Battle Tank and resembles UralVagonZavod’s BMPT armoured fighting vehicle shown above. Designed and manufactured by the Russian company, the BMPT is based on the chassis of a T-72 and is armed with four 9M120 Ataka missile launchers and two 2A42 30mm auto cannons.

Picture By Nucl0id  CC BY-SA 3.0

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Post copyrighted to Harvey Black