Russian military blogger critiques obsolete BMP vehicles' role
A Russian military blogger has provided a candid assessment of infantry fighting vehicles' capabilities and the tactics associated with their use. Here are his observations.
One of the Russian military bloggers posted a comprehensive analysis on the VKontakte portal about the BMP family of infantry fighting vehicles and the tactics for their usage. His review is rather negative as these machines are essentially used as one-time taxis for assault groups.
BMP infantry fighting vehicles — once a revolution, now an obsolete one-time taxi
The Russian notes that the BMPs received by soldiers as reinforcements after Izyum were of poor quality, even after a two-month overhaul. His unit was still operating at only 70-80% of its authorised strength, and of the reinforcements received, as many as 50% of the BMP-1/2s failed the control run.
Moreover, the weaponry in many units was not operational, and anti-tank guided missiles (particularly the 9M14 Malyutka for the BMP-1) are said to be scarce. According to the Russian blogger, only the BMP-2M "Berezhnok" and other versions that have undergone a major overhaul with the 2A42 automatic cannon are combat-ready.
Meanwhile, the remaining vehicles delivered to the front are increasingly old, rusty wrecks, with actual performance falling several dozen per cent below the declared levels. This affects aspects such as gun accuracy or even engine power, if the engine still functions. Coupled with insufficiently trained crews, this spells disaster.
The Russian comments that the training of new crews primarily concerns technical maintenance and lacks tactical training, which is only acquired at the front line. This results in combat use being largely restricted to "cavalry charges" and dropping off troops at designated locations immediately after the end of suppressive artillery fire.
Additionally, Soviet-era vehicles were not designed to accommodate soldiers with modern protective equipment as they provided too little space. The Russian also critiques the low level of protection, as even machine guns (loaded with armour-piercing ammunition) pose a danger, and FPV drones spell disaster.
"There are no jammers, and those that exist don't always work due to frequency changes by the Ukrainians. Only nets stretched over vehicles offer some minimal protection." On his section of the front, this resulted in a tactic of "Pedal to the metal and hope to reach the drop-off zone, which in itself was considered a success."
The Russian blogger mentioned that the last stage, namely returning to pick up another assault group, was rare because BMPs were often destroyed by drones on the way back. A higher level of coordination, such as supporting disembarked infantry with onboard weapons fire, which is typical of infantry fighting vehicles, is impossible if the weapons don't function or there is simply no communication.
