Ukraine War

What is the Russian Terminator Tank?

We’ve heard about them being deployed in eastern Ukraine, but what are they and what is their purpose? Here’s a quick overview

The Terminator or the Boyevaya Mashina Podderzhki Tankov (BMP-T) is a ‘new generation’ of tank that started development in Russia in the early 2000s. The design of the Terminator was based on the T-80UD, but with several significant improvements.

Design objectives

According to ex-tank commander and military analyst Justin Crump, quoted in forces.net, it

should shrug off anti-armour weapons that would destroy a lighter-skinned vehicle.

It’s really optimised to suppress the upper stories of buildings, put down a high rate of fire and cover those angles so the tanks can focus on the fight down the street, where they can bring firepower to bear that way without having to look all the directions you can’t look when you’re closed down in a tank

There are alternative views on the design philosophy. For examples, British Intelligence Updates suggest:

With that approach, it’s like destroyers providing protection for an aircraft carrier in a carrier battle group, umbrella defence. Perhaps a gross simplification but I think it paints the picture.

Multiple self-protection systems

One of the most notable features of the Terminator is its use of composite armour, which gives it improved protection against both kinetic and chemical energy weapons.

The tank is also equipped with an active protection system, which is designed to intercept and destroy incoming missiles and rockets.

Weapons systems

The BMP-T has nine different weapons (four types) which include:

… 30mm 2A42 autocannon (effective range of 4000 meters). The BMPT’s second primary armament is the 130mm 9M120 “Ataka-T” [*] anti-tank missile… with claims from the manufacturer that it can penetrate 800 mm of homogeneous armor with ERA with its HEAT ammunition (good enough for the side or rear of any modern tank)…This anti-tank missile is guided by a semi-automatic laser beam with … a flight velocity of 550 m/s with a maximum range of 5800 meters…One of the BMPT’s secondary armament is one 7.62 PKTM machine gun that is situated between the two autocannons, with an aiming range of 1500 meters…The BMPT’s second secondary armament are two 30mm AG-17D grenade launchers. — Tanks Encyclopedia

[*]The Ataka guided missiles are available in three variants that are compatible with the launch system (130mm launch tubes). The first is a two-stage anti-armour weapon that features a tandem warhead for dealing with add-on armor. The second variant of the missile — designated as 9M120F — has a thermobaric warhead for use against infantry positions and bunkers. The third variant of the 9M120 Ataka is the 9M220, which features a proximity fused expanding rod warhead, providing the missile with Surface-to-Air capability against low- and slow-flying aircraft. — Wikipedia

In action (training)

Weaknesses

• Some observers have noted the lack of a central turret position for the tank commander. This would mean that the commander’s situational awareness would be quite limited as you can see in the above picture. However, given that the design philosophy is to fight forward down streets then this may not be a problem. But in open-terrain in an umbrella defence role this could be an issue.
• It’s carrying 4 laser-guided missiles. Replenishment is an issue. It appears that the missiles would have to be manually loaded, which takes more time to complete than pod loading and vulnerable support vehicles would be required. So, rapid replenishment might be difficult in an urban warfare setting.

Generally, from my amateur armchair, I see a heavy reliance on technology. Technology is prone to failure (at least in the Russian armed forces equipment procurement context), equipment maintenance issues and maintenance disciplines which have been demonstrably poor.

First deployment

The Terminator was first used in combat during the Second Chechen War, where it proved to be highly effective against the rebel forces. In recent years, the tank has also been used in the Syrian civil war.

Arguably, the Terminator is a highly effective tank that offers a good mix of protection, firepower and mobility.

Now deployed in Ukraine

Why?

Unacceptable losses of armoured vehicles. It’s that simple — depending on which design philosophy applies and which missile variants are loaded. We don’t have an analysis of where the bulk of Russia’s armour losses have been, but we’ve seen columns destroyed both in towns and on country roads.

The Russian CGF (Central Grouping of Forces) have had their tank columns hammered by the Ukrainian forces in the failed drive south from Belarus to Kyiv and in a retreat near Kharkiv.

At time of writing (23 May), Oryx open source intelligence is reporting that Russia has lost 694 tanks, 383 armoured fighting vehicles and 754 infantry fighting vehicles. That’s a serious level of armoured force depletion and the Russians seemed to have learned the lesson.

Hence the deployment of the Terminator.

Here’s the full update from British Defence Intelligence:

How many does Russia have?

That’s an unknown, but they do have them deployed in Syria. In what ratio wold they be deployed with regular MBTs in open terrain? Maybe 1:3? 1:10 would seem to be too thin. But they’ll have to deploy what they have.

However, the British Defence Intelligence analysis above suggests that a maximum of 10 are being deployed. That’s scant coverage.

These surely will be prize scalps for Ukrainian forces and I’m waiting to see them appear in the Oryx database of trashed Russian armour.

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Additional reading: Tanks Encyclopedia