Russia to deploy new BMPT "Terminator" armored vehicles in Ukraine to replace heavy losses.

Russia has received a fresh batch of BMPT "Terminator" tank-support vehicles, which will be deployed in Ukraine, equipped with new drone defenses and reinforced armor. The move highlights Moscow’s focus on survivability and combined-arms tactics amid heavy battlefield losses.

Russia has received a new batch of BMPT Terminator tank-support vehicles from Uralvagonzavod, part of the state-owned conglomerate Rostec, signaling a renewed push to harden armored formations against drones, anti-tank missiles, and urban ambushes in Ukraine. The delivery coincides with messaging from Russian industry about rising demand for specialized escort platforms and with frontline imagery that shows new roof cages, expanded explosive reactive armor, and electronic warfare fitments migrating from T-90M and T-72B3M fleets. The BMPT, conceived after the attrition of Chechnya and Syria, packs a dense mix of weapons on a T-72-family hull to suppress the very threats that have bled Russian tank units since 2022.
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The Russian BMPT “Terminator” is a tank-support vehicle based on the T-72 chassis, armed with twin 30 mm autocannons, four Ataka missiles, machine guns, and grenade launchers, designed to suppress infantry, drones, and light armor while protecting tanks in urban and fortified combat zones (Picture source: Uralvagonzavod footage).

The production BMPT mounts twin 30 mm 2A42 autocannons with a combined ready supply of roughly 850 rounds, four 9M120 Ataka-T guided missiles in armored pods, a coaxial 7.62 mm PKTM, and paired 30 mm automatic grenade launchers covering the forward arcs. The 2A42s can alternate high-explosive and armor-piercing belts to sweep trenches and upper stories out to 2.5 to 4 km, while Ataka offers tandem-charge and thermobaric options with effective ranges near 6 km and penetration figures exceeding 800 mm after ERA in the anti-armor variant. Elevation authority on the cannons allows engagement of rooftop and high-window firing points that main battle tanks struggle to traverse to, and the stabilized day-night sights permit accurate bursts on the move. Combat weight sits in the high-40-ton class, mobility broadly matches late T-72 derivatives, and side and roof protection has been progressively reinforced to account for top-attack and first-person-view drones.

Factory imagery and unit fielding notes point to multi-layered slat and cage arrays around the turret roof line, thicker side skirts with dynamic protection, and a compact electronic warfare suite designed to jam radio-linked drones and degrade seeker performance. A refreshed digital fire-control network enables rapid handoff between targets at different ranges and azimuths, with the commander and gunner able to work separate aim points to collapse ambush teams before launch. These are the kinds of incremental survivability and command-and-control improvements that matter in a sky saturated by commercial quadcopters, loitering munitions, and artillery-spotting UAVs.

The BMPT’s escorts tank and assault engineer groups, peeling away anti-tank guided missile cells, RPG teams, and light armor so that main battle tanks can reserve their 125 mm ammunition for hardened positions. The twin 30s deliver sustained, precise fire that keeps dismounted teams pinned while the grenade launchers rake dead ground within 600 meters, a band where FPV pilots and recoilless rifles thrive. The Ataka tubes impose stand-off against strongpoints, bunkers, and enemy IFVs, and in extremis can be used against tanks if flanking shots present. With recent electronic counter-UAS kits, the BMPT can shoulder the point position for a breaching group, absorbing and disrupting drone attacks that would otherwise attrit a tank platoon before it reaches the objective.

A Ukrainian T-64BV, T-72AMT, or PT-91 brings a single large-caliber gun with better kinetic energy reach against heavy armor, but it cannot match the BMPT’s simultaneous multi-weapon volume or its vertical engagement geometry in dense urban terrain. Leopard 2A6 units field superior optics, fire control, and long-range lethality, and when the terrain opens up they will outmatch a BMPT at distance. The Terminator’s answer is to fight as part of a combined package, using its cannons to strip away infantry cover and its EW to degrade drones while tanks handle peer armor. If commanders push BMPTs alone into mined and observed avenues, they will be vulnerable to top-attack FPVs and long-range missiles, but when paired with T-90M, engineers, and overhead reconnaissance, they raise the odds of cracking trench lines with fewer tank losses.

Russian battalions have repeatedly suffered from disaggregated assaults where tanks outrun infantry and engineers, creating gaps that Ukrainian gunners and drone pilots exploit. The BMPT is designed to stitch those elements back together, to hold suppressive fire continuously while armor maneuvers, and to do so with enough protection to survive the first hits. A handful of vehicles will not transform a sector, but a company-sized allotment attached to brigades slated for urban pushes could stiffen assault groups and shorten the time they spend under observation.

The renewed BMPT deliveries underscore Moscow’s adaptation under sanctions and sustained attrition. Russia is prioritizing survivability retrofits and niche enablers that are faster to build than new main battle tanks, signaling a strategy of thickening existing formations rather than waiting for wholesale fleet recapitalization. Kyiv, for its part, will likely respond by pushing more precision drones, top-attack profiles, and counter-EW tactics to blunt the BMPT’s protective edge. As both sides iterate, the Terminator’s real test will be not in parades but in block-by-block fights where suppression, sensors, and electronic protection now decide who holds ground at day’s end.