Between December 31, 1994, and January 1995, one of the bloodiest tactical and humanitarian disasters in modern military history unfolded. It occurred during the initial Russian assault on Grozny, the capital of Chechnya, in the First Chechen War: Russia trusted far too much, and its T-72 and T-80 tanks, together with BMP armored vehicles, were wiped out in the city center by Chechen fighters’ rocket launchers, alongside their infantry.
This massacre marked a turning point, and from it emerged the development of the BMP-72 “Terminator”, a Russian armored vehicle designed to provide combat support to tanks.
The hard lesson of Grozny and how it reshaped urban combat
The Russian army’s overconfidence marked a watershed moment during the initial assault on Grozny, the Chechen capital. And although Grozny ultimately fell to Russian forces, the initial assault was devastating. The Chechen fighters had substantial experience under warlords and within the Soviet army, and during this assault they fully exploited Russia’s imprudence.
The Russian military command sent heavy armored columns (T-72 and T-80 tanks and BMPs) to push along the main avenues toward the city center. The troops advanced in a parade-ground formation, without enough infantry on foot to cover corners or clear buildings, and with poor communications. They believed they were operating on their own and that the Chechens would fall with little effort.
But they turned the streets into a mousetrap for the Russians: fighters fired from the buildings with anti-tank RPGs at the first and last vehicle in the line, completely blocking the street and leaving the rest of the unit trapped. They also exploited the fact that tank artillery could not reach the upper floors, while hunter teams hunted down the infantry. In less than 60 hours, the brigade had lost around 800 men, 20 of its 26 tanks, and 102 of its 120 armored vehicles.
Aim: that something like this would never happen again
This massacre paved the way for the BMPT-72 “Terminator 2,” a Russian armored vehicle designed to support tank battles by protecting main battle tanks against enemy infantry, helicopters, and fortified positions, especially in urban environments.
This armored vehicle today holds the title of being the deadliest and most heavily armed tank-support platform in the world. Its mission is not to hunt other tanks, but to act as a battering ram engineered to escort and annihilate any entrenched enemy infantry.
The physical design of this beast is staggering. Based on the chassis and robust hull of a conventional tank (the T-72 family), engineers removed the traditional heavy turret and its massive smoothbore gun. Instead, they installed a robotic weapons station capable of firing from multiple angles simultaneously. It features twin 30 mm automatic cannons with an elevation up to 45°, four tubes of the Ataka-T anti-tank guided missiles (capable of piercing armor at kilometers of distance), and secondary machine guns.
Although in theory and in wargaming simulations the BMPT Terminator appears as the ultimate urban shield, real-world conflicts have shown that no armor is immune to the new threat of drone swarms. Yet it remains the most intimidating saturation-fire machine of the 21st century.
Imágenes | Wikipedia/Mikhail Evstafiev, Kirill Borisenko, Vitaly V. Kuzmin
