By placing the turret of the BMP-2 on the tank, the Ukrainian Army will turn it into a heavy infantry fighting vehicle, armed with a 30 mm 2A42 automatic cannon.
The war in Ukraine has revealed the ability to operate and improvise on the field of both sides. A photo shared on social media shows a captured Russian T-62 tank being revived by the Ukrainian Army by mounting a turret from a BMP-2 infantry fighting vehicle. Most likely the original 115 mm smoothbore gun of the T-62 was damaged. By placing the turret of the BMP-2 on the tank, the Ukrainian Army will turn it into a heavy infantry fighting vehicle, armed with a 30 mm 2A42 automatic cannon.
The photo is further proof that the Ukrainian Army is ready to use everything available from its inventory to convert spoils. It should be noted that Ukraine is heavily armed with Soviet-era military vehicles, and has decades of design experience. That is, they have enough knowledge and techniques to create a special hybrid armored vehicle.
The Ukrainian approach turned out to be not unique. The Algerian army, which also operates a lot of Soviet and Russian military equipment, has introduced a similar hybrid vehicle. There is a photo during a military parade showing BMPT-62 heavy IFVs made of old T-62 tanks, fitted with a modernized BMP-2 turret. The practice of Ukraine as well as Algeria shows the importance of compatibility in military production.
Western designs for heavy ground vehicles are built in a similar way. Israel also has a ground combat vehicle that uses a tank hull. The Israeli Achzarit armored personnel carrier uses a Soviet design hull – that of the Soviet T-54/T-55 tank. One of the popular Western platforms, for example, the BAE Systems’ CV90. Thanks to it, the company can quickly produce light tanks, main battle tanks, armored personnel carriers, infantry vehicles, minesweepers, other types of self-propelled artillery. In this way, a half-destroyed combat vehicle can easily be restored or converted into another.
The modular design concept that allows the installation of many different types of turrets or weapons on a single chassis is becoming a new trend worldwide. In an armed conflict, every weapon is critically important, until the end of hostilities, or when they are completely destroyed, beyond repair. Not only Ukraine, Algeria, or Israel… even the Russian Army itself has hybrid vehicles of this type, typically the BTR-T armored personnel carrier. So the combination of a T-62 body with another part of another weapon should not surprise us.
