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KBP-designed modernized fighting compartment of the BMP-2 - an efficient way of upgrading armoured vehicles
At present, the development level of armoured vehicles signifies to a large extent the military potential of the country's land forces. Infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs) are the most widely-used type of the land forces' hardware. Constant upgrade of the combat vehicles fleet is performed by means of developing novel combat assets and modernization of existing armoured vehicles.
The service life of the armoured vehicles is rather lengthy, amounting to 30 -40 years. Many countries of the world are retrofitting the majority of their combat vehicles. The US is currently refurbishing its Bradley M2A2 IFV up to the M2A3 configuration.
The Russian-made BMP-2 IFV being the main CV of the land forces in many countries was put into service in 1980 and appeared to be superior to the majority of its foreign counterparts in terms of combat characteristics. Currently, the BMP-2 still complies with the modern requirements as regards its armour protection and riding performance.
Analysis of current status and developmental tendencies of armament and fire control systems suggests BMP-2's weapon system lagging behind the modern state of the art as regards several combat characteristics:
Missiles over Hindustan
The international community has always marvelled at the energy with which Indian scientists, software and hardware experts in weapons systems have been moving on, overtaking and sometimes even surpassing achievements of the leading world powers. This is well illustrated by the indigenously developed nuclear weapons and rather modern rocket industry. The majority of missile-related projects for the Ministry of Defence of India are run under the so called Integrated Guided Missile Development Program focused on the development and series production of several missile weapon types including various-range ballistic missiles.
