Today, the Russian urban warfare weapons are perhaps the most effective in the world from their armor protection and high-tech sensors point of view. Fighting in a city against a cornered enemy can be extremely lethal for both infantry and tanks. From the Battle of Berlin in WW2, to the street-by-street fighting in Grozny in the first and second Chechen Wars, the Russians learned through hard-won experience that in every alley and in every building, the enemy lies in wait ready to spring a sudden ambush on advancing armored vehicles.
To put the armored vehicles out of action, the enemy is usually armed with anti-tank guns, RPGs, and anti-tank missiles of all kinds, while they also rake the streets with machine guns set up high in windows in apartment buildings, mowing down the advancing infantry. To offset and neutralize these urban traps, the Russian Ground Forces introduced a series of armored vehicles that roll along with main battle tanks and the infantry to provide them with protection and massive fire power support.
This is how the Russian government developed a series of highly-protected armored vehicles, which are equipped with the most advanced sensors, thermal and night vision gadgets in the world; two of them have even better armor protection than main battle tanks! The amazing thing is that only two of them have been used in Ukraine. Perhaps, they have been left in reserve against any potential NATO’s attack on Russia. They are:
1) The BMPT Terminator 1 & 2, which looks like an IFV but in fact is a tank escort;
2) the T-15 Armata, which is an IFV but has as good protection as the T-14 Armata MBT;
3) the Kurganet-25, which is another high-tech IFV with devastating fire power and anti-tank and anti-bunker missiles; like the T-15, it was developed from the T-14 tank’s hull.
4) the BMO-T, a terrifying armored, tracked flamethrower to eliminate enemies hidden in buildings, throwing tongues of flames through windows;
5) the ZSU-23-4M5, Shilka, which is an armored self-propelled anti-aircraft guns fitted with four 23mm autocannons linked up to a high-tech radar, providing tanks and the rest of armored vehicles with an anti-aircraft protective umbrella against drones.
Although the last armored vehicles (4 and 5) were designed and manufactured at the end of the Cold War, they have been fully updated with the best armor protection and high-tech sensors and survival equipment. The first three ones are the latest development of the Russian Ground Forces.
Below, the BMPT Terminator 2, a feared and lethal armored vehicle which escorts tanks into battle
Below, the best-protected infantry armored vehicle (IFV) in the world, the T-15 Armata, whose 30mm autocannon fires tungsten or depleted-uranium armor-piercing rounds
