Child taken to first day of school in BMP-1

September 8, 2015 by Leave a Comment

Yahoo news has posted an amusing story about a father who took his son to his first day of school in a BMP-1 Infantry Fighting Vehicle.  The father and son live in the Donstsk in south-eastern Ukraine.  As might be guessed, the boy and his father were a big hit with the other school children, who clambered all over the vehicle for pictures.  Parent Vitaly Dolgorukova said: ‘It’s not unusual to see tanks around here but I’ve never seen one doing the school run before, I thought it was a really fun idea that took away the nerves of a lot of the new kids.’ The boy’s father, the tank commander, is believed to be a member of a Russian-backed separatist militia.

Pic shows: Kid arriving in thank at school in the first day. The first day at school proved particularly unforgettable for one Ukrainian lad after his dad took him there in a tank. The unnamed little boy had apparently been nervous about turning up for his first day at a new school in the city of Donetsk in south-eastern Ukraine. But all nerves vanished after his dad drove him there in style on a tank, in a stunt that instantly made him popular with all his new school friends. Pictures of kids clambering over the tank, rushing up to touch it and chatting to the tank commander, the boy's dad, were widely circulated and proved it was extremely popular. The dad is a soldier in the Ukraine and most likely one of the Russian-backed separatists who are carrying out the defence of Donetsk, a city which has seen frequent fighting despite a supposed ceasefire being in place. Parent Vitaly Dolgorukova said: "It's not unusual to see tanks around here but I've never seen one doing the school run before, I thought it was a really fun idea that took away the nerves of a lot of the new kids." (ends)

Pic shows: Kid arriving in thank at school in the first day. The first day at school proved particularly unforgettable for one Ukrainian lad after his dad took him there in a tank. The unnamed little boy had apparently been nervous about turning up for his first day at a new school in the city of Donetsk in south-eastern Ukraine. But all nerves vanished after his dad drove him there in style on a tank, in a stunt that instantly made him popular with all his new school friends. Pictures of kids clambering over the tank, rushing up to touch it and chatting to the tank commander, the boy's dad, were widely circulated and proved it was extremely popular. The dad is a soldier in the Ukraine and most likely one of the Russian-backed separatists who are carrying out the defence of Donetsk, a city which has seen frequent fighting despite a supposed ceasefire being in place. Parent Vitaly Dolgorukova said: "It's not unusual to see tanks around here but I've never seen one doing the school run before, I thought it was a really fun idea that took away the nerves of a lot of the new kids." (ends)

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Algeria to get another 360 upgraded BMP IFVs

April 10, 2015 by Leave a Comment

1631313_-_mainJane’s is reporting that Algeria will be receiving another 360 upgraded BMP infantry fighting vehicles to compliment the 400 upgraded BMPs they had received initially.  These vehicles are part of a contract being carried out by the Russian KBP Instrument Design Bureau.  The vehicles being upgraded are BMP-1s, the work is being done at an Algerian armor repair plant with the help of Russian technicians.  The upgrade package includes the Berezhok combat module, which is armed with four 9M133 Kornet-E anti-tank guided missiles and an AGS-30 30 mm automatic grenade launcher in addition to the 30 mm 2A42 main gun used on the BMP-2 IFV and the standard PKT 7.62 mm coaxial machine gun. The Berezhok upgrade also includes a new fire-control system and optics.

Read the Jane’s 360 article here.

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250 Swedish BMP-1 vehicles shipped to Iraq illegally

March 5, 2015 by Leave a Comment

filename_813According to Defense World.net, two hundred fifty Swedish armored vehicles, BMP-1 are “secretly” being shipped to Iraq by a Czech company illegally.  In 2010, the Swedish Defence Material Administration, FMV, sold 350 light tanks to a state-run Czech company.  But the state-run company turned out to be a middleman for the private Czech company Excalibur, which will now sell 250 BMD-tanks to Iraq.  The problem is that due to the Swedish export rules, FMV wouldn’t have sold the weapons to the Czech Republic if they had known the end customer was Iraq.  Full article here.

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