- Yes, I think the BMD-2 should be added to the game
- Maybe
- Unsure
- I don’t think the BMD-2 should be added
- Yes, I think the Laser rangefinder should be treated like a armor package modification such as on the BMP-3 for it’s thermal sights.
- Not exactly, I think they should just add it as the improved version and just make it have a laser rangefinder as a modification which does not change the model of the vehicle
- Unsure
- I said no to the last question
Note - Due to the fact that the vehicle did receive some upgrades which are not apart of any new specific variant in Russian service which replaced the gunner optic and old IR lamp, I have included it as apart of the suggestion not as a separate vehicle but as a modification due to multiple reasons, these being the lack of name of the variant, no date on when this modernization was starting to be implemented, and that the changes are minimal as it would just change the optic and IR light of the vehicle while gaining a laser range-finding capability, as such it be more fitting to add this upgraded version as a modification such as on the BMP-3 and 2S6 in-game, thereby avoiding the issues of lack of variant name and date of implementation on the vehicles.
Background & History
The BMD-2 otherwise known as the Object 916 was the second iteration of the BMD series of airborne infantry fighting vehicles which served in the Soviet armed forces during the Cold War and was born from the war in Afghanistan and the deployment of the BMP-2 IFV during the war. The BMD-2 design was based off the BMD-1 as can be seen by it hull design being basically the exact same as the BMD-1 whose ties were both close yet surprisingly far from their relatives that were the BMP-1 as the turret of the BMD-1 was literally the same type as the BMP-1 which also later on resulted in similar changes to the turret for the BMD-1 as the BMP-1 would have, however the hull was based off one of the competing design that loss the competition for design of what would be the BMP-1, thus the vehicle had both close yet distant ties to the BMP-1 and would be a reoccurring feature in both IFV families thanks to the turrets themselves, with the exception of the BMD-2 whose only proper ties in relation to the BMP family was the gun.
With the start of hostilities against Afghanistan 1979 the BMD-1 was thrown into combat in the region and quickly into it by the early 1980’s the Soviets airborne forces identify one of the vehicle greatest weaknesses of the BMD-1 which also happened to plague the BMP-1 which was the gun. In truth their was two main problems with the gun which was it’s effectiveness and elevation as in Afghanistan both BMP-1’s and BMD-1’s were finding themselves unsuited to the environment as their design was more towards giving airborne units a fighting chance against enemy armor in a nuclear biological contaminated environment rather than the hot and mountains regions of Afghanistan which saw them unable to be effective as they took heavy losses from mines as well as from ambushes by Mujahideen troops using light anti tank weaponry which meant that in certain environments the BMD-1 was completely unable to respond. Unlike the issues of the BMD’s however the standard ground forces using the BMP’s had the vehicle which overcame these problems as in 1981 the first BMP-2’s were entering service and began proved themselves as much more capable in Afghanistan as it used a 30mm auto-cannon which was effective against infantry and was not restricted in it’s gun elevation and the airborne forces took notice of this and were more or less set on solving the problem with the same 30mm auto cannon. Despite how the Soviet airborne forces were certain on how they wanted to work towards shifting to vehicles like the BMP-2 there was a bigger problem, the turret of the BMP-2.
The issue with how the BMP-2 turret was a problem was that the airborne forces wanted to mount the BMP-2 turret on a BMD hull as they had done on the BMD-1 however the issue was that it was impossible as the BMP-2 turret was obvious much larger than the BMP-1 turret and while the BMP-1 hull was large enough to be modified to take a new turret the BMD-1 was not as it was designed to be small and light due to the constraints of needing to be capable of being dropped out of a plane, despite this the Soviets pursued the idea of creating a BMD with the BMP-2 turret however they would need time to develop a completely new hull which could take the BMP-2 turret which would take some time, as such they also sought a more immediate solution which would address their issues. As a result the BMD-1 hull had to be reused however designers had to come up with a new turret which could house the 30mm auto-cannon and be capable of having high gun elevation, due to this the vehicle started development in 1983 and took only 2 years from development to production starting in 1985 resulting in the BMD-2 which used the BMD-1 hull however used a new turret which housed a 30mm auto cannon as well as managing to retain a coaxial machine gun with the command variant being known as the BMD-2K. While the BMD-2 solved the problems of it’s predecessor it would never truly fully replace the BMD-1 but rather served alongside them, however by 1991 with the fall of the Soviet Union all production of the BMD-2 ceased.
As for the other vehicle which would result from the desire to produce vehicles with the 30mm auto-cannon the BMD-3 would also result from the Soviet-afghan war which used a completely new hull which mounted the BMP-2 turret, however they barely saw the light of day as they only entered Soviet service in 1990 and as such production halted the next year in 1991 as the Soviet Union collapsing resulting in very few being produced however would result later with the BMD-4 series and 2S25, with some of the BMD-3’s even being converted into BMD-4’s. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union the BMD-2 has remained in service prominently within the Russian Federation and Ukraine however have also been used by other former Soviet states, due to the low numbers of BMD-3’s being produced the BMD-2 makes up a large portion of Russian airborne IFV’s as while their are more BMD-1’s that were produced compared to the BMD-2 the usefulness of the latter has seen more retained in active service as well as seeing modernization as at least 2 modernizations have been applied with a simpler version using optics originally used on the BMP-3 as well as providing it with laser range-finding capabilities and can be easily identified with the small boxed shaped IR light/laser rangefinder in place of the larger old IR lamp while the other modernization known as the BMD-2M gave the vehicle a number of upgrades similar to what the BMP-2 received when being modernized into the BMP-2M, however most remain unmodified.
(Note - The BMD-2 shown below is an example of one of these upgraded vehicles, note the box shaped IR light with the cover on top of the turret, interestingly this one is one of the easier versions which had 2 hull machines guns, note on the far side of the vehicle it has a cover where the machine gun was, however even though it’s a cover it has a part which sticks out is something I am clueless as to why it’s like that rather than a simple cover.
The vehicles armament consists of a 30mm 2A42 autocannon along with a single 7.62mm machine gun, additionally the vehicle also mounted the 9P135M-1 ATGM launcher as on the BMP-2 with a total of 4 missiles carried total, the gunner also has 2 optics at his disposition as the main gun optic has access to night vision however the main optic cannot elevate as high as the main gun, as such the gunner also has the optic on the side of the turret which is a secondary optic which can full elevate with the gun. The hull itself was not modified heavily and included many of the same elements as the BMD-1, the main external difference really being the turret. The vehicle itself came with 1 30mm 2A42 auto cannon with the gun having 300 rounds total consisting of 180 rounds of HEI/-T ammunition and 120 rounds AP-T and APDS-T however the vehicle is fully capable to fully HEI/T, additionally the vehicle had initially 3 7.62mm machine guns with 1 PKTM machine gun and 2 PKB machine guns with the former being coaxial and the latter being hull mounted but on later production vehicles had 1 PKB machine gun was removed from the vehicles port side to allow the commander to concentrate on his duties, the coaxial machine gun in particular instead of using a continues 2,000 round magazine used 250 round magazines which made it worse at providing constant fire but reduced the chance of jamming the gun, the vehicle carried 2,940 machine gun rounds, as for the ATGMs the vehicle could carry a variety from the 9M113 “Konkurs” (AT-5 Spandrel), 9M113M “Konkurs-M” (AT-5B Spandrel B), 9M111 “Fagot” (AT-4 Spigot) and 9M111-2 “Fagot” (AT-4B Spigot B) ATGMs with the vehicle having 3 additional ATGM’s stored in the hull however the reload speed was slow with a fire rate of around 2 per minute for the vehicle due to the small nature of the vehicle and the fact they were located behind the gunner.
Specifications
Weight: 8.2 tons
Engine: 5D-20 V6 diesel 240 hp (180 kW) P/w 29.2 hp/t
Speed: 61/50/10 km/h (On Road/Off road/water)
Crew capacity: 4 Crew members + 2 infantry
Armor: 32mm to 10mm or armor depending on armor plate in question (Varies by source)
(The armor on the hull would be the same as that as the recently added BTR-ZD)
Radio: R-123M
Turret traverse speed:
Automatic Mode
Time for full turret rotation: 12 seconds
Maximum Traversal Speed: 30°/sec
Minimum Traversal Speed: 0.07°/sec
Maximum Elevation Speed: 30°/sec
Minimum Elevation Speed: 0.07°/sec
Semi-Automatic Mode
Time for full turret rotation: 10 seconds
Maximum Traversal Speed: 35°/sec
Minimum Traversal Speed: 0.1°/sec
Maximum Elevation Speed: 35°/sec
Minimum Elevation Speed: 0.1°/sec
Turret elevation:
-5/+60 degrees of gun elevation
Gunner sights:
BMD-2 (Original)
BPK-2-42M (6x day time, 5.5x night vision)
BMD-2 (Modernized)
SOZH-TM (8x daytime, 5.5 night vision) (This optic also sees the removal of the IR lamp on the turret for a newer IR light which also gives the vehicle laser rangefinding capability)
Additional gunner sight:
PZU-8 (Used mainly to allow the gun to be used against aircraft)
Main armament:
1 x 30mm 2A42 autocannon
fire rate - 200 to 500 rounds per minute
ammunition capacity:
300 Rounds total (Divided into 180 rounds of HEI/-T ammunition and 120 rounds AP-T and APDS-T though other sources say the other way around)
Secondary armament:
1 PKTM machine gun (Coaxial) (Uses 250 round mags)
Standard BMD-2 - 2 PKB machine guns (Hull mounted)
Late BMD-2 - 1 PKB machine gun (Hull mounted) (Not the upgraded version, this is the standard production still) (earlier versions have there machine guns covered up by the point the late is being produced)
Ammunition capacity: Up to 2,980 according to sources however count can vary, this is the highest number any source gives
ATGM’s:
9M113 “Konkurs” (AT-5 Spandrel)
9M113M “Konkurs-M” (AT-5B Spandrel B)
9M111 “Fagot” (AT-4 Spigot)
9M111-2 “Fagot” (AT-4B Spigot B)
Ammo capacity - 4 carried total (3 in ammo stowage)
More Images
BMD-2 (Original version)
Spoiler
BMD-2 (Upgraded version; Not the BMD-2M)
Spoiler
Sources:
Image Sources: