BMP-U

BMP-U is a Ukrainian infantry fighting vehicle developed by Kharkiv Morozov Machine Building Design Bureau state enterprise. It was first unveiled in 2018.

BMP-U is intended to replace obsolete soviet-era BMP-1 and BMP-2 IFVs. As such, it sports a plethera of modern technologies, such as unmanned turret, modern cameras and optics and modern FCS. BMP-U is equipped with BM-8 combat module, housing a 30mm main gun (can be swapped for comparable NATO guns), 7.62mm co-axial machine gun, 2 Barrier ATGMs and 30mm KBA-117 automatic grenade launcher. Furthermore, BMP-U has a 735 hp engine, thanks to which a maximum speed of 70 km/h can be reached. The total weight of the vehicle with add-on armor is 30 tons. The crew consists of 3 members: commander, driver and gunner. In the rear of the vehicle, a compartment for 8 additional soldiers is located.

First vehicles were supposed to enter service in 2020, but this unfortunately never came to fruition. To public knowledge, no prototypes were ever completed. 2021's Arms and Security expo marks the last time BMP-U was publicly presented. Current status of the project is unknown, but most likely stalled or scrapped completely in favor of producing or repairing already existing vehicles to defend against the russian invasion. None the less it remains an interesting project, displaying Ukraine's military prowess in designing modern military vehicles.

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