NEWTOWN, Conn. - On May 14, Margarita Andreyeva, chief of administration at Rosoboronpostavka (Russia's Federal Agency for Supplies of Armaments, Military and Specialized Hardware, and Materiel), announced that the tender for repairs and modernization of the Russian Army's BMP-2 armored infantry fighting vehicles has been canceled.
According to Andreyeva, the cancellation is due the fact that the terms of the tender were not accepted by any of the potential participants.
In early April of this year, the Russian Ministry of Defense decided to modernize 3,000 of the Army's BMP-2s. At that time, a tender worth RUB1.3 billion was launched.
There are approximately 4,600 BMP-2s in Russian inventory. The tracked vehicles are armed with a 30mm cannon and AT-4/5 anti-tank missiles. Production of the BMP-2 was discontinued in the 1980s in favor of the BMP-3. The BMP-3 will eventually - possibly as soon as 2016 - become the Army's primary armored fighting vehicle. In the meantime, the MoD had hoped to modernize the old BMP-2s.
