User:Commie34/equipment of the Bulgarian army

Equipment of the Bulgarian army Tanks: T72M2: Locally produced T72M1 improved variant. 430, 80 in service, 350 in reserve. Upgraded T-72M1’s with new night vision and thermal devices, improved armour (up to 650 mm) and anti-radiation cladding, rubber side skirts, C4I and IR suppression coating. It also is fitted with 7+5 smoke grenade dischargers on turret front, an electronic fire control system, and the TPD-K1 laser rangefinder. these improved M1 tanks with additional equipment are produced in Bulgaria. TEREM modernizes/upgrades the regular T72, so it could not have upgraded an “M1” tank, which is what this tank is, an upgraded M1 tank, so that means that the tank was produced in Bulgaria as an improvement to the M1 tank. TEREM overhauls T72M’s but that does not upgrade them further in model but simply update-style repairs them followed by disassembly-reassembly and testing, not advancing it in a model, at most installing additional armour, though technical features are not included in this, not being enough to advance an M to an M1 as the M1 features improved technical equipment within the tank design, something that cannot be included within a simple overhaul. TEREM would need to upgrade an M1, but they can only upgrade T72 Urals, not being capable of upgrading further models. Even if a T72M1 was at TEREM’s disposal, it would still not be able to upgrade it as they lacked the capability. This shows that the T72M2 is a locally produced improved variant/continuation of the T72M1, competing with the T80 tanks, having a more powerful tank gun, at the cost of slightly less armour. This is a compensation attempt to stay in the more modern world of military equipment, steadily falling behind, as many of the Bulgarian projects to keep up have fallen since the fall of communism and ultimate fall of soviet military funding.

T62: Up to 250 in storage, some with modifications concerning an overhaul and/or modernization done by TEREM. Bulgaria secretly received 250 between 1969 and 1974 as a secret weapon that no other Warsaw pact nation had received in order to strengthen investment in a favourable outcome between a war between it and Turkey and Greece, with another 200 arriving just after the war in Afghanistan by the Soviet Union, but these were defective, so they were sold to Ethiopia, Yemen, and Angola, while some were modernized but later salvaged into ARV’s, with some more non-modernized ones also being salvaged, and now up to 250 of these secretly acquired T62’s are in storage, and have been as of 2000, as proven when Bulgaria used one to experiment on a new model of fire engine. After the salvaging project of the Afghanistan war T62’s was finished from the late 80’s to mid-90’s, that left the original 250 T62’s to be in service, and they were retired in 2000, now kept in storage. The vehicles were retired in 2000.

T54/5/ T-55AM-2 /T-55MBT/T-54A: 430 all in reserve status, some used for training tank drivers.

T34: 42 kept in storage, not in service or reserve, surplus, some used for target practise, surplus.

SOMUA S35: Apparently 6 were used by the police and are now stored.

Vickers 6-Ton: 8 used for training.

Hotchkiss H35: One in museum, state owned, operational.

Jagdpanzer IV L/48: One in storage in a museum, operational.

Sturmgeschütz IV: At least one operational, stored in state owned museum.

Panzerkampfwagen 38(t): Unknown number, probably in museum.

Panzer II: Unknown amount acquired during WW2, probably in museum.

TP62: One of the stored tanks was converted into a TP62 fire fighting vehicle that can carry 10 metric tons of water with a water cannon, seems to have riot functions, tested in the 2012 wildfire in Bulgaria.

TV62/M: ? An armoured recovery vehicle created from hull of T62M and half of the turret of a t54/5, created from used soviet T62’s given after the soviet-Afghanistan conflict, the 100mm gun has been replaced with a 12.7mm DShK turret. TV62’s were made without the turret and with the bare non modernized t62’s, devolving from the TV62M’s, as the TV62M had tank hulls being those of “M (modernized)” series T62 Tanks as some of the given tanks were modified/modernized. The TV62 tanks play a more minor role than the TV62M’s, being the main armoured recovery vehicle of the Bulgarian Military, suggesting that not many of the TV62’s were made, those that were part of the disposal project of the useless T62’s given to Bulgaria after the Soviet-Afghan war that were not modernized but just finished off after the modernized tanks failed service and were converted, overall just being part of the disposal project for these tanks which included selling them to Angola and Yemen and conversion to these 2 models, or it could just be a means of salvaging a T62 that is beyond maintenance. Essentially, when the USSR gave Bulgaria a bad batch of used Afghan T62’s, we sold them rapidly to Angola and Yemen, modernized some but when that failed, salvaged them by converting them into ARV’s, and the ones that were not modernized were also salvaged, leaving the original 250 T62’s untouched. The turrets of the ARV’s were used on T34/85 hulls on the Bulgarian Turkish Border to act as stationary tanks/small scale artillery pieces, or anti tank guns.

PT76: 250 retired, in storage, not in service or reserve, surplus.

IFV’s: BMP 23/30: 114 in service, produced locally with an original design, Variants: BMP-23D - Upgraded variant with 9K111 Fagot ATGM and 81mm smoke grenade launchers. BRM-23 - Reconnaissance version, prototype. BMP-30 - Modified BMP-23 with the turret taken directly from the BMP-2.

BMP1P/ BMP-1KShM-9S743: 100 in service, these are produced locally in Bulgaria.

BMP2: Unknown number in storage, some were disassembled to create BMP23 variant with BMP2 turret.

APC’s: BTR60: 681 in service, locally produced under licence, varients=BTR-60PAU – BTR-60PA converted into an artillery command vehicle equipped with 4 whip antennas. BTR-60PB experimentally fitted with the Polish WAT turret from SKOT-2AP. Only a prototype was made. BTR-60PB-MD (bronyetransport’or moderniziran ) – BTR-60PB modernization fitted with the VAMO DT3900 or Rover TD-200 diesel engine, four MB smoke grenade launchers on the turret (two on each side), "Melopa" night sight, new day sight, new NBC protection system, modern radios. It also has a rear view mirror on the left hand side of the hull and side hatches. Only a prototype was made. BTR-60PB-MD1 – BTR-60PB-MD variant developed for the Bulgarian army, fitted with the Cummins ISB 25.30 turbocharged diesel engine developing 250 hp (186 kW), additional protection for its headlights and eight smoke grenade launchers on the turret (four on each side). 150 in service. BTR-60PB-MD3 – Export BTR-60PB-MD variant fitted with the KamAZ diesel engine, different sights, eight smoke grenade launchers in right-hand corner of the front of the hull and six on the turret (three on each side). It is also known under the designation BTR-60PB-MD2. The prototype, shown in 2004, was based on the BTR-60PA.

MTLB/MTLBU: 512 in service, locally produced under licence, variants=MT-LB AT-I - tractor for mine-laying systems. Fitted with racks for anti-tank mines. MT-LB RHR or MR HR (mashina za radiatsionno i khimichesko razuznavane) - NBC reconnaissance vehicle with detection, alarming, sampling and markings devices. MT-LB SE - ambulance. SMM B1.10 "Tundzha" (samokhodna minokhv’rgachka) - mortar platform with M-38/43 120 mm mortar and 58 rounds. SMM 74 B1.10 "Tundzha-Sani" - improved version with 2B11 120mm mortar. KShM-R-81 "Delfin" - command and staff vehicle with R-123M, R-130M and R-31M radios, an AZI frame antenna, a generator and an additional cupola on the hull roof. MT-LB TMX - mortar carrier with 82 mm mortar M-37M. BRM “Sova” (bronirana razuznavatelna mashina) - reconnaissance version with NBC detection system ASP-3 and VPHR, radiosets R-123M and R-31M, PAB-2 aiming circle and NSPU night vision device. Comes in three versions with additional specialised equipment: "Sova-1" - with R-130M radioset, an AZI frame antenna and a telescopic mast. "Sova-2" - with R-143 "Lira" radioset. "Sova-3" - with PSNR-5K (1RL-133) battlefield surveillance radar. R-80 - artillery forward observer vehicle with observation devices. BMP-23 (bojna mashina na pekhotata) - infantry fighting vehicle with 23 mm gun 2A14 and ATGM 9K11 "Malyutka" in a 2-man turret. The chassis is based on the one from the MT-LB but with components of the 2S1 and fitted with a 315 hp engine. BMP-23D - improved version with 9K111 "Fagot" and smoke grenade launchers. BRM-23 - reconnaissance version. Prototype. BMP-30 - similar chassis as the BMP-23 but with the complete turret of the Soviet-made BMP-2. Only 10 built. KShM 9S743 - command and staff vehicle, initially very similar to the Soviet MP24 but has been upgraded in the year 2000 with new communications gear. In service. Iskra MTP-1 - combat engineer vehicle, equipped with a big dozer blade at the rear, a roof-mounted crane with a capacity of 3,000 kg and a machine-gun turret TKB-01 in the front right corner (as per MT-LB). Combat weight is 14 t. Prototype. KShTMS - command and control vehicle, fitted with automated equipment. KShM-R-55 - command vehicle, fitted with the communications set R-55B. This consists of the HF radio R-55R, the receiver R-55P, the VHF radio R-33 and the receiver R-23. MSP-1 MSP-2

BTR40: ? withdrawn from service, in storage

BTR152: ? withdrawn from service, in storage

Armoured Cars: BRDM2: 24 in service

BRDM1: ? withdrawn from service, in storage

Plasan Sand Cat: 24 PKM/MGM1 Armed in service

M1117: 7 in service

HMMWV: 82 in service, 50 in Afghanistan, HMG armed

Mercedes-Benz G-Class: 600 in service, armed w/ PKM/MGM1 turret

Anti-Material/Personnel: 9P148 Konkurs: 24 in service AT-2 Swatter ATGMs: ?

AT-3 Sagger ATGMs: 200

AT-4 Spigot ATGMs: 222

AT-5 Spandrel ATGMs: 300+

AT-6 Spiral ATGMs: 500+

AT-7 Saxhorn ATGMs: 50+

AT-10 Stabber ATGMs: ?

AT-1 Snapper: ? withdrawn from service, in storage

Nindja 1 mortar platform: highly mobile, unknown number in service, designed and produced locally

Artillery: 2S1 Gvozdika: 206 in service, produced locally as “Karamfil” under licence

MT12: 200 in service

D20: 150 in service

2S3 Akatsiya: 20 withdrawn from service, in storage

Multiple Rocket Launchers: BM21: 228 are in service

RM70: 12 are in service

Katyusha: ? withdrawn from service, in storage

AAG’s: ZU232: 128 are in service

S60: 16 are in service

SAM’s: SA2 Guideline: 18 are in service, they are to be phased out and stored

SA3 Goa: 30 in service, to be phased out and stored

SA5 Gammon: 26 in service

SA6 Gainful: 20 in service

SA8 Gecko: 24 in service

SA9 gaskin: 50, in storage

SA10 Grumble: 10 in service, modified to intercept ballistic missiles

SA13 Gopher: 20 in service, used for battlefield striking points

Man-portable air defense systems: SA-7 Grail MANPADS

SA-14 Gremlin MANPADS

SA-16 Gimlet MANPADS

SA-18 Grouse MANPADS

Ballistic Missile Systems:

SS21 Scarab A: 8 launchers with 21 missiles