BVP-1 Strop

     Notes: This is not to be mistaken for the ZTS Strop found in SP Antiaircraft that Never Were. As Czechoslovakia’s M-53/59 self-propelled antiaircraft guns based on an armored truck chassis were getting old and the truck chassis were not very mobile off-road, Czechoslovakia decided to start, in the mid-1980s, to remove the antiaircraft guns from the M53/59s and placing them on the chassis of BVP-1 infantry fighting vehicles, which were being phased out in favor of BVP-2s.  Czechoslovakia did not accept the BVP-1 Strop for service, but this vehicle has been seen in the hands of Angolan and Cuban soldiers during the Angolan Civil War.

     The UTD-20 300-horsepower diesel engine is mounted in the front to the right of the driver, and is coupled to a manual transmission.  The BVP-1’s engine has a limited multi-fuel capability – it can burn almost any grade of diesel fuel, and it can also burn kerosene. The BVP-1 may lay a thick, oily smoke screen by injecting diesel fuel into its exhaust. The ground pressure is relatively low, and the BVP-1 can cross fairly deep snow without getting bogged down; it can also traverse some swampy terrain with a reasonable chance of success.  The BVP-1 is also amphibious with minimal preparation; a trim vane must be erected at the front and bilge pumps turned on.  The hull is airtight once the rear doors are closed, and buoyancy is assisted by hollow roadwheels and roadwheel arms with air chambers in them.  The amphibious capability is rather limited – a current as little as 1.2 meters per second (4.3 kilometers per hour) can swamp a BVP-1. Cross-country travel, however, is unpleasant for the crew, particularly on a long trip or at high speeds, as even on the improved versions, the shock absorbers suck and the ride is bouncy, sometimes to the point of being violently bouncy.

     The BVP-1 is constructed by and large of steel.  Though the original requirements were that the armor be able to stop hits from 23mm autocannons through the frontal arc, 12.7mm machineguns on the sides, and 7.62mm guns from the rear, the front and side armor requirements were drastically scaled back in the interests of saving weight (and money) and improving speed.  The driver is located in the left front of the hull, with the engine to his right.  He is seated behind a sharply raked glacis plate which allows the BVP-1 to have much better frontal armor protection than the thin metal of the armor would otherwise provide.  The driver has three vision blocks to his front; the center block can be removed and replaced by a night vision block.  The first version used an active IR block; later improvements gave the driver a passive IR block to be used in conjunction with IR headlights or an IR searchlight.  The driver’s controls are remarkably simple for APCs and IFVs of the period: the driver has a steering yoke and a conventional gas and brake pedal.  A new commander’s hatch is installed to the front right of the turret, which is further to the rear than on a BVP-1 to balance the vehicle (due to the length of the autocannons); the turret is known as the Pagram Turret.  The turret is a two-man version, but it has no hatches, and the crew enters through the rear doors.  In the hull is a “loader,” whose job is to keep the belts of autocannon ammunition coming and to reload and charge guns if they run dry.