Return of the Russian Infantry Gun?

Everything old is new again

A BMP-1 of the Polish Army in 2018 (Staff Sergeant Dengrier M. Baez, USMC)

Over at The Armorer’s Bench, Vic Tuff and Matthew Moss document the mounting, on wheeled carriages of various sorts, of 73mm low-pressure guns taken from BMP-1 infantry fighting vehicles.

The clothing worn by the people in images (both moving and still) posted with the article suggests that these exercises in hoplophile improvisation may have taken place in the middle years of the last decade. That is, members of the pro-Russian militias that operated in the Donbas region of Ukraine in 2014 often sported running shoes, trucker caps, and civilian-style camouflage of the type worn by the gunners in the pictures. (It is, of course, also possible that Russian medics have, of late, become extraordinarily generous with ‘no boot’ chits.)

Readers curious about the old-timey weapons that may have inspired these lash-ups will, I suspect, will find much of interest in the many articles about infantry guns published in The Tactical Notebook.

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