Ukraine fitted Soviet-era BMP with Spanish 30mm cannon turret

Ukraine’s 146th Separate Repair and Restoration Regiment published photographs of a Soviet-era BMP infantry fighting vehicle fitted with a Spanish GUARDIAN 30 remote weapon station.

The photographs, posted to the regiment’s official social media page, show a standard BMP hull carrying the GUARDIAN 30 turret in place of the original conical Soviet turret that the vehicle left the factory with decades ago. The GUARDIAN 30, produced by Madrid-based Escribano Mechanical and Engineering, is a fully stabilized remote weapon station, meaning no crew member needs to be exposed above the hull during operation, that mounts a 30mm MK44S Bushmaster II autocannon, a 7.62mm coaxial machine gun, 12 smoke grenade launchers, and a dual electro-optical system combining a cooled infrared camera, laser rangefinder, and day sight camera. The entire package weighs under 1,250 kilograms (2,756 pounds) excluding weapons and ammunition, and can rotate 360 degrees in azimuth while elevating from minus 20 degrees to plus 60 degrees, a geometry that suits urban and close terrain where threats appear from elevated positions or rooftops.

The significance of what the 146th regiment’s photographs show goes well beyond the novelty of a Western turret on a Soviet hull. The BMP, which entered service in the Soviet Army in 1966, was designed around a 73mm smoothbore gun, the 2A28 Grom, that was already being criticized as inadequate for modern combat before the Cold War ended. The Grom fires rocket-assisted rounds with poor accuracy beyond approximately 800 meters (875 yards) and requires semi-manual loading that generates a slow rate of fire. Its optical sighting system dates from the 1960s. Against the drone threats, counter-battery radars, and fortified positions that define the current war in Ukraine, a BMP-1 in its original configuration provides troop transport but minimal useful direct-fire support. Replacing the Grom and its turret with a stabilized 30mm autocannon that can engage targets beyond 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) with fire-control-system accuracy transforms the tactical utility of the same hull entirely.

Ukrainian officials confirmed in May 2025 that Guardian 30 remote weapon stations produced by Escribano Mechanical and Engineering were already arriving in Ukraine, with Ukroboronprom General Director Oleh Hulyak stating: “We are grateful to our foreign colleagues for their cooperation and plan to deepen it in order to increase the combat power of armored vehicles. We are doing everything to ensure that our defenders receive reliable and powerful weapons in the necessary quantities.” That announcement referenced the Guardian 30 alongside older Soviet armored personnel carrier hulls, confirming the integration program had official government support on both the Ukrainian and Spanish sides.

The GUARDIAN 30 has accumulated a significant operational and commercial record since Escribano launched it in 2020, with over 800 units sold to customers across Europe and the Middle East. The turret features a cooled infrared camera with a detection range of 19.1 kilometers (11.9 miles), a laser rangefinder accurate to plus or minus one meter at ranges up to 15 kilometers (9.3 miles), and stabilization rated below 0.2 milliradians, allowing accurate fire while the vehicle is moving over rough terrain. The MK44S Bushmaster II, the same autocannon used in the American Bradley infantry fighting vehicle and the Australian AS21 Redback, fires NATO-standard 30mm ammunition and can defeat light armored vehicles, soft-skinned targets, and low-flying drones at ranges that the Grom cannot reach on its best day.

The integration onto a BMP hull is technically straightforward compared to some upgrade programs, because the GUARDIAN 30’s design explicitly accommodates installation on armored platforms not originally configured for it. The turret ring dimensions are adaptable, and the remote operation electronics connect to the crew compartment rather than requiring a crew member in the turret itself. Ukraine has been pursuing BMP-1 modernization through multiple parallel programs throughout the war, including the domestically developed BMP-1TS which replaces the original turret with a Ukrainian-built unmanned station carrying a 30mm ZTM-1 autocannon and Barrier anti-tank missiles. The GUARDIAN 30 integration photographed by the 146th regiment appears to represent a separate program using Spanish hardware rather than indigenous development, suggesting Ukraine is pursuing multiple upgrade paths simultaneously to address the large number of BMP-1s in its inventory.