HOWDY TO Y'ALL AND YER YOU-INS!

I have a question regarding use of the BMP-1 by the Soviets in the 1979 Afghan Invasion. Does anyone know if the ones used in the '79 - 84 perioed were camo, of the usual Soviet green?

Happy Holidays!

Hi the russians tried a large number of cammo styles mostly 3 colour in broad wavy lines hard edge and soft , The most unusual was basic Russian green , with sandy khaki and light grey . next basic green , then light grey and purple . lastly basic green pinky grey and dark grey . I used to have photos but lost them a few yerars ago when motherboard went US . cheers ian

This going to be a common comment from overseas from our non-us members from now on...?

Most common coloration was dark green. Often crews in the field would make a thin mud to smear on their vehicles as cammo...often the source of the green/sand photos.

Not sure about the dark violet cammo...would like to see that.

Most of the color photos I've seen were either plain green or a wavy green and light grey scheme. I never saw purple either.

What I see on the color pics in Concord's Armor of the Afghanistan War (1992) is standard Russian green with large irregular patterns of a medium grey camo pattern - I'd say about 50% green - 50% grey.
On top of that you see lots of water containers added to the rear decks of vehicles, and names of fallen crew members on turrets.
You really want to try and find this older Concord book for references. Also because uniforms changed dramatically during the course of the Soviet Afghanistan debacle. Concord, Armor of the Afghanistan War, 1992 Concord Publications, Hong Kong, ISBN 962-361-909-X

My father fought there just that time, hi said BMP`s were green only, then, from 1982-1983 they began paint vehicles in desert camo: green+dark sand