Rwanda uses South African Ratel infantry fighting vehicles equipped with Ukrainian BAU-23x2 RCWSs. This may be an occasion to recall little-known facts from the history of the development of the Ukrainian defense industry.
According to the photos and videos available on the Internet, it can be assumed that the Rwandan military has been using this version of the equipment for a long time. Some of the footage dates back to at least 2008, while the most recent ones are from August 2025.
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The BAU-23x2 remote controlled weapon station was developed by the Kharkiv Morozov Machine Building Design Bureau (KMDB) back in the 1990s.
The armament consisted of two 2A7M guns, which are improved anti-aircraft guns mounted on the ZSU-23-4 Shilka SPAAG and are derivatives of the 23-mm twin ZU-23-2 towed 23×152mm anti-aircraft twin-barreled autocannon. The declared maximum range was up to 2,000 m, while the rate of fire was up to 850 rounds per minute.
It is known that the BAU-23x2 remote controlled weapon station was mass-produced only for an export contract for 50 BTR-94 armored personnel carriers for Jordan. Some time later, these vehicles were transferred to Iraq after the overthrow of the Saddam Hussein regime. Later, these modules could be seen installed on HMMWW armored vehicles at the disposal of the local police.
It can be assumed that Rwanda received the RCWSs from Iraq and installed them on its own Ratel IFVs, which it received from South Africa in 2007. However, it should be remembered that the KMDB, as a designer of these weapon stations, indicated the Ratel APC as one of the tested vehicles for installing the BAU-23x2 RCWS.
Moreover, on old websites you can find photos of a South African Ratel IFV with a Ukrainian turret, which date back to 2005. Given this, we can conclude that the test was carried out back then, that is, the option was ready for potential customers.
It can be assumed that part of the Ratel IFVs was equipped with the BAU-23x2 RCWS and then transferred to Rwanda. Although no direct evidence to support this version can be found, this may be a very real scenario that may indicate a little-known case of the export of Ukrainian military products.
As for the weapon station itself, apart from the cases mentioned, it was not particularly successful, although it was proposed for installation on the BRDM-2 amphibious armoured scout car and even on the Ukraine-made BTR-4 armored personnel carrier.
Later, Ukrainian gunsmiths developed more modern versions of remote controlled weapon station, which are installed on new as wel as on modernized armored vehicles by this time – in particular, the BM-7 Parus, the BM-3M Shturm-M as well as Tavria RCWSs.
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