Russia to purchase back BMP-3s from South Korea
South Korea Army's Russian-made BMP-3 Infantry Fighting Vehicle]
Originally, the ROKA planned to retire by 2015 all the T80U and BMP-3, which it received from Russia since 1995. However, the plan is changing as Russia is going to purchase back BMP-3 from Korea and pay with T-80U components. South Korea will be able to operate T-80U several more years, and Russia can support BMP-3 logistics as its closed factory just reopened in 2015.
Soutk Korea operates a very diverse armored vehicle collection. Former Soviet era tanks mixed with Cold War era American M-48 tanks and modern state of the art domestic Korean tanks.
Russia provided 35 T-80U, 70 BMP-3 Infantry Fighting Vehicles, METIS-M anti-tank missiles, Kamov Ka-22 transport helicopters and Murena-E hovercrafts in 1995 and 2003 as payment of the debt of $1 billion in bank loans and a $470 million commodities loan extended to Moscow in 1991 by the Roh Tae-woo government as a reward for Moscow's recognition of the ROK the previous year.