BMP-1

BMP-1
Polish BMP-1 (BWP-1) during a training exercise.
Type	Infantry fighting vehicle
Place of origin	Soviet Union
Service history
In service	1966–present
Used by	Soviet Union, Russia, Poland, Egypt, Mongolia, Syria, China, Afghanistan, India, Iraq, Germany, Greece, Finland and Sweden.
Wars	See Service history and Combat history
Production history
Designer	Pavel Isakov (Design Bureau of the ChTZ)
Designed	1961–1965
Manufacturer	Kurgan Engineering Works (KMZ) (USSR) VOP 026 ExcaliburArmy(Czechoslovakia) See also Production history section for details.
Produced	1966–1982 (USSR)
No. built	More than 20,000 of all variants (USSR) More than 3,000 of all variants (PRC) 18,000 (Czechoslovakia) ≈800 (India)
Variants	BMP-1, BMP-2, MLI-84, Boragh, see also BMP-1 variants.
Specifications (Ob'yekt 765Sp3)
Weight	13.2 tonnes (13.0 long tons; 14.6 short tons)
Length	6.735 m (22 ft 1.2 in)
Width	2.94 m (9 ft 8 in)
Height	2.068 m (6 ft 9.4 in) 1.881 m (6 ft 2.1 in) to turret top
Crew	3 (commander, driver and gunner) + 8 passengers
Armor	6–33 mm (0.24–1.30 in) welded rolled steel
Main armament	73 mm 2A28 Grom low pressure smoothbore short-recoil semi-automatic gun (40 rounds) ATGM launcher for 9M14 Malyutka (4 rounds)
Secondary armament	7.62 mm PKT coaxial machinegun (2,000 rounds)
Engine	UTD-20, 6-cylinder 4-stroke V-shaped airless-injection water-cooled multifuel 15.8 liter diesel 300 hp (224 kW) at 2,600 rpm
Power/weight	22.7 hp/tonne (17.0 kW/tonne)
Suspension	individual torsion bar with hydraulic shock absorbers on the 1st and 6th road wheels
Ground clearance	370 mm (15 in)
Fuel capacity	462 l (102 imp gal; 122 US gal)
Operational range	600 km (370 mi) road 500 km (310 mi) off-road
Speed	65 km/h (40 mph) road 45 km/h (28 mph) off-road 7–8 km/h (4.3–5.0 mph) water

The BMP-1 is a Soviet amphibious tracked infantry fighting vehicle. BMP stands for Boyevaya Mashina Pekhoty 1 (Russian: Боевая Машина Пехоты 1; БМП-1), meaning "infantry fighting vehicle". The BMP-1 was the first mass-produced infantry fighting vehicle (IFV) of USSR. It was called the M-1967, BMP and BMP-76PB by NATO before its correct designation was known.

The Soviet military leadership saw any future wars as being conducted with nuclear, chemical and biological weapons and a new design combining the properties of an armored personnel carrier (APC) and a light tank like the BMP would allow infantry to operate from the relative safety of its armoured, radiation-shielded interior in contaminated areas and to fight alongside it in uncontaminated areas. It would increase infantry squad mobility, provide fire support to them, and also be able to fight alongside main battle tanks.

The BMP-1 was first tested in combat in the 1973 Yom Kippur War, where it was used by Egyptian and Syrian forces. Based on lessons learned from this conflict, and early experiences in the Soviet War in Afghanistan, a version with improved fighting qualities was developed, called the BMP-2. It was accepted into service in August 1980.

In 1987, the BMP-3, a radically redesigned vehicle with a completely new weapon system, entered service in limited numbers with the Soviet Army.

The Red Army Mechanized infantry tactics during the 1950s were similar to World War II methods in which APCs were used as "battle taxis"; they would keep the infantry in close proximity to the battle-tanks during movement, but on enemy contact they would unload their infantry before retreating to safer areas. This was in contrast to the German doctrine of infantry fighting vehicles manifested in the Schützenpanzer Lang HS.30, where the vehicles were supposed to stay with the tanks and engage lighter targets, both to take a burden off the tanks and to support their infantry squads.