BMP-1
In service 1966 - Still in service with many operators
The first true infantry fighting vehicle: amphibious, gun and missile armed, with firing ports for its eight passengers. Not a tank.
Built byKurgan Machine Building Plant
Photograph pending. No clearly licensed photograph of this vehicle was found.
Development history
The BMP-1 changed infantry warfare by giving a squad a vehicle that fought alongside them rather than merely delivering them, combining a 73 mm gun, an anti-tank missile and firing ports with a swimming, air-transportable hull. Every NATO army responded with a comparable vehicle. Its weaknesses were thin armour, a cramped crowded rear compartment and a main gun with poor accuracy beyond 500 m. More than twenty thousand were built and it saw combat from the Middle East to Afghanistan. It is an infantry fighting vehicle rather than a tank and is recorded as such here.
Variants
One canonical record, 3 recorded variants.
BMP-1
1966Original version with 73 mm Grom gun and Malyutka missile rail.
BMP-1P
1979Malyutka rail replaced by a pintle-mounted Konkurs or Fagot launcher.
BMP-1KSh
1972Command and staff version with a tall telescopic mast.
Notable actions
- Yom Kippur War
- Soviet-Afghan War
- Iran-Iraq War
- Gulf War