065 17/2019 BOJOWY WÓZ PIECHOTY

The BMP-1 infantry fighting vehicle was developed in the 1960s and entered service with the Soviet Army in 1966. Serial production of the vehicle started this year and lasted until 1982. The BMP-1 was powered by a single 300hp UTD-20 diesel engine and could take up to 8 troops. The basic armament of the BMP-1 is: a 73mm 2A28 cannon, 1 PKT machine gun cal .: 7.62 mm and 1 ATGM launcher (guided anti-tank missile) 9M14M Malyutka. At the time of its introduction into service, the BMP-1 turned out to be a revolutionary structure that had no counterpart in NATO troops. The use of a relatively powerful engine and the ability to swim in the BMP-1 gave it a lot of maneuverability on the battlefield. The car's armor - at least theoretically - made it resistant to small-caliber fire. In turn, the powerful armament (especially the modern one in the 1960s, Malyutka ATGM) gave the BMP-1 a very good chance against armored personnel carriers of Western countries, and even allowed it to fight against NATO MBTs! However, in the course of operation, numerous defects of the structure were revealed. First of all, it is highly susceptible to fire from the rear, insufficient armor and very low susceptibility to modernization. Also, the tactic of using the BMP-1 favored by the Soviet Army and used, for example, by Egypt in the Yom Kippur war (1973), consisting in almost charging into enemy positions and quickly landing soldiers, turned out to be in practice burdened with a great risk and entailed significant losses on the attacking side. Despite these disadvantages, the BMP-1 was undoubtedly a breakthrough design, defining for many years in its class of vehicles. It is not surprising, therefore, that it was widely exported to the Warsaw Pact and Third World countries. The BMP-1 vehicle was also used in many conflicts: in the Yom-Kippur war (1973), in the war in Afghanistan (1979-1989 ), in the Iran-Iraq war (1980-1988), and even during the fighting in Ukraine in 2014!