I'm interested to know how much the development of the Bradley was influenced by the introduction of the Soviet BMP-1, the world's first mass produced infantry combat vehicle. The timescale suggested in this movie suggests the Bradley must have been in development at the same time, but the BMP was certainly introduced many years ahead of it and I suspect that it too influenced the upgunning of the Bradley, though it was not mentioned in this film. I would be interested if anyone has more information on this.
Anyway, the BMP was designed for the perceived nuclear battlefield in western europe. It came with the anti-tank weaponry, gun, firing ports and amphibious capability referred to at being retroactively fitted into the Bradley design in this film. It offered a revolutionary combination of mobility, protection and armament never before seen on an infantry carrier. However, the Soviets had another infantry carrier they produced in parallel, the BTR, which was lesser armoured and weaponed. And of course cheaper, I believe at something like one third of the cost of a BMP. They were in service at the same time, and generally had slightly differing roles.
The Bradley seemed to be introduced to fulfil all missions, both in the areas it would be deployed (worldwide) and to serve with all types of unit. This is also emphasised by adaptation for the scout role mentioned in the film (incidentally, the BMP was also adapted into a scout version). So there is the question of what was it designed to do, and making the same basic design do everything.
What was the role supposed to be? Was it just to transport infantry to battle? In which case a redesign of the basic armoured personnel carrier like the existing M113 would do the trick, which appears to be the original design aim implied by the film, or was it to give the dismounted infantry fire support, or are they supposed to be able to fire from within the vehicle, or is it supposed to survive on a modern Western European battlefield within massed armoured warfare and extreme concentrations of anti-tank weapons? Or do all of that? Or have to be able to do everything because there is only going to be one design?
Clearly having one design for everything creates the sort of compromises emphasised by the film. And even though budgets are extraordinary by most standards, there are still limits. For example, you might ideally want to give your infantry carrier the same armour that you put on your tanks. But you can't because its just *too* expensive.
Anyway, the brilliance of this film is that it covers a lot of real design issues for military vehicles and puts them across in a believable and understandable way.
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Nutscalp
12 years ago
the Soviet BMP-1, the world's first mass produced infantry combat vehicle.
The Swedish Pbv 301, armed with a 20mm cannon, entered service about 5 years before the BMP-1. In fact, design work on the BMP-1 began the year it entered service. And yes, it was mass produced.
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glind-808-633226
9 years ago
The FIRST infantry combat vehicle was the German Schützenpanzer Lang 12-3 that entered service in 1958, built by Hispano-Suiza. With 2000 made until it was replaced with the Marder in 1974, it's safe to say it was mass-produced.
The Pansarbandvagn 301 was a stop-gap between 1961 and 1966, when the pbv 302 came, with around 220 made in total.
Test-production of BMP-1 started in 1965, with mass-production in 1970.
First time a unit got equipped with Bradleys was in 1983.
Might want to get the timeline correct...
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