Soviet Cold War Weaponry: Tanks and Armoured Vehicles by Anthony Tucker-Jones

Author:Anthony Tucker-Jones
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: HISTORY / Modern / General
ISBN: 9781473862746
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Published: 2015-05-19T16:00:00+00:00

Soviet tank crew on exercise. The mechanised infantry they are conferring with are acting in support in the BMP-1 parked directly behind them.

A Soviet Army BMP-1 on exercise – the ‘Sagger’ anti-tank missile is just visible mounted above the main armament. The Soviet Union amassed 70,000 armoured fighting vehicles at the height of the Cold War, which included some 24,000 BMP-1/2s.

The BMP’s torsion bar suspension was made up of six rubber-tyred road wheels either side, with the drive sprocket at the front, the idler at the back and three track-return rollers. The first and last road wheel stations had a hydraulic shock-absorber and the top of the track was protected by a light sheet-steel cover. The track links were the double-pin type with water scoops between the housings. The BMP-1 was fully amphibious and was propelled through the water by its tracks. Variants of the BMP-1 were built by China, Czechoslovakia and Romania.

While the Soviet Army had high expectations of the BMP, they came in for an unpleasant surprise in 1973. During the Arab-Israeli Yom Kippur War the Egyptians used the BMP exactly as the Soviet manual dictated. Soviet theory was all well and good but in the open tank ground of the Sinai the BMP proved ultimately to be too vulnerable to Israeli tanks, anti-tank weapons and jet fighters. The 73mm gun proved to be largely ineffective and the missile was difficult to control. To compound matters, Egyptian crew training was probably not as good as it could have been.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.