Editing BMP (section)

==IRL==
The [[wikipedia:BMP-1|BMP-1]] was a revolution in armored warfare as it pioneered the Infantry Fighting Vehicle, combining the Armored Personnel Carrier with the light [[tank]] to create a vehicle that could not only safely carry troops under fire, but also use its own firepower to support them. Armed with a 73mm cannon and ATGM, the BMP, introduced in 1966, was able to take out contemporary enemy tanks and light vehicles on its own, but wasn't expected to fight enemy infantry. Why? Because BMP was designed specifically for a special kind of war that never happened, being radiation-shielded so that in the event of a nuclear attack, Soviet infantry could still advance in the depth of enemy territory in hazardous conditions, no matter the odds (that thing floats and is able to traverse rivers with ease, but isn't as heavily armoured as it could be), cross it, then get out of their metal box and hold the line until fuel and ammo could be brought and BMP itself decontaminated. You wouldn't expect to meet a lot of infantry in an irradiated zone, now would you? The BMP seemingly has major flaw in the fact that the rear doors are the fuel tanks, but this is not exactly true. You see, the BMP has a main tank in the hull, the door tanks are used for road marches and long range non combat movement and are supposed to be cut off from fuel lines(the mid to high octane fuel used by military vehicles acts as a decent radiation buffer),drained and filled with sand before operations, for extra protection and fire safety, a standard practice in soviet vehicles and their limited spaces, yet not exactly mastered when used by someone who received them from abroad: there is a story of entire Egypt tank company abandoning their tanks during Six-Day War because they used internal tanks for the march instead of outer ones and were caught with their pants down when the actual fighting begun. The BMP-1 has terrible main gun elevation meaning if anyone is high enough the vehicle can't shoot them. It was/is the perfect height however to accidentally fire into the backs of the infantry it had just carried to the front, as was also discovered during the Six-Day War.

Eventually though, the BMP-1 couldn't keep up with the demands placed by evolution of materiel, the Soviets started looking for a successor (or not exactly, they first went with a stopgap upgrade to the BMP-1 allowing it to shoot the more modern SACLOS 9M113 "Konkurs" missile which adressed the most pressing matter of its weapons no longer doing jack shit to a MBT) and it was eventually succeeded by the BMP-2 in 1980. The BMP-2, while broadly similar to the BMP-1, replaced the now obsolete 73mm AT cannon with a quick-firing 30mm autocannon meat to deal with any marauding infantry/light vehicle/low-flying helicopter (thus fixing the no anti-infantry weaponry and elevation issues) and kept the 9M113 "Konkurs" to have a chance in case any of the big boys came out to play. The BMP-2 would in turn go through various upgrades and improvements as time went on. It is notable that both the BMP-1 (though those in Russian service have been updated to the BMP-1M standard, with the 9M113 antitank missile replacing the obsolete 9M14 Malyutka) and BMP-2 (and the newer, even more modern BMP-3, which has a 100mm gun in its turret for infantry support, armor comparable to current production Brads, and ERA tiles on the front of the turret and hull) are still in use today. Because, tovaritch, if thing is still of working you no need fix it! Panjemajo?  BMP-1 has been very widely exported around the world, BMP-2 less so, BMP-3 rarely seen outside of Russian military parades and it is uncertain how many have actually been manufactured.

Oh and if the BMP looks a bit familiar to you Imperial Guard treadheads, yes, it was indeed the inspiration behind the [[Chimera Transport|Chimera]]. And by "inspiration," we mean that (in true GW fashion) if there was a company that made 28mm BMP models you would be able to proxy them for Chimeras almost perfectly, as there really isn't any appreciable difference between the two vehicles. 

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