History
The first mass produced IFV was the West German Schützenpanzer 12-3 which served in the Bundeswehr from 1958 until the early 1980s. The SPz 12-3 mounted a 20 mm autocannon in a small turret and carried a half-squad of five armoured infantrymen.
Western powers were surprised when the Soviet Union paraded the BMP-1, in 1967. The BMP possessed a very low profile and was armed with both a 73mm smoothbore gun and an AT-3 Sagger ATGM. Its steeply-sloped front armour offered full protection against NATO's standard .50 calibre machine gun and partial protection against 20 millimetre Oerlikon cannon both in a 60 degree frontal arc, while its 73 mm gun and ATGM were a threat to NATO APCs and even MBTs.
Since then, all major military powers have developed or adopted IFVs. The German Marder and Puma followed the Schutzenpanzer, the Chinese ZBD-97, the Soviet/Russian BMP-3, the Indian Abhay IFV, the Yugoslavian BVP M-80, the Canadian LAV III, the British Warrior, the American M2 Bradley, the Spanish Pizarro/ASCOD, the Italian Dardo, the South African Ratel, the French AMX-10P and VBCI, the Swedish Combat Vehicle 90 and the Dutch YPR-765 AIFV.
Combat applications in close-combat environments are likely to drive up survivability requirements necessitating the same protection level required by main battle tanks.
Read more about this topic: Infantry Fighting Vehicle
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