After the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the military on both sides of the Iron Curtain initially believed that nuclear bombs should now become the main instrument of war. However, over time, they nevertheless came to the conclusion that from now on mobile armies, protected from radiation, would dominate the battlefields. As a result, this is exactly what led to the M2 Bradley.
Kyle Mizokami
In the 1960s, the Soviet Army made a fateful choice, deciding that tactical nuclear weapons were not a verdict. After the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the military on both sides of the Iron Curtain initially believed that nuclear bombs should now become the main instrument of war. However, over time, they nevertheless came to the conclusion that from now on mobile armies, protected from radiation, would dominate the battlefields. As a result, this is exactly what, in a roundabout way, led to the appearance of the M2 Bradley, the first American infantry fighting vehicle.
In the 1950s, the Soviet Union invested a lot of effort and resources in creating numerous and heavily mechanized troops. However, the destructive power of nuclear weapons threatened to abolish large armies as such - as well as large naval and air fleets. Nevertheless, the USSR, the largest land power of the 20th century, did not want to give up the advantages of numerical superiority - and began to look for ways to maintain it in a nuclear war.
While Soviet tanks had natural protection from heat radiation and shock waves, infantry in open-top armored personnel carriers were vulnerable. As a result, an infantry fighting vehicle (IFV) was created specifically for her, which could accommodate an entire infantry squad and which was equipped with a 73-mm cannon and a Malyutka anti-tank missile. The infantrymen inside the infantry fighting vehicle could also fire their AK-47s at the enemy through the side embrasures, although they rarely did so. Instead of dismounting during the attack, the Red Army soldiers had to fight while staying in the combat vehicle. This allowed them to move quickly across the battlefield-too fast to be covered by tactical nuclear weapons.
Western military analysts belatedly came to similar conclusions. The US Army continued to use the M113 armored personnel carrier. It was lightly armored and lightly armed, and its sole mission was to transport soldiers to the battlefield. Then they dismounted and went on the attack on their own two feet. At the same time, as the Soviet military noted, the slow pace of advance of the attacking dismounted fighters made them a convenient target for tactical nuclear weapons.
So, the United States Army decided that they needed their own infantry fighting vehicle. The first attempt was the MICV-65, built on the chassis of the M109 self-propelled howitzer. It was equipped with a turret and a 20 mm cannon. As a result, the military abandoned it, as it was too heavy to transport by air and too slow to keep up with the German-American MBT-70 main battle tank.
This turned out to be one of the first dilemmas related to infantry fighting vehicles. Infantry fighting vehicles had to be large enough to accommodate a full infantry squad, and well armored - after all, they had to hold up to 12 people, three times as many as in a tank. However, the bigger they were, and the heavier their armor was, the slower and clumsier they became.
At the same time, the Ground Forces needed a new armored combat reconnaissance vehicle for reconnaissance platoons and regiments. To save money, they decided to combine the two projects into one with two options - an infantry fighting vehicle and a reconnaissance vehicle. And then another dilemma appeared.: An infantry fighting vehicle with a manned turret turned out to be taller than a tank and stood out strongly on the battlefield, while a reconnaissance vehicle, on the contrary, should have been low so that, if necessary, it would be possible to covertly observe the battlefield.
The prototype of the new machine, known as XM723, was developed in 1973 by FMC Corporation. The car weighed 21 tons, its crew consisted of three people and it could carry nine fighters. Her armor was capable of withstanding hits from a 14.5mm Soviet heavy machine gun KPV. Like the Soviet infantry fighting vehicle, it had a small, single-man turret with a 20mm cannon. The soldiers in the troop compartment, located aft, could also, like the Red Army soldiers in the Soviet infantry fighting vehicle, fire - but not from their weapons, but from the M231, adapted for firing through the embrasures of the M16 rifle modification.
In the future, dilemmas-and compromises - continued to pile up on top of each other. The 20 mm cannon was replaced with a 25 mm cannon to make it easier for the reconnaissance vehicle to fight lightly armored opponents. Compared to the M113, the XM723 was much more likely to encounter enemy tanks, and therefore its new large two-seat turret was equipped with a container launcher with two long-range anti-tank missiles ready for combat. It made sense to do this on a reconnaissance vehicle rather than on an infantry fighting vehicle, but the military decided that both models should use the same turrets equipped with anti-tank missile systems.
The larger turret and heavier armament made the car bigger and heavier. The M242 Bushmaster cannon and anti-tank missile system required additional ammunition space. As a result, places for three infantrymen were replaced with places for cartridges, shells and missiles.
This was a perfectly reasonable measure for the reconnaissance version, which required space for only two dismounting scouts and ammunition. However, in the combat infantry version, this design change reduced the number of infantrymen in the troop compartment from nine to six. Although the infantry fighting vehicle was now better able to deal with tanks, as a result of the changes, its ability to land infantry suffered - that is, what was its main task. At the same time, rifles for firing through embrasures have never actually been used.
As a result, the XM723 was accepted for production. The result was called the Bradley combat vehicle and began to be produced in two versions - the M2 infantry fighting vehicle and the M3 combat reconnaissance vehicle. Despite the fact that the M2 and M3 were based on different sets of requirements, both cars look the same from the outside. Although the project was a success overall - for 36 years, none of the forced compromises proved fatal to it - it's hard not to wonder what would have happened if the military had decided to make two different machines.
Fortunately for both sides, neither the Soviet Army nor the American Ground Forces tested infantry fighting vehicles in a nuclear war. However, the fact that the equipment created in Moscow in 1955 indirectly influenced the equipment used in Iraq in 2009 tells us a lot about the changing nature of military tasks. We don't know which cars will replace the M2 Bradley, and we certainly don't know where they will fight. However, one thing is for sure: the new combat vehicle, whatever it is, will most likely be able to do well without weapons for firing through embrasures.
Kyle Mizokami lives in San Francisco and writes about defense and national security issues. His articles have been published in the Diplomat, Foreign Policy, War is Boring and the Daily Beast. In 2009, he founded the Japan Security Watch blog dedicated to defense and security issues.
