Open main menu
Home
Random
Recent changes
Special pages
Community portal
Preferences
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Incubator escapee wiki
Search
User menu
Talk
Dark mode
Contributions
Create account
Log in
Editing
Mechanized infantry
(section)
Warning:
You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you
log in
or
create an account
, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.
Anti-spam check. Do
not
fill this in!
===Cold War=== [[File:Swiss Mechanized Forces Deploy During Exercise at Thun, Allmend Panzerübungsplatz 1979.jpg|thumb|right|[[Swiss Armed Forces]] [[Panzer 61]] and [[M113 armored personnel carrier|SPz 63/73]] armored vehicles deploying mounted infantry in 1979]] On July 9, 1945, Decree of the [[State Defence Committee]] No. GKO-9488ss, "On the Resupply of Armored and Mechanized Forces of the Red Army"<ref> {{Cite web |url=https://ru.wikisource.org/wiki/%D0%9F%D0%BE%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%BB%D0%B5%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%B5_%D0%93%D0%9A%D0%9E_%E2%84%96_9488%D1%81%D1%81_%D0%BE%D1%82_9.07.45 |title=Decree of the State Defense Committee No. 9488ss dated 07.09.45 |access-date=2022-07-17 |archive-date=2020-09-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200903011020/https://ru.wikisource.org/wiki/%D0%9F%D0%BE%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%BB%D0%B5%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%B5_%D0%93%D0%9A%D0%9E_%E2%84%96_9488%D1%81%D1%81_%D0%BE%D1%82_9.07.45 |url-status=live }}</ref> was issued. It ordered the creation of mechanised divisions from many rifle divisions, included in the Armored and Mechanised Troops. In some cases, cavalry divisions and airborne divisions also became mechanised divisions<ref>Tank Sword of the Country of the Soviets. Drogovoz Igor Grigorievich. Publisher: AST, Harvest. Year of publication: 2004. ISBN 985-13-2133-8</ref> The Soviet ''motorised rifle troops'' officially appeared in accordance with the Directive of the Minister of Defense of the USSR No. org. / 3/62540 of February 27, 1957. This directive ordered part of the mechanized divisions and all rifle units and formations reorganized into 'motorised rifle' in the period 1957 to 1964.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20090120100833/http://cris9.narod.ru/infanteri.htm The history of the development of the Russian infantry armed forces in the 20th century]</ref> Creation of the motorised rifle troops was facilitated by large-scale mechanisation of the whole [[Soviet Ground Forces]]. This became possible due to the increase in the production of [[armored personnel carrier]]s, self-propelled guns and so on. For example, in the period before the formation and in the initial period of the formation of the ''motorized rifle troops'': * [[BTR-40]] – in the period from 1950 to 1960s, 8,500 units were produced<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://btr40.ru/ |title=BTR-40 |accessdate=2019-12-05 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20181129191638/http://btr40.ru/ |archivedate=2018-11-29 |url-status=dead }}</ref> * [[BTR-50]] — 1954 to 1970s – 6,500 pieces<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20120711213358/http://cris9.narod.ru/infanteri_btr50p.htm Armored personnel carrier BTR-50P]</ref> * [[BTR-152]] — 1947 to 1962 – 12,421 pieces * [[BRDM-1]] — 1957 to 1966 – 10,000 units One or two motorised rifle regiments were also present in each tank division, and many tank regiments included one motorised rifle battalion.<ref>{{cite web |title=1 гвардейская танковая Краснознаменная армия (Дрезден) вч пп 08608 позывной-Лира | url=http://www.gsvg.ru/gsvg_1.htm |date=November 22, 2011| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111122032236/http://www.gsvg.ru/gsvg_1.htm | archive-date=November 22, 2011 }}</ref> After 1945, the Soviet Armed Forces and [[NATO]] further developed the equipment and doctrine for mechanized infantry. With the exception of [[Russian Airborne Troops|airborne formations]], the Red Army mechanized all its infantry formations. Initially, wheeled APCs, like the [[BTR-152]], were used, some of which lacked overhead protection and were therefore vulnerable to artillery fire. It still gave the Soviet Army greater strategic flexibility because of the large land area and the long borders of the Soviet Union and its allies in the [[Warsaw Pact]]. [[Armored vehicles]] meant infantry were capable of overcoming water barriers and having means of protection against [[Weapons of Mass Destruction]]. The US Army established the basic configuration of the tracked APC with the [[M75 armored personnel carrier|M75]] and [[M59 armored personnel carrier|M59]] before it adopted the lighter [[M113 armored personnel carrier|M113]], which could be carried by [[Lockheed C-130 Hercules]] and other transport aircraft. The vehicle gave infantry the same mobility as tanks but with much less effective armor protection (it still had nuclear, biological, and chemical protection). In the [[Vietnam War]], the M113 was often fitted with extra armament and used as an ''ad hoc'' infantry fighting vehicle. Early operations by the [[Army of the Republic of Vietnam]] using the vehicle showed that troops were far more effective while they were mounted in the vehicles than when they dismounted.{{Citation needed|date=July 2009}} American doctrine subsequently emphasized mounted tactics.{{Citation needed|date=July 2009}} The Americans ultimately deployed a mechanized brigade and ten mechanized battalions to Vietnam. The ''motorized rifle troops'' of the [[Soviet Armed Forces]] were the world's first infantry units that adopted a new class of combat vehicles in 1966 – [[Infantry fighting vehicle]]s. [[BMP-1]] began entering service in 1966. In the [[Federal Republic of Germany]], an approximate analogue, the [[Marder (infantry fighting vehicle)|Marder]], appeared only in 1970. Unlike the APC, which was intended merely to transport the infantry from place to place under armor, the IFV had heavy firepower that could support infantry. The [[Infantry fighting vehicle]] concept was subsequently copied by almost all countries of the world.<ref>[http://all-tanks.ru/content/boevaya-mashina-pekhoty-bmp-2 Infantry fighting vehicle BMP-2] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131203032710/http://all-tanks.ru/content/boevaya-mashina-pekhoty-bmp-2 |date=December 3, 2013}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://armor.kiev.ua/Tanks/Modern/BMP3/BMP3_3.php |title=Viktor Korablin. Shield and Sword of the Infantry (Weapon No. 10, 1999) |access-date=2018-02-27 |archive-date=2011-10-07 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111007103558/http://armor.kiev.ua/Tanks/Modern/BMP3/BMP3_3.php |url-status=live }}</ref> The introduction of the [[BMP-1]] prompted the development of similar vehicles in Western armies, such as the [[West Germany|West German]] [[Marder (IFV)|Marder]] and American [[M2 Bradley]]. Many IFVs were also equipped with firing ports from which their infantry could fire their weapons from inside, but they were generally not successful and have been dropped from modern IFVs. Soviet organization led to different tactics between the "light" and the "heavy" varieties of mechanized infantry. In the Soviet Army, a first-line "motor rifle" division from the 1970s onward usually had two regiments equipped with wheeled [[BTR-60]] APCs and one with the tracked BMP-1 IFV. The "light" regiments were intended to make dismounted attacks on the division's flanks, while the BMP-equipped "heavy" regiment remained mounted and supported the division's tank regiment on the main axis of advance. Both types of infantry regiment still were officially titled "motor rifle" units.<ref>{{cite book|last=Suvorov|first=Viktor|author-link=Viktor Suvorov|title= Inside the Soviet Army|publisher=Book Club Associates|year=1982|page=112}}</ref> A line of development in the Soviet Armed Forces from the 1980s was the provision of specialized IFVs for use by the [[Russian Airborne Troops]]. The first of them was the [[BMD-1]], which had the same firepower as the [[BMP-1]] but could be carried in or even parachuted from the standard Soviet transport aircraft. That made airborne formations into mechanized infantry at the cost of reducing their "bayonet" strength, as the BMD could carry only three or at most four paratroopers in addition to its three-man crew. They were used in that role in the [[Soviet–Afghan War|Soviet invasion of Afghanistan]] in 1979.
Edit summary
(Briefly describe your changes)
By publishing changes, you agree to the
Terms of Use
, and you irrevocably agree to release your contribution under the
CC BY-SA 4.0 License
and the
GFDL
. You agree that a hyperlink or URL is sufficient attribution under the Creative Commons license.
Cancel
Editing help
(opens in new window)