When the Soviets came up with the concept in the early 1960s of the “boyevaya mashina pekhoty” or infantry fighting vehicle, they had a low, compact machine armed with a 73mm grenade launcher, a 7.62mm machine gun, an ATGM launcher, and carrying a crew of two and nine infantrymen in a package weighing about 13 tons. The US Army took a long time to respond, and when they did the vehicle debuted to a lot of ridicule and suspicion. The new vehicle, dubbed the Bradley, came as either the M2 infantry fighting vehicle or the M3 cavalry fighting vehicle, the difference being the size of the crew and internal layout. But it was now the same size and weight as a WWII Sherman tank, and looked bloated compared to the Soviets' sleek BMP.

Negative publicity did not help (as smarmily portrayed in the HBO “history” of the Bradley) but the press – as usual – did not grasp the function of the Bradley and derided it for not offering the protection of a tank. Nevertheless, the Army persevered and in 1990 began taking the developed Bradley to war in the Persian Gulf. Overall it did well, suffering more casualties from fratricide than Iraqi units. It then spent 12 years in peacekeeping duties before an updated version went into Iraq in March 2003. Serving there still, the Bradley has now taken some losses from massive roadside bombs, but overall it has proven itself and remains popular with US mechanized infantry troops.