Alvis Saracen vs BMP-1: Specs Compared

FORCETALLY

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Alvis Saracen — licensed reference photograph

AArmoured vehicles

Alvis Saracen

Armoured personnel carrier

Credit

SG2012 · CC BY 2.0 · Resized · CC BY 2.0 · Source ↗ · Modified

BArmoured vehicles

BMP-1

Infantry fighting vehicle Armoured personnel carrier

Credit

One half 3544 · Public domain · Resized · Public domain · Source ↗ · Modified

First system

Second system

At a glance

Side by side

Length comparisonOne shared metre scale

Alvis SaracenLength

4.8 m

Length source ↗

BMP-1Length

6.735 m

Length source ↗

Lengths retain their source configuration and measurement scope.

Alvis Saracenlarger figure on 2 of 5

Height+19%
Speed+60%

BMP-1larger figure on 3 of 5

Length+40%
Width+16%
Mass+20%

Counts only measures both sources give with the same scope. A larger figure is not a better system.

Measured figures

Head to head

19 of 49 rows sourced on both sides

4.8m

6.74m

Length+40%

All recorded figures & sources

4.8 m

Length

Single source

4.8 m^[source]

6.735 m

Length

Single source

Configuration

Details

Alvis Saracen and BMP-1 configuration
Specification	Alvis Saracen	BMP-1
Type	Armoured personnel carrier^[source]	Infantry fighting vehicle Armoured personnel carrier^[source]
Place of origin	United Kingdom^[source]	Soviet Union^[source]
In service	1952–present^[source]	1966–present^[source]
Used by	See "Operators"^[source]	See Service history^[source]

Wars	Aden Emergency Malayan Emergency 30 September Movement coup Operation Banner - Northern Ireland Nigerian Civil War South African Border War Soweto uprising Sri Lankan Civil War Black September Yom Kippur War Lebanese Civil War Invasion of Kuwait 2003–2004 Indonesian offensive in Aceh^[source]	See Service history^[source]

Manufacturer	Alvis^[source]	Kurganmashzavod (Soviet Union) ZTS Detva (Czechoslovakia) See also Production history section for details.^[source]

Produced	1952–1976^[source]	1966–(production in the Soviet Union ended in 1982 or 1983) 2026–(production to restart in Slovakia between 2026 and 2027)^[source]

Armour	16 mm Rolled homogeneous armour (RHA)^[source]	—

Main armament	Browning M1919 machine gun or L37 GPMG^[source]	73 mm 2A28 Grom smoothbore gun (40 rounds) 9M14 Malyutka ATGM (4 rounds)^[source]

Secondary armament	Bren LMG, 6–12 smoke grenade launchers^[source]	7.62 mm PKT coaxial machine gun (2,000 rounds)^[source]

Power/weight	14.5 hp/tonne^[source]	22.7 hp/tonne (17.0 kW/tonne)^[source]

Suspension	6x6 wheel, independent torsion bars^[source]	torsion bar^[source]

Designer	—	Pavel Isakov (Design Bureau of the ChTZ )^[source]

Designed	—	1961–1965^[source]

No. built	—	More than 20,000 of all variants (Soviet Union) More than 3,000 of all variants (PRC) 18,000 (Czechoslovakia) ≈800 (India)^[source]

Variants	—	BMP-1, BMP-2 , MLI-84 , Boragh ; see also BMP-1 variants .^[source]

Armor	—	6–33 mm (0.24–1.30 in) welded rolled steel^[source]

Ground clearance	—	370 mm (15 in)^[source]

Fuel capacity	—	462 L (102 imp gal; 122 US gal)^[source]

Reported operators	Reported operator · Amal Movement Reported operator · Australia Reported operator · Biafra Reported operator · Brunei Reported operator · Indonesia Reported operator · Jordan Reported operator · Kenya Reported operator · Kuwait Reported operator · Lebanon Reported operator · Libya Reported operator · Mauritania Reported operator · Nigeria Reported operator · Qatar Reported operator · South Africa Reported operator · Sri Lanka Reported operator · Sudan Reported operator · Thailand Reported operator · United Arab Emirates Reported operator · United Kingdom Reported operator · Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam Reported operator · British Hong Kong Reported operator · United States	—