Editing ZBD-86 (section)

==History==
Class: Infantry Fighting Vehicle</br>
Developed: 1980-1985</br>
Service: 1986+</br>
Vehicles Built: 1000-7000 (sources vary)</br>
Operators: China, Iran, Iraq, Burma

In the late 1970s, 15 long years after the 1966 introduction of BMP-1, the Chinese still found themselves without a proper IFV. The 1979 Sino-Vietnamese conflict was a serious wake-up call for the Chinese military commanders and the issue of obtaining a new infantry fighting vehicle had become urgent. The old Type 63 APCs were simply not cutting it in jungle warfare and were too vulnerable for front-line combat. The development of the new IFV started soon afterwards, in 1980, under the designation of WZ-501.

To overcome the issue of limited experience with such vehicles, it was decided, once again, to rely on the old and proven strategy of copying existing designs. The BMP-1, by that time a rather widespread vehicle, was taken as the basis. The Chinese acquired a BMP-1 from somewhere and simply copied it between roughly 1980 and 1985. In 1986, the vehicle was officially accepted in Chinese service under the designation of ZBD-86 with full-scale production running since 1992. It took several years for the vehicle to appear in public and by the time it did, it was considered to be completely obsolete. It was almost a perfect copy of the BMP-1 with the only major upgrade being the presence of a Red Arrow ATGM launcher.

The production estimates range wildly from around 1000 to as many as 7000 vehicles built. Visually, it’s quite difficult to recognize the ZBD-86 at first glance from the original BMP-1, which likely contributed to the confusion regarding its deployment and exports. It seems that the vehicle was exported to several countries including Iran, Iraq and Burma, but given its similarity to the BMP-1, these records are hard to confirm. There are rumors that the Iranian BMP-1s are in fact the Chinese Type 86 IFVs. In any case, many ZBD-86 IFVs remain in Chinese service to this day.