Difference between assault guns & SPGs?

So... last question (I think): What makes an IFV, an IFV?

An APC is an armoured personnel carrier - a battle taxi, which takes infantry to where they're needed, at which point they dismount and fight normally. An IFV is an infantry fighting vehicle - the theory goes that it is more than a simple transport, but actually part of the infantry fighting team. Many designs (eg: BMP, early Bradley) had portholes so the infantry inside could use their weapons and fight from inside the vehicle. This was never very successful in practice, but the portholes are still retained.
In practice, however, the distinction blurs depending on how much money you have: an IFV for a rich country is a light tank or tank destroyer for a poor one, while an APC for a rich country is an IFV for a poor one. The M113 is a good example of this. In US service an APC; there were countless improvement programs to allow other countries to use it as something like an IFV. These ranged from moving the .50 cal HMG into an enclosed turret instead of a cupola, to mounting a 20mm autocannon on it, to putting the turret from a Scorpion light tank on the roof and calling it a fire support vehicle.
In general IFVs are more heavily armed and armoured, but as you can see the definition has a lot of flex in it.
 
Japanese Self Defense Force Type 60 Self Propelled Recoilless Guns. Basically 2 recoiless rifles mounted together on tracks for mobility.

As for the Warsaw Pact and assault guns it could be argued the BMP-3 could have been an assault gun if it wasnt for the fact it carried infantry inside of it. A 100mm gun is rather oversized for a mere IFV.

The VDV also often received assault guns in the past. They currently have a 125mm assault gun based on the BMD-3 chassis in service.

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You can fit infantry in it, and it has better suvivability and firepower than an APC.

Thanks for the link, man.

Yeah, now I remember the VDV and their assault guns. It was meant to give them airdroppable AT and armour capability. Not as good as a tank or APC/IFV but certainly better than nothing.

I'm not so sure about the BMP-3, but you have a point. It is massively overarmed. A gun, ATGMs, an autocannon, three or four machineguns...
 
Assault Guns continued into the Cold War on a limited basis. The Swedes developed the S-tank. Though it was called a "tank", I think it was actually an assault gun. The Soviets also developed air droppable assault guns (57mm and a larger, enclosed 100mm version). The U.S had the air droppable Ontos, but it never did well and saw only very lmited production.

The S-tank had the same (but longer) L7 105 mm gun that all western tanks had, optimized for anti tank duty. An assault gun would have a bigger gun and bigger grenade optimized against soft/concrete targets.

The S-tank was a tank destroyer pretending to be a tank. It was organised in tank batallions, not as support for the infantry (that assault guns were).
 
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