The BMP-3 is a Russian amphibious infantry fighting vehicle

Infantry fighting vehicle

An infantry fighting vehicle , also known as a mechanized infantry combat vehicle , is a type of armoured fighting vehicle used to carry infantry into battle and provide fire support for them...

, successor to the BMP-1

BMP-1

The BMP-1 is a Soviet amphibious tracked infantry fighting vehicle. BMP stands for Boyevaya Mashina Pekhoty 1 , meaning "infantry fighting vehicle". The BMP-1 was the world's first mass-produced infantry fighting vehicle...

 and BMP-2

BMP-2

The BMP-2 is a second-generation, amphibious infantry fighting vehicle introduced in the 1980s in the Soviet Union, following the BMP-1 of the 1960s....

. BMP stands for Boyevaya Mashina Pekhoty .
The design of the BMP-3 or Obyekt 688M can be traced back to the Obyekt 685 light tank prototype with 100 mm gun 2A48-1 from 1975. This vehicle didn't enter series production but the chassis, with a new engine, was used for the next-generation infantry combat vehicle Obyekt 688 from A.