M2 Bradley armored fighting vehicle

Designed for close tank-infantry cooperation with M1 Abrams tanks, the M2 Bradley infantry fighting vehicle (IFV) and the closely related M3 Bradley Cavalry Fighting Vehicle (CFV) provide the infantry side of the team. While they may look superficially like tanks, they are not light tanks. They are the successor to the M113 (armored personnel carrier), but are different: the M113 was a "battle taxi" intending to take troops to the edge of the battlefield, while the M2/M3 go onto the battlefield. Soldiers have options to fight from the Bradley, or to dismount and fight on foot.

Weapons and tactics

Bradley weapons are intended to support infantry soldiers or cavalry scouts on foot. In their turret is a M242 "Bushmaster" 25mm autocannon designed to defeat light armor, but proved quite capable of killing tanks of the Russian T-54/T-55/Chinese Type 59/69 and T-62 classes. There are conflicting reports if a Bradley killed a Russian T-72; if it did so, it hit on the thinner side, rear, or top armor. Fundamentally, however, the 25mm gun was intended to be used against personnel and light armored vehicles, such as the Russian BMP (infantry fighting vehicle) and BRDM (armored reconnaissance vehicle).

Troops can maneuver beside the Bradley, using it as a shield while it engages nearby targets with its 25mm, or with the 7.62mm machine gun mounted coaxially with the autocannon. Its heavy weapon, however, is the BGM-71 TOW, a heavy antitank missile as or more lethal than the 120mm gun on the Abrams. The TOW was originally intended to have a longer range than the Abrams gun, but the gun performance has been improving. The idea, however, was to have TOW units "overwatch" tank-infantry teams moving across a battlefield, letting them concentrate on close-in threats while the overwatching missiles guarded against distant threats. Once the maneuver force reached its objective, it would then protect the movement of the overwatch force moving to meet it.

In practice, the closely cooperating units are not only M1, M2, and M3 vehicles, but also OH-58 Kiowa scout/attack helicopters and AH-64 Apache heavy attack helicopters. They may also use unmanned aerial vehicles.

Electronics

Bradleys are intended for a network-centric battlefield. They are nodes in the Force XXI Battle Command Brigade and Below (FBCB2) information system, which gives them a moving map display on which they can see friendly forces and their troops. For communications, they have the SINCGARS radio.

Their sensors will include forward-looking infrared thermal viewers and Global Position System navigation.

Scout vehicles attached to the [[Reconnaissance, Surveillance and Target Acquisition Squadron (Brigade Combat Team) will have the Long-Range Advanced Scout Surveillance System (LRAS3) observation and targetinc systems. The surveillance troop of the Squadron can support them with UAVs.

References

• upgrades: The US Army’s Bradley Remanufacture Program (updated) [1] 23-Sep-2008 18:22 EDT