Re: (Stupid BMP tricks)

John Atkinson wrote:

> Nope--it's got a goofy 100mm tube that fires HE rounds and ATGMs.
> Kinda a twinky idea, but Russians for whatever reason can't get the
> same accuracy out of their guns us NATOans can--you won't see any
> Russian tanks going near the world record for tank kills (5.3 km, set
> by some Brit during Desert Storm) any time soon.
>
> John

Your assesment of Soviet tank guns and "record" shots is not
withstanding
, the gun on the BMP gun remains one of the most powerful ones on an
IFV.
What do you expect them to do put a tank main gun on an APC? Just about
every IFV in the world has a autocannon of some sort. Very few have the
extra bonus of a meaningful HE lobber. Just what infantry need in a
number of differnt scenarios. The 100mm semi-automatic gun is designed
forfiring HE rounds. It doesn't fire HE rounds, but does carry the
missile.

IBTW there are other sources which gives more info on the AT10. Max
range, 4000 meters, can defeat reactive armor, has a hit probability of
80% at maximum range and can penetrate 600mm

BTW here's a picture of the missle
http://www.army-technology.com/projects/bmp-3/bmp-3_8.html

It is also meant to be fired against helicopters and has optics built
into the laser desigantor and tracking system to help the gunner acquire
and track helos. Tracking is by laser. The gunner and the commander have
both automatic and manual override controls and french made night
optics.

I had a chance to check these things out in Kuwait. In their attempt to
make everybody happy they've gone ahead and bought a bunch of these
things from the Russians as well as chinese artillery, Russain T90s and
US M1A1 tanks) The Kuwaits drive thes ethings all over the place, in
harsh conditions (they're not very caring with their stuff), and live
fire the hell out of their stuff (because they have the money and
because
they finding shooting stuff "fun"). The BMP3s hold up well and all of us
US types including the armor advisors were impressed with them.

In the hands of a capable crew (which the kuwaits are most definately
NOT) the BMP-3 is an excellent weapons system, In some ways better than
the Bradley. The I-TOW is still a better tank Killer, but the AT10 given
it's versatile role does the trick just fine. If we had them in the US
we'd be killing tanks with them up to max range without problems. Thank
god the majority of the Armies in the world are downright incompetent at
anything except generating random violence and can't make meaningful use
of the tools they ended buying for themselves.

Reliability of the vehicle and it's lethality rest almost exclusively in
the hands of who is using it. You put M1A2s and M3s into the hands of a
poor of mediocre army (typical of our middle eastern friends) and
they're
no more dnagerous to us than if they has soviet stuff. This is a point
many people don't get when they start harping about technology being the
key factor of army effectiveness.

Los

>