What is the purpose of APCs with wheels? They dont have tracks so they are shit off road. They dont have 25mm cannons so they are shit against IFVs. Whats the point? Drive the men in then drive out? If I have learned anything from the war in Ukraine, its that roads are death traps for vehicles so tracked is the way to go.
Most of the fighting happens on roads and in urban areas in the early stages of the war. Tracks are a hindrance in this situation. APC's with wheels typically have more troops with larger amounts of equipment, they can dismount and fight more effectively than the limited numbers from an IFV.
Yeah but the IFV has a huge frick off cannon. Im sure whatever platoon of infantry within those things would rather much prefer to have 25mm of direct fire support than to have more guys with more recoilless rifles.
>Yeah but the IFV has a huge frick off cannon. Im sure whatever platoon of infantry within those things would rather much prefer to have 25mm of direct fire support than to have more guys with more recoilless rifles.
I'm sure they'd rather have space for another few guys and some Javelins / MANPAD's APC's are for troops who expect to fight, not expect to be a passenger.
Not really.
But they are cheaper and easier to maintain. Are fast on road and fast on dirt roads / grass.
Wheels are easier to maintain
Wheels are cheaper
Wheeled vechicles are more fuel efficient
Can drive on road without damaging it
> They dont have tracks so they are shit off road
Modern tires are almost as good as tracks
>They dont have 25mm cannons
it can be placed duh, size of arnament is not an issue
>it can be placed duh, size of arnament is not an issue
So youre saying, we should get rid of APCs without 25mm cannons. You agree with me then. Good, glad I'm not alone in this.
>They dont have tracks so they are shit off road.
Only in very adverse terrains, e.g. raspubreastsa conditions.
>They dont have 25mm cannons so they are shit against IFVs.
They're not meant to directly combat armored enemy formations. Even then, the infantry it carries with their ATGMs are capable of defeating those IFVs.
>Drive the men in then drive out?
Yes. Also carry support systems like drones, communications, mortars. Provide evacuation and resupply, etc. If the situation allows it, also function as a gun carrier for whatever is mounted on top.
>If I have learned anything from the war in Ukraine, its that roads are death traps for vehicles so tracked is the way to go.
Everything is a death trap in modern warfare. You either go light, mobile and dispersed, or heavy and heavily concentrated. Other options lead to a quick demise.
But you realistically need both. You need to have mobile units with a lighter logistical footprint that can hold ground and perform limited offensive operations, exploitation of breakthroughs, spoiling attacks, etc. And that's where APCs are useful.
>They dont have tracks so they are shit off road.
moron
Strategic and operational maneuverability.
>tracked vehicle
>great offroad capability
>but what happens when they need to reposition to another part of the front?
>need to get loaded onto rail or heavy movers to go on roads
>takes time and resources to do so
>wheeled vehicle
>worse offroad capability
>need to reposition to another portion of the theater
>just drive there right away and don't need a logistics unit to move them around
that simple
Wheels are fine against tracks except in very uneven muddy terrain.
holy shit that turret started to move to the BRT4 and that is why gunner took it out first
in the longer video you can see troops taking cover behind it too. They just wanted to frick it all up.
>Drive the men in then drive out
Yes
Most of /k is probably too young or addle-pated to remember, but there was a controversial NATO wargame done decades ago which posited that the only way to survive in future warfare would be to dig in and conceal infantry, preferably in towns where buildings provided protection and hindered enemy observation. Thus the key vehicle system for them would be fast 8x8 APCs. The OPCON was to quickly transport them by APC to a defensive position, dig in, fight off an attack, then transport them out. Offensives resembled bite-and-hold strategy more than mobile armoured warfare. It was super controversial and everybody hated it. But the Stryker, and other 8x8s, was born from this thinking.
Now look at the Ukraine war and tell me it doesn't look similar.
>Mixing up OPCON with CONOPS
LARPer detected.
I'm old, I get to make typos.
most tractors are wheeled too - as most off road cars...
they dont have to carry several additional tons of armor, however modern wheeled APCs/IFVs have good mobility still
when you start rolling around in 8 wheels the ground pressure problem becomes substantially less significant
I still wish for the return of the halftrack though, just because
A 30 tonne 8x8 apc has more ground pressure than a 30 tonne tracked apc.
The Soviets were big on using vehicles with wheels for strategic and second-order troops. When https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incident_at_Pristina_airport happened, this created an impetus for many militaries to create their own copycat wheeled APCs so they could race each other at operational speeds. The idea of being able to drive at incredibly high speeds down highways was joined together with concepts for a quick-response airlift force. The concept remains extremely alluring even today, despite the marked inferiority of tracks for combat use. Speed is just so useful. After all, many places have all-weather roads, and those that don't probably aren't important enough for your theoretical high-speed low-drag unit.