Yingkou Hao

Since World War II, armies of all countries have attached great importance to the development of their own mechanized troops. Since World War II, traditional armored vehicles with thin armor and weak firepower have been unable to meet the needs of mechanized troops. In order to better cooperate with infantry fighting, a new armored force-infantry fighting vehicle was born.

Take the lead in carrying out relevant research work.

It was the Soviet Union, which was a big army country at that time, and then BMP series infantry fighting vehicles were born. In order to fight against the BMP series infantry fighting vehicles of the Soviet Union, the United States launched relevant research in the 1960s, striving to develop infantry fighting vehicles with protection and firepower no less than BMP series. The final result of this project is the famous M2/M3 "Bradley" infantry fighting vehicle.

When designing a new generation of infantry fighting vehicles, the US military considered many aspects, such as speed, armor and firepower. And its speed must be able to keep up with the propulsion speed of M 1 series main battle tanks. Due to the poor performance of the M 1 13 armored vehicle in the Vietnam War, it is particularly emphasized in the design that any part of the vehicle should be able to resist 14.5 mm large caliber bullets (M 13).

The new infantry fighting vehicles also have cannons to attack and counter the enemy's light armored forces.

Based on the above design requirements, a new infantry fighting vehicle was designed and named M2 "bradley" infantry fighting vehicle. M2A 1 is the original version of its series. First, let's look at its armor protection. M2 is made of mixed armor.

The armor of the head and the top is made of 5083 aluminum alloy, while some turrets and the bottom of the head are made of steel armor, and the gap layout is adopted to reduce the loss caused by shell fragments, and at the same time, it can also deal with the threat of rockets and armor-piercing projectiles to a certain extent. The whole vehicle can resist the shooting of 14.5 mm large-caliber machine gun, and the front armor can resist the 30 mm shell of the Soviet BMP2-step chariot at a certain distance, and the protection performance is the same as that of similar products.

Not only is the protection excellent, but M2 bradley's weapon system is also excellent. A standard M2 bradley infantry fighting vehicle is equipped with a M242 25mm automatic machine gun and a M240C coaxial machine gun. It is worth mentioning that the machine gun adopts a two-way ammunition supply structure.

Ammunition is supplied by two different chains, and gunners can quickly switch between high-explosive and armor-piercing explosives to quickly deal with different targets. The turret is also equipped with an anti-tank missile launcher, which contains two ceramic anti-tank missiles, so that it can fight back when facing heavy armored targets.

Similarly, in order to match its sophisticated weapons and equipment, the designer installed an excellent fire control system and a day and night sight used by gunners.

If necessary, you can also switch to thermal imaging to search for the enemy, and its fire control performance is no less than or even higher than that of M 1 main battle tank at that time. M2 Bradley is superior to BMP series chariots in firepower, protection and performance.

Nevertheless, M2 "bradley" is not without its shortcomings. Its heavy armor and complex weapon system bring high self-weight. M2A 1 The original weight is 27 tons, not to mention carrying 6 to 7 soldiers. The self-weight of its rival BMP2-step chariot is only about 15 tons. ?

This means that although the engine power of M2 "bradley" is more powerful, which is nearly twice that of BMP2, it cannot be maneuvered like BMP2. At the same time, because of its heavy weight, it needs more preparation time and tools to float, and BMP2 can directly rush into the water with simple preparation.

The original version of M2A 1 "Bradley" was rolled off the assembly line in 1983, and then it was heavily equipped in the US military. Debut 7 years later: Gulf War. In the Gulf War, the mechanized infantry of the US Army advanced rapidly with the cooperation of M2 "bradley" chariot and M 1 tank, and occupied many Iraqi cities at an extremely fast speed.

During this period, the armor of M2 "Bradley" effectively protected the soldiers in the car from the attacks of rockets and small caliber bullets, and its cannon and missiles also effectively supported the soldiers who got off the bus to fight, which fully proved the Excellence of M2 "Bradley" and increased the trust of American soldiers, so it was also evaluated as the favorite "armored bus" of American soldiers.

In this war, M2 "bradley" not only defeated its opponent: BMP series infantry fighting vehicles, but even destroyed the main battle tank with machine guns. However, this is just an example. It should be more widely known that the formation consisting of two M2 "bradley" used anti-tank missiles and machine guns alone without a main battle tank.

The destruction of T72 tank fully verified the excellence of M2 "bradley", so that the US military did not develop more infantry fighting vehicles later, but continued to develop and improve on the basis of M2A 1. The latest version is M2A4, which is being tested with a small amount of equipment. Today, the US military has used the M2 "bradley" armored vehicle for nearly 40 years.