In armored vehicles, besides tanks, infantry fighting vehicles and armored personnel carriers, there are armored reconnaissance vehicles, anti-tank missile launchers, self-propelled anti-aircraft guns, self-propelled artillery, self-propelled rockets, and engineering support and logistics technical support vehicles. A light armored vehicle with a passenger compartment. It is mainly used to transport troops and can also be used in combat. There are two kinds of crawler and wheeled, most of which are amphibious. It consists of armored vehicle body, weapons, communication equipment, observation and aiming device and propulsion system. The power plant is located in the front of the car. The rear of the car is the loading room, and there are shooting holes on both sides and the rear of the car. The weapons in the car are machine guns and small caliber cannons. It is mainly used to transport infantry and combat materials and equipment on the battlefield. The chassis of armored transport vehicle can be converted into armoured command vehicle, armored reconnaissance vehicle, armored communication vehicle, armored rescue vehicle, armored ambulance, armored ammunition supply vehicle, and various modified armored vehicles such as tank bridge vehicle, tank maintenance engineering vehicle, tank maintenance engineering vehicle and tank transport vehicle.
Light armored vehicles in passenger compartments are mainly used to transport infantry and materials and equipment on the battlefield. Armored transport vehicles are generally only equipped with machine guns, and their firepower is weak.
At the end of World War I, Britain first developed tracked and wheeled armored transport vehicles. The car has light armor and a machine gun and can carry 20 soldiers. Although the armor on the car can protect the soldiers in the car from bullets, the infantry who are used to fighting on foot still call the first armored transport car "sardine can" and "coffin with wheels" 19 18 In August, a chariot battalion of the British Seventh Army used armored transport vehicles for the first time in Wolfsey. 12 armored transport vehicles fired fire at the enemy. German officers and men were extremely frightened and fled in panic. British soldiers immediately jumped out of the car and occupied German land, and troops of other countries also found the military value of armored transport vehicles. At the beginning of World War II, the Germans took the lead in using a large number of armored transport vehicles, and achieved certain results in the war. The use of armored transport vehicles significantly improves the mobile combat capability of infantry, and because infantry can accompany tanks to attack, it also improves the attack power of tanks.
After World War II, armored transport vehicles developed rapidly. Many countries regard the number of armored transport vehicles as one of the symbols to measure the mechanization and armor of the army. Vehicles equipped with reconnaissance equipment are divided into crawler type and wheeled type, with a total combat weight of 5- 18 tons, a single soldier can reach 19.5 tons and 3-5 passengers. Vehicles are equipped with 20-30mm cannon and 7.62mm machine gun, and individuals are equipped with 76-105mm cannon and 14.5. The maximum climbing degree of tracked armored reconnaissance vehicle can reach 70%, the trench crossing width is 2. 1m, and the vertical wall crossing height is 0.7m ... The maximum land speed of wheeled armored reconnaissance vehicle 105km, the maximum driving distance is 800km, and the maximum climbing degree is 5 1%. The car is generally equipped with high-power optical periscope, infrared night vision observation mirror, low-light sight, low-light night vision observation system and thermal imager. The maximum observation distance of optical instruments to armored vehicles is 15km during the day and 1.5 ~ 3km at night. If equipped with radar and laser rangefinder, you can observe about 20 kilometers. At present, the main armored reconnaissance vehicles are M3 infantry fighting vehicle in the United States, BPTIM armored reconnaissance vehicle in the former Soviet Union, AMX-I0RC wheeled reconnaissance vehicle in France and Scorpion reconnaissance tank in Britain.
1855, British J. Cohen installed machine guns and armor on the chassis of a steam tractor, made a wheeled armored vehicle, and obtained a patent right. However, this armored vehicle has not been put into practical use. 1899, British Sims installed armor and a machine gun on a four-wheeled vehicle. 1900, Britain put armored vehicles into the ongoing war in Ying Bu.
After World War I, with the birth of tanks, armored vehicles with weak firepower, protection and off-road performance lost their position in providing fire support for infantry on the battlefield, so they turned to other uses for development. First, develop into armored transport vehicles to provide armored protection for infantry and combat materials; Second, using its light and flexible characteristics, it has developed into some special-purpose light armored vehicles, such as armoured command vehicle and armored reconnaissance vehicles. Third, it is used to suppress large-scale riots in cities and deal with guerrillas who lack anti-armor firearms. Infantry fighting vehicles-IFV and armored personnel carriers have similar functions, both of which are armored vehicles used to transport infantry in mobile operations. The difference between the two is that infantry fighting vehicles are more protective and have more firepower, which allows infantry to fight by car and provide fire support with infantry getting off the bus, while armored personnel carriers are closer to armored transport vehicles.
An armored combat vehicle used by soldiers in fierce combat. It is developed from armored transport vehicles. Armored transport vehicles usually have no infantry shooting holes. After arriving at the battlefield, the infantry needs to get off and fight on foot, which makes it difficult for the infantry to cooperate with the tanks to advance and attack under certain battlefield conditions and is vulnerable to enemy fire. Moreover, armored transport vehicles are usually only equipped with machine guns and do not have anti-armor capabilities. In addition, its armor is very thin and can only prevent bullets. In order to enable infantry to fight with vehicles and tanks, enhance the combat capability against enemy armored targets and anti-armored weapons, and improve the attack speed of combat troops. Since 1950s, some countries began to develop infantry fighting vehicles.
1954, France transformed an armored vehicle with AMX- 13 light tank chassis. There are shooting holes on both sides and the back door of the vehicle compartment, so infantry can shoot by car. Initially, a 7 was installed in the car. 62 mm machine gun, so it is still called armored transport vehicle. Changed to 12. 7 mm anti-aircraft guns or ceramic anti-tank missiles, renamed AMX- 13 infantry fighting vehicles. This is the first infantry fighting vehicle in the world. After France, the Soviet Union equipped BMII- 1 infantry fighting vehicle in 1960s, which is also one of the earliest infantry fighting vehicles in the world. This infantry fighting vehicle has a strong anti-armor target capability, and is equipped with a 73mm smoothbore gun and an anti-tank missile.
Because the chariot has truly realized the infantry fighting with cars, it has certain anti-armor target ability. The armor of chariots can usually prevent small-caliber shells and shell fragments, can better cooperate with tanks, and its performance is obviously improved compared with armored transport vehicles, so it has basically or partially replaced the position of armored transport vehicles in the armies of many advanced countries. Armored communication vehicle refers to armored vehicle equipped with communication equipment. There are two common designs. One is to combine communication equipment with armoured command vehicle, so it is not a simple communication vehicle. The other is as a mobile relay station for ground communication to extend the effective distance of radio communication, or to overcome the shielding effect of terrain on communication and strengthen communication and information exchange between ground units. At present, the armed forces of various countries are rarely equipped with simple armored communication vehicles, but many countries are equipped with communication vehicles modified from general transport vehicles to support the communication needs of ground troops.