BMP-3

BMP-3
Faction	Russian Armed Forces
Type	Infantry Fighting Vehicle
Seats	10 seats: 1× Driver 1× Gunner 1× Commander 2× Hull Gunners 5× Passengers
Item capacity	Max: 10× Weapons 100× Magazines 5× Backpacks
Top speed	Normal: ~ 60 km/h Turbo: 81 km/h Reverse: 60 km/h Water (Normal): 5 km/h Water (Turbo): 6 km/h Water (Reverse): ~ 5 km/h
Fuel capacity	300 fuel units
Primary armament	Main: 1× 2A70 100 mm
Secondary armament	Secondary: 8× 9M117M1 Arkan ATGM 2× PKT 7.62 mm Coaxial: 1× 2A72 30 mm 1× PKT 7.62 mm Defensive: 1× Smoke Generator
Variants	None
Games

The BMP-3 is a tracked Infantry Fighting Vehicle used exclusively by the Russian Armed Forces in ArmA 2.

Overview

• Roles:
  • Troop transport
  • Fire support

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The BMP-3 is is an infantry fighting vehicle developed in Russia. It is one of the most heavily armed combat vehicles worldwide. It features 2A70 100 mm rifled gun, 2A72 dual feed autocannon, 7.62 mm machine gun, and two 7.62 mm bow machine guns. The BMP-3 is capable of engaging targets out to 5-6 km, however there is minimum engagement range of about 300 m. Armoury Description

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Design

The BMP-3 is the latest model in the BMP series of IFVs. It is a tracked, armoured and amphibious vehicle that is designed to engage both armoured ground and air threats while stationary, on the move, and while afloat.

It uses a rear-mounted engine for a better weight distribution and has improved amphibious capabilities over its predecessors.

Armament
It is armed with a 100 mm rifled gun as its primary weapon and has a dual-mount 30 mm autocannon/7.62 mm medium machine gun that serve as coaxial weapons. The BMP-3's main gun is also capable of launching anti-tank guided missiles. There are also two forward-facing PKT machine guns located on either side of the hull (in the front below the turret).

The standard loadout of the BMP-3 gives it 22 rounds of high-explosive (HE) shells and 8 ATGMs for the main gun. The coaxial PKT feeds from a single 2,000-round belt, while the 2A72 autocannon has 250 rounds of HE and 250 rounds of armour-piercing (AP) shells, with a combined total of 500 rounds.

Lastly, the two hull gunner PKT's are pre-loaded with one 250-round belt box by default, and have a further four boxes left in reserve each (combined for a total of 2,500 rounds for both gunners).

BMP-3 in combat.

Features
Originally envisioned as a light tank, the BMP-3 is arguably the best infantry fighting vehicle in ArmA 2. It completely outclasses both the British Warrior and U.S. M2 Bradley IFVs in terms of raw firepower thanks to the BMP-3's combination of a coaxial 30 mm autocannon and gun-launched ATGMs. Both weapons allow it to tackle Main Battle Tanks and low-flying helicopters head-on if there aren't any T-90s or Tunguskas available for support, though it will need to rely on defilade and speed to avoid being hit by either threat.

Mobility
With a top speed of 81 km/h, the BMP-3 is one of the fastest tracked IFVs in ArmA 2, outstripping both the BMP-2 and Bradley family of IFVs in pure speed. The only exceptions to this are Takistani BVP-1s and the British Warrior, though even then, both are only just slightly faster by 5 km/h.

Drawbacks
Although they are both amphibious platforms, the BMP-3 has worse handling when compared to the USMC's AAV. It is also unable to transport as many troops as the AAV; the AAV is able to carry up to nineteen passengers at once whereas in stark contrast the BMP-3 is restricted to just five (which does not include the two hull gunners).

Crew Capacity
The BMP-3 has a crew of three personnel consisting of the driver, a gunner, and the commander. It can transport up to seven passengers at a time, with two of the passengers sitting in the front left and right parts of the hull, serving as auxiliary crewmen gunners.

Protection

The BMP-3 has a base armour value of 300.

Successful strikes to any of the following highlighted sections will inflict full damage to the component:

LEGEND
Green = Body
Orange = Engine
Light blue = Treads
Maroon = Turret

Hull

The BMP-3's hull can withstand up to 300 points of damage.

Engine

The BMP-3's engine is able to take 105 points of damage. At least 20% of damage is always transferred onto the BMP-3's main "health" pool.

A damaged engine will severely diminish power output and prevent the BMP-3 from attaining its top speed. While traversing over water, it is possible for the vehicle to become trapped and unable to move depending on tidal strength.

Treads

The BMP-3's treads are able to incur up to 45 points of damage before breaking.

Disabling either will impede the BMP-3's mobility but will not prevent it from moving either on land or in water. Destroying both however, will render the vehicle immobilised on rough terrain and make it almost impossible to turn - even if the engine remains functional.

Turret

The BMP-3's turret can take 300 points of damage.

Disabling the turret will prevent the gunner from rotating it but does not stop its weapons from being fired.

Gun barrel

The main gun can withstand up to 90 points of damage before failing.

Disabling the cannon will stop the gunner from being able to adjust its elevation/depression. The weapon itself can still be fired, however.

Armament

NOTE: For specifics on the 2A72's munitions, see its related section listed here.

All weapon systems (except for two PKT machine guns) are controlled exclusively by the gunner position. For optics, they have access to two fields of view and can toggle a day, night or green-hot/black-hot thermal vision mode:

2A70

Base damage value	Aerodynamic friction	Initial velocity (m/s)
210	-0.00045	905

Rifled 100 mm gun. Fires high-explosive (HE) rounds useful against groups of infantry and unarmoured/lightly-armoured vehicles.

The 2A70 has an effective firing range of 1,200 metres and a maximum firing range of 2,500 metres. There is always a fixed delay of 6 seconds in-between shots, but it only takes 2 seconds to reload a fresh batch of rounds (assuming the BMP-3 has run out of shells and has rearmed at a logistics vehicle).

Both automatic and manual zeroing are available. Manual zeroing starts at a minimum of 100 m up to a maximum of 3000 m. Adjustments are made with increments/decrements of 100 m.

2A72

Coaxial 30 mm autocannon.

It can be loaded with either HE or AP-type munitions and has an effective firing range of 1,500 metres. It has a fire rate of approximately ~ 350 rounds per minute and a fixed dispersion of 0.0005 rad at all distances. There is no delay for swapping between munitions types.

It shares the same automatic/manual zeroing capability with the 2A70.

9M117M1 Arkan

Damage type	Base damage value	Maximum speed (m/s)
High-Explosive Anti-Tank	600	430

Anti-tank guided missile. Fired directly from the main 2A70 cannon.

Missiles have an initial launch velocity of 450 m/s but will decrease to 430 m/s in mid-flight. 6 seconds before another missile can be loaded into the cannon. It takes up to 30 seconds to rearm the stockpile of missiles upon depletion.

Its seeker is infrared-guided and is effective up to a maximum range of 3,500 metres. The warhead is HEAT-based and has a blast radius of only 1.5 metres.

PKT

Base damage value	Aerodynamic friction	Initial velocity (m/s)
12	-0.00096	855

There are a total of three PKT machine guns equipped on the BMP-3, one mounted adjacent to the main 2A70/2A72 cannons and two attached to the front right/left sides of the hull.

They all have identical fire rates of 800 RPM and muzzle velocities of 855 m/s. Accuracy-wise, dispersion is always fixed at 0.00125 rad. It takes 5 seconds to finish reloading a fresh linked belt/belt box.

The hull PKTs are controlled by the front hull gunners only. Horizontal and vertical rotation limits depend on their position; for the right gunner it is a maximum of 5 degrees right and 15 degrees left, while for the left gunner it is a maximum of 15 degrees left and 5 degrees right instead. Both have an identical elevation of 15 degrees and a depression of 5 degrees.

Optics for the coaxial PKT are the same as those used by the 2A70/2A72, while for the hull gunner PKTs they use a fixed field of view with a non-adjustable zoom. It should be noted that only manual zeroing capability is available to the PKT (it cannot automatically zero). Furthermore, the hull gunner PKTs do not have the ability to zero at all.

Trivia

• Just like the BTR-90, the BMP-3's gunner position was not "upgraded" with the ability to use thermal optics even after the release of the Operation Arrowhead expansion pack.
  • This was finally addressed with the latest Steam version patches (as part of the CorePatch updates) with the BMP-3's gunner and commander both receiving access to thermal vision modes for their respective optics.
  • The BMP-3's primary weapon systems also gained a laser rangefinder and manual/automatic zeroing capability.
• The BMP-3 remains as the most heavily armed and protected IFV to date in the entire series. Only its wheeled counterpart and the CSAT BTR-K Kamysh in ArmA 3 come close to its capabilities and variety of armament available.

Gallery

External links

• Wikipedia: BMP-3

See also

Vehicles of comparable role and configuration

• BMP-2 (Outdated CDF/ChDKZ/Takistani Army counterpart)
• AAVP-7A1 (USMC counterpart)
• M2A3 Bradley (U.S. Army counterpart, ArmA 2: OA only)
• FV510 Warrior (British Army counterpart, ArmA 2: BAF only)
• BTR-K Kamysh (CSAT successor, ArmA 3 only)