The LAV-25 is an 8x8 APC (Armored Personal Carrier) used by the US Marine Corps. It is capable of carrying 9 men and is equipped with an M242 Bushmaster 25 mm chain gun and two M240 7.62 mm machine guns.
Armoury Description
»
Design[]
The LAV-25 is an air-deployable 8x8 amphibious armoured reconnaissance/personnel carrier designed to ferry troops to and from combat on contested shorelines.
Armament
It is armed with a single 25 mm autocannon that is accurate at ranges of up to 1,500 metres. The gunner can switch between firing either high-explosive incendiary (HEI-T) or armour-piercing fin-stabilised discarding-sabot (APFSDS-T) munitions. The main gun is complemented with a coaxial 7.62 mm medium machine gun.
The standard loadout of the LAV-25 gives it 240 rounds of HEI-T and 240 APFSDS-T shells for the main gun, totalling 480 rounds when combined. Lastly, the coaxial M240 is fed from a single 1,200-round belt and has no spares to reload from.
Features
Amphibious-capable and highly mobile, the LAV-25 is a prime example of the Marine Corps' focus on maintaining a high speed, low drag doctrine. It is (relatively) easy to handle, retains decent acceleration, and thanks to its 25 mm autocannon is able to provide fire support against most types of ground threats.
Drawbacks
The LAV-25 is not without weaknesses however, and suffers from several drawbacks which make it comparatively inferior to the BTR-90 in many respects. It has minimal armour plating, and a lack of dedicated anti-tank missiles means that the crew can only fall back on its AP shells to tackle armoured threats.
However, the M242's 25 mm AP shells are quite underpowered and cannot put much of a dent in the armour of most heavy vehicles; let alone Main Battle Tanks. To inflict damage, direct hits need to be scored against exposed or weaker sections of the vehicle (such as the engine or turret).
Crew Capacity
The LAV-25 has a seating capacity of nine personnel including the crew. The crew includes the driver, gunner and commander. The six passengers sit in the rear compartment just below the turret and enter via the rear hatches.
Stripped down version of the baseline LAV-25 with its turret removed.
The turret has been replaced with a single hatch in the front that is fitted with a fixed (but rotatable) M240 medium machine gun. The M240 is loaded with a single 100-round belt box and has a further four boxes in reserve for a combined total of 500 rounds.
This variant cannot transport any passengers and is restricted to carrying its driver and commander only, who doubles as the vehicle's gunner.
(*) The LAV-25 (HQ) is completely non-functional in normal gameplay, and serves only as a deployable command vehicle in Capture The Island (CTI) scenarios created with the Warfare module.
Protection[]
All variants of the LAV-25 retain base armour values of 150.
Successful strikes to any of the following highlighted sections will inflict full damage to the component:
LEGEND Green = Body Orange = Engine Violet = Fuel tank Maroon = Turret
Note that with the exception of the turret, component hitzones remain identical on the LAV-25 (HQ) variant.
Body[]
The hull can resist up to 150 points of damage.
Engine[]
The engine can survive 300 points of damage before failure. A damaged engine will prevent the LAV-25 from being able to attain its top speed.
Depending on tidal strength both variants may not be able to achieve sufficient power to traverse over water, and can potentially become trapped without mobility support from other vehicles.
Fuel tank[]
The fuel tank can only incur 150 points of damage before rupturing. A damaged tank will cause the LAV-25 to gradually leak fuel over time.
Wheels[]
The wheels on both LAV-25s can only take 60 points of damage before bursting. 40% of damage is always shared with the LAV-25's main "health" pool.
Turret[]
The turret on the regular troop carrier can only take 120 points of damage before failing. 30% of incoming damage is always transferred onto the vehicle's "health" pool.
Disabling this component will prevent the gunner from rotating the turret's rotation/elevation but will not stop it from being fired.
Armament[]
NOTE: For specifics on the M242's munitions, see its related section listed here.
The gunner position controls all weapon systems on the regular LAV-25 variant. On the HQ variant however, the commander position uses the external, turret ring-mounted M240.
For optics, only the baseline IFV variant's gunner can toggle a day, night or green-hot/black-hot thermal vision modes (the commander uses orange-hot/red-hot instead):
M242[]
General-purpose 25 mm autocannon. Can load either HE or AP-type shells.
The M242 can attain a fire rate of up to 200 rounds per minute. It has an effective firing range of 1,500 metres. Dispersion is identical regardless of whether the M242 is firing HE or AP-based rounds and is always fixed at 0.0003 rad. Switching between munition types is instantaneous.
A laser rangefinder is available but the M242 does not have the ability to automatically zero onto targets (manual zeroing is not possible).
M240[]
Base damage value
Aerodynamic friction
Initial velocity (m/s)
12
-0.0009324
834
7.62 mm medium machine gun. The M240 is either mounted coaxially (on the regular APC variant) or is fitted onto an external turret ring (on the HQ variant).
It can attain a fire rate of up to 800 RPM and requires 5 seconds to reload a fresh belt/cloth pouch. Accuracy-wise, it has a fixed dispersion of 0.0012 rad regardless of distance.
Trivia[]
Baseline LAV-25 variant. Note the empty pintle on top of the turret.
Real LAV-25s are commonly fitted with turret-mounted pintles that support a single M240 machine gun for use by the commander.[1]
Curiously, the in-game LAV-25 does have a pintle mount modelled onto it but remains completely unused in actual gameplay. This is even lampshaded by its Armoury Description which states that it has two M240s despite the fact that only the coaxial M240 can be used.
As part of the latest Steam version patches (Community Configuration Project), the LAV-25's M242 chain gun was upgraded with a boost to its firepower with both AP/HE munitions dealing slightly increased base damage. The M242's accuracy was also improved and is now comparable to the 2A42 30 mm autocannon used on most Russian vehicles and helicopters.[2]
It should also be noted that prior to the latest patches, neither the gunner nor the commander could toggle thermal vision optics. In subsequent updates following Operation Arrowhead's release, the gunner was given access to thermal vision modes.[2] However, the commander was still unable to toggle thermal optics until the latest CCP/CorePatch updates.[3]
At launch, the LAV-25's passengers would appear as if they were crouching rather than sitting down due to misconfigured animations. This was eventually fixed after the release of Patch 1.03.[4]
Gallery[]
ARMA Reforger[]
NOTE: The information in this article details content that has yet to be officially released. It is subject to change and may not reflect what is available in the final product.
The LAV-25 will be added to ARMA Reforger once the Final Strike development milestone has been reached.[5]
USMC - Vehicles (ArmA 2)