It should be fairly clear to military planners that a good number of future armed conflicts will be against opponents who either never had or no longer have any significant armored forces. However due to IEDs, mortar and RPG and other ATGM threats an armored vehicles are still important.
Pulling from all modern arsenals, including Merkava 4s, BMP-3s, etc. in addition to the new German Puma, the CV-90 family, the Korean K-21 IFV, etc how would you equip a heavy ACR?
Ignore the logistics of supporting different types and nationalities of equipment for this exercise, but mobility, tramsportability and fuel usage counts)
I like the Merkava4 for a MBT that will not fae a front-line MBT foe, I'm torn between the well-protected Puma and the well-armed BMP-3 (100mm main is nice, 4km range with pinpoint accuracy for the ATGM also nice, and do they have a thermobaric round for the main gun?) with the Arty having the excellent PzH2000 and the CV-90 dual 120mm mortar system.
I'd also like to see a purpose-built turbine/electric-hybrid MRAPed Wiesel II type rig that is helo deployable for quick reaction. Crew of 2 plus 3-4 troops, 40mm AGL or 25mm gun, or even an ONTOS type rig with 2 revolver-type auto-loading 106mm Recoilless rifle.
That brings up the Helo component, but that is a different thread altogether... |