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M-2 BRADLEY
(INFANTRY FIGHTING VEHICLE)
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The Bradley M2 and M3 are an American armoured battle-tanks designed to transport troops to critical areas and battlefields and to provide fire cover and fight enemy tanks and vehicles protecting its troops of enemy attacks.
A fully trackable tank and with an armour of welded aluminum and spaced lamintated armour on the hull, the Bradley is powered by a Cummins VTA-903T engine and with a hydromechanical transmission from Lockheed Martin HMPT-500 with three speeds ranges, providing maximums speeds up to 65 km/hr.
Even when on the downside of the Bradley is their high cost, poor armouring and difficult to maneuver, more than 6,000 units has been produced, been the United States and The Saudi Arabia who uses these tanks like a Infantry Fighting Vehicle (IFV) on their Armies; proving to be a good tank for medium and long-range firepower capabilities which it can defeat any armoured vehicle in the battlefield and to protect the troop from artillery and small arms attacks.
With a crew of three, the driver, the gunner and the commander, the M2 Bradley can transport up to six fully equipped infantry men in almost any terrain and protecting them with a M242 Bushmaster 25mm cannon from Boeing co. and with stabilizers to fire on the move, which it has a dual integrated feed mechanism and remote feed selection with single or multiple shots mode with a fire power of 200 rounds per minute up to 2,000 meters and it can be converted to shot up to 500 rounds per minute. Also is equipped with an M240C machine gun mounted coaxially to the right of the Bushmaster cannon. For heavy attacks, the Bradley depends on the TOW anti-tank missiles systems BGM-71 from Rayhteon and the Missiles manufactured from Huges aircraft corp., the missiles are mounted on two collapsible launch rack or tube launcher on the left of the turret and reaching speed of Mach-1 and distances up to 4 km.
The Bradley has to be stand still in order to launch the missiles with success and it can be re-load manually by a infantry man thru the back of the vehicle opening a latch protected with armoured steel. The missile can destroy any armored vehicle effectively.
The gunner is equipped with a Raytheon Integrated Sight Unit (ISU) with a day/ night Thermal sight with a X4 and X12 magnification and their optical relay images of the gunners sight to the commander. Also the gunner has a periscope for forward and side observation, the target is tracked using an optical sight which detects the infra-red signal from the back of the missile in flight; a double-wire command link between the missile and the gunner with two spools at the back of the missile for better target adquisition.
On the defensive mode the Bradley has firing ports and periscopes along with night vision equipment and NBC (Nuclear, Biological, Chemical) defense system. Also it has two M257 smoke grenades dischargers with 4 smoke grenades each and the engine is fitted with a system to generate smoke. For rapid desmount of the troops it has a rear hydraulic compartment and for rapid mobility the Bradley can be transported by truck, train, ships or cargo planes to any part where required.
All the Bradleys are Amphibious which the tracks can be used like water propulsions reaching speeds up to 7 km/hr on water. There are two types of Bradleys, the M2 is a Infantry Fighting Vehicle (IFV) and the M3 Cavalry/Scout vehicle, which is almost identical to the M2 on their interior and chassis but instead of transport troop it only transport 2 Scouts with additional radios, ammunitions along with more TOW’s missiles and Dragon or Javelin missiles rounds and the only exterior difference of the M2 is that the M3 has not firing ports for shooting from inside.
It is three versions of Bradleys, the U.S Army is converting most of their Bradleys to the latest version, the A2 or “highly survivability” and some other new upgraded versions with better modifications and armour like the M2A3 & M3A3 models which will facilitate a Command & Control software compatible with the M1A2 SEP and M1AI D tanks and more lethality along with digital electronics on-board subsytems monitoring, diagnostics/prognostics .
CONTRACTOR: United Defenses, Limited Partnership
YEAR OF PRODUCTION: 1980
DIMENSIONS:
WEIGHT: 21 Tons.
LENGTH: 6.55 Mts. (21’2 ft)
WIDTH: 3.61 Mts. (10’6 ft)
HEIGHT: 2.56 Mts. (9’9 ft)
CREW: 3 (Driver, Gunner & Commander)
TROOPS: 6 fully equipped
SPEED: 45 miles/ hr. (66 km/hr.)
WATER SPEED: 7.2 km/hr.
RANGE: 300 miles (483 kms.)
ENGINE: VTA-903T, 500 hp Cummins 8 cylinder Water-cooled/Turbo-charged
ARMAMENT: One- 25mm. Chain Gun (Hughes co.)
One – 7.62mm coaxial Machine Guns
One—Twin Launcher for TOW anti-tank missiles
APROXIMATELY COST: $3,160,000.00 MDD
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