Hey everyone, its Tomeko here.
I would like to introduce the new plastic model kit that was released just last month.
Russia BMP-3 Fighting
Vehicle / ERA Armor
This here is a BMP-3.
To the eyes of the inexperienced, it may look just like a normal tank,
but it’s actually categorized in the IFV (Infantry Fighting Vehicle) genre.
You could think of it as a beefed up version of a troop carrier or armored vehicle.
In the old days, the troops that followed tanks were put in armored vehicles or trucks
for transport. However, these vehicles tend to be weak on both firepower and defense, and
once entering the WWII period, there were increased opportunity for them to be directly
involved in combat.
So to act against this problem, they required a machine with increased firepower and
heavier armor, yet able to carry a decent amount of troops...... and came up with
this.
This BMP-3 was a machine developed in the late stages of the Cold War, a machine that had
been designed focusing on firepower. It has a low velocity 2A70 100 mm rifled gun for the
main armament, with a 30mm gun also equipped as sub, and the main gun has a laser
guidance to enable firing of Anti-tank Missiles as well, a very ferocious machine, at any
rate.
If you only consider the firepower, this BMP-3 was even comparable with the T-80 tank
that was used as the main force back then.
And as the armor had also been strengthened as well, to a level that it could withstand
heavy machineguns to some extent......
BUT.
Even with all that, it’s not something that can handle a front-on combat against a
tank, or anti-tank weaponry such as RPG7 etc.
And that’s where the ERA comes in.
The ERA stands for [Explosive Reactive Armor].
I would believe those boxy things on the above two images are the ERA.
The reason I’m not 100% certain is because...
Here is the image of a
standard BMP-3.
I just compared the two and deducted the difference.
I’m not familiar with this reactive armor on their own.
It would be interesting if a model company made something like a
"Reactive Armor Set for 1/35 AFV Model".
Right then,
Onto the specific structure of this reactive armor.
They are two steel plates with explosives placed between them,
and are generally equipped as additional/supportive armor.
So it basically is just sticking many bombs of a sort all over, but the logic is as
follows:
Missile come flying.
↓
Hits.
↓
The explosive armor blows up before the damage reaches inside.
↓
The destructive energy of the missile is diverted.
↓
People inside are safe.
This may be obvious, but the ERA won’t explode by something like a pistol.
It will only react to something with decent amount of force.
And of course, the damage won’t reach the interior when the ERA exploads.
So it is an armor that explodes conveniently.
However, there are demerits as well.
As it explodes on the surface, the base armor will not be left unharmed,
and there were apparently cases where the shards from the explosion harmed the infantry
that were following as well.
So that was the BMP-3, with a rather interesting armor.
I’m not very familiar with the machines from the eastern countries,
but they are made into kits rather frequently by the companies outside Japan,
so if you are good with model kits, I recommend you to challenge this one too.
Alright, that’s it for today!
Thanks for reading, and see you next time.
By Tomeko (The BMP-3, apparently they are actually more that are exported than there are
within Russia.)