BTR-82A

The BTR-82A is an Armored Personnel Carrier (APC)/Infantry Fighting Vehicle (IFV) added to squad during the Alpha V9 update. In-game it is used solely by the Russian Ground Forces (RGF). It sacrifices armor protection for speed, making it faster but also considerably weaker than other IFVs in-game.

General Information
The BTR-82A is a modern 8-wheeled APC. It was designed by the Arzamas Machinery Plant in 2009 and adopted into the RGF in 2013 as their standard APC and infantry carrier vehicle (ICV). The BTR-82A is still primarily used by the RGF. Although both the Belarusian and Bangladeshi governments expressed interest in acquiring some of their own, only the Republic of Kazakhstan actually purchased any. BTR-82A production ceased in 2015, replaced by an upgrade program designed to modernise all BTR-80s to a standard similar to the 82A. BTR-80s that have been upgraded in this fashion are designated as BTR-802AMs.

The BTR-82A weighs over 16 metric tons, is 24.87 ft (7.58 m) long, 9.79 ft (2.985 m) wide, and 8.94 ft (2.725 m) tall. The BTR-82A can be driven by 3 crew members and can hold up to 7 passengers. The BTR-82A has better armor than the BTR-80, featuring Improved laminate armor along the bottom of the hull, spall liners along the interior walls and ceiling, a ballistic mat on the floor of each troop compartment and possibly under the troop seats, likely with the same effect as the spall liner. The commander's and gunner's sights were replaced with more capable systems. The gunner's searchlight was replaced with a PL-1, and later an LP-1 infrared spectrum pulse laser searchlight. The vehicle has a more powerful 300-hp and fuel efficient engine, increasing its cruising range from at around 600-km to at least 700-km. The BTR-82A is fitted with a 2A72 cannon as its primary armament, and a coaxial PKT machine-gun as secondary armament. The vehicle can reach a maximum speed of 49.71 mph (80 km/h).

Gameplay
The BTR-82A is only used by one faction, the Russian Ground Forces. The BTR-82A is not a dedicated infantry fighting vehicle (IFV). As a result, it struggles to hold its own against other IFVs such as the FV510 and the M2A3. In fact, the BTR-82A has inferior armor protection compared to many APCs. It is a fast troop transport armed with an autocannon that is efficient at engaging enemy infantry and light vehicles. Nothing more, nothing less. Be ready to immediately retreat if you start taking heavy fire.


 * The vehicle is crewed by 3 men, Driver, Gunner, and Commander, and can carry 10 passengers in addition to the crew.
 * The driver gets access to an engine smoke generator operated by clicking and holding LMB. This generates a smoke-screen using the vehicle's exhaust, and it trails behind the vehicle accordingly. It also makes a for a good escape if you generate a cloud and reverse into it. Additionally, the engine smoke generator can be used to cover more important friendly vehicles if they require repairs.
 * The gunner gets access to the 2A72 Shipunov 30mm cannon, firing either armor-piercing (AP) rounds or high explosive (HE) ones. It is essentially the same autocannon used by the BMP-2, just with a longer barrel and slower rate of fire. The former does serious damage to lightly armored or unarmored targets but comes up short against anything heavier. HE is for dealing with infantry. You can kill infantry with the AP rounds, but it requires a direct hit on their bodies, and is therefore not recommended. You should switch to your coaxial machine gun instead. You get two charges of smoke grenades for self-defense. To fire the smoke grenades, press the 3 key to switch off of the main gun. Press LMB to fire off the smoke. Be careful not to discharge both smoke grenade loads at once. The smoke grenades are also airburst, meaning that while there is a small delay from when they are launched to when they are deployed effectively, their effects are still more immediate than that of engine smoke. Press 1 to switch back to the main gun. You also get access to a PKT coaxial machine gun for dealing with infantry threats.
 * The commander gets access to a periscope, but unlike some other vehicles, there is no hunter-killer system. Do not underestimate the value of a good commander. You can coordinate with the rest of the team and act as another set of eyes. It lets the gunner stick to targeting.
 * You are an APC. If you see a group of friendlies who need transport, make the offer and take the initiative.
 * The BTR-82A is commonly shortened to 30 millimetre, 30 mil, and 30 mike, sometimes with BTR added on to the end. This is in reference to its 30mm armament, which distinguishes it from regular BTRs.
 * Due to it being a wheeled vehicle the BTR-82A is very fast on roads and paved surfaces allowing it to get into favorable positions early in the game and disengage quickly from hostiles.



MATCHUPS WITH VEHICLES OF COMPARABLE ROLE ARE AS FOLLOWS:


 * M2A3: The BTR-82A cannot effectively engage the M2A3 in most circumstances. The BFV has significantly better armor and is equipped with TOW missiles, while the BTR-82A lacks missiles and has subpar armor. An effort can be made to push the BFV from its rear while supported by anti-tank infantry, though it is usually not advised. M2A3 simply has twice the amount of HP so any non-afk M2A3 should win 1v1 engagement against BTR-82A every single time, unless there is too great of luck/positioning/skill difference.   *The turret of M2A3 can be penetrated before roughly 500m, however - BTR-82A lacks the rangefinder it has IRL to quickly find out if such engagement is worthwhile*
 * FV510: The BTR-82A is slightly more likely to emerge victorious due to the fact that the FV510 lacks dual-plane stabilization for both the gunner and the commander. The FV510 also has a slow-firing clip-fed cannon, no ATGMs, and a critical weakness in the armor on the rear exit hatch. Its armor at this location is much weaker compared to the rest of the vehicle, and skilled crews should work together to get all their shots into this area. Even so, the FV510 has great protection everywhere else and a powerful gun, meaning that it is very likely that the BTR-82A will be destroyed in any other situation.
 * The turret of FV510 can be penetrated before roughly 500m, however - BTR-82A lacks the rangefinder it has IRL to quickly find out if such engagement is worthwhile* P.S. - do *not* be baited into shooting the side armor - it does not work most of the time (addon armor is 20mm on top of 35mm base side hull armor, on top of 30mm tracks, vs. your 60mm penetration on AP). Even if both vehicles penetrate each other 100% of time and start shooting at same time, the FV510 will still emerge victorious due to same health value as the M2A3(2000 vs. 1000 of BTR); however, it is a much closer fight(before damage fall off, which Russian 30mm has more of, time to kill difference is less than 2 seconds). Winning the engagement requires much more skill and effort on BTR-82A's crew. The best spot to aim for when fighting the FV510 is the left turret cheek, on the BTR gunner's right if facing directly towards it. That spot has very low armor, and hammering it even with the weaker but faster 30mm autocannon will destroy it.
 * Never depend on stabilizers to win an engagement, it gets knocked out by one magazine of FV510 s AP rounds. Additionally, Terrain can easily screw with BTR-82A's gun due to mediocre 7 degrees of depression.
 * M1126: This is the BTR-82A's most likely opponent. The M1126 is roughly even in 1v1 fight due to BTR's more fragile nature(time to kill difference between them is less than half a second, so generally the one who fires first wins). The M1126 has good armor and a capable M2A1 CROWS remote weapon station(which does *not* take hitpoint damage; so attacking M1126 is a choice between killing it and disabling its turret) that is more than capable of penetrating the armor(may bounce past 500m, frontally) of the BTR-82A and destroying it. In this match-up, the best course of action for the BTR-82A crew would be to attempt to flank around the M1126 and engage its sides or, if possible, the rear while destroying its engine so gunner has trouble seeing target over the engine smoke. The M240 CROWS variant of the M1126 poses no threat to you, but can still pop your tires and serve as a distraction.
 * LAV 6.0 and LAV III: Balanced layers often has 3 BTR-82A vs. 2 LAV 6.0, for good reason. The LAV 6.0 has the higher durability/speed of M1126 yet also the higher dps/penetration of M2A3. This is a dangerous combination that generally means BTR-82A has no chance 1v1 unless luck/positioning/skill difference is too great. It is still possible to spend roughly 12 shots to LAV 6.0's turret to damage its traverse rate, then shoot engine(armor profile mostly identical as that of M1126) so it cannot turn to compensate for slower turret traverse(which skilled crew can easily do), then drive behind it and finish it off as it has no depression over the rear of vehicle. The LAV III variants more or less behave just like the M1126, just with an extra gunner armed with a pintle-mounted GPMG which cannot damage you, but can damage and pop your tires. The M2A1 CROWS variant is the one which can damage you. The same tactics apply as with the M1126.

Trivia

 * BTR stands for Bronetransporter (бронетранспортер) which in English from Russian is "Armored Personnel Carrier". The number 82 strangely does not represent the year the BTR-82A or its parent, the BTR-82, was created, since both of these vehicles have been created in the 21st century. A stands for "Automatic," meaning automatic cannon as the main armament of the vehicle. IFV stands for Infantry Fighting Vehicle.
 * The BTR-82A's ticket value was previously 40 but was decreased by 28 tickets in the Alpha v9.4 update.
 * BTR-82As 30mm 2A72 automatic cannon was considered the strongest weapon in the game at the time of its release in version Alpha 9. The HE ammunition of the gun had an unhealthy radius of splash damage, and could damage any vehicle present in the game at the time (mainly M1126 as its direct counterpart at the time).
 * Said 30mm automatic cannon ammunition was quickly nerfed into a sorry state in version Alpha 9.1. The gun itself also was changed to only fire in bursts instead of realistic and previously available full-auto mode.
 * The real-life version of the BTR-82A employs 3x81mm smoke grenades, but the version in the game uses 40mm smoke grenades instead.