Most vehicle vision blocks (the periscope-like blocks surrounding driver, commander, and loader positions) and sight heads are reasonably armored against small-arms fire and fragments, but against a decent direct rifle or heavier hit, they won't survive. And you're right; it's been a valid antiarmor technique, pretty much since tanks have been around, to force the crew to button up then blind the tank by shooting out vision blocks and sight heads; eventually, the crew has to surrender or face being roasted by Molotov cocktails or other incendiaries poured into their engine compartments. The only real problem is that they're small targets.
As far as the vehicle smoke generators, they only work with diesel fuel. Most modern armored vehicles either have them or had them -- I say had because US vehicles and those of some NATO countries are now burning jet fuel (JP-8 IIRC) and that won't work with the vehicle smoke generators. The US, for example, has removed the smoke generators from its vehicles, since they're useless now anyway. In a T2K context, US and NATO vehicles would still be burning diesel and they would not have been removed.
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War is the absence of reason. But then, life often demands unreasonable responses. - Lucian Soulban, Warhammer 40000 series, Necromunda Book 6, Fleshworks
Entirely too much T2K stuff here: www.pmulcahy.com
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