Inspiration from the Israelis

[Raellus]

Here are a couple of things that the Israelis have done in order to make their armored vehicles more survivable and effective against enemy infantry. Since the U.S. (and others) followed their lead and adapted Israeli Blazer reactive armor after witnessing its effectiveness in the '82 "Peace for Gallilee" operation, it makes sense that the U.S. would continue to flatter the Israeli's by immitating their later innovations.

"Toga" add-on armor for the M113. Toga consists of perforated steel screens fitted a couple of centimeters away from the M113's thin aluminum armor. Although the M113's armor is rated to provide protection from 7.62mm fire, Toga screens are proven against 14.5mm AP ammo. Although they won't stop RPG rockets, they will limit post-penetration damage by narrowing the blast radius of the rocket's HEAT charge within the vehicle.

Roof-mounted 60mm mortars. Since their close call in the Yom Kippur war, Israeli MBTs and APCs have carried (and continue to do so) 60mm mortars mounted on their roofs for use against enemy infantry. In T2K, as MBTs became more rare due to attrition and lack of replacements, the primary threat to survivors would be enemy infantry AT teams. A 60mm mortar would allow AFVs more flexibility in engaging enemy infantry as well as provide indirect fire support to friendly infantry.

Infantry cross-training. "In the IDF, all infantry and mechanized have dual and sometimes triple weapons, medical and communications tasks. Besides their personal weapons, each man is trained (and required) to carry and use a second piece of equipment: e.g. a field radio, 66mm LAW rocket, M203 40mm grenade launcher, Dragon A/T missile, A/T rifle grenades, FN MAG light machine gun, 52mm light mortar, medical equipment or... a Soviet-made RPG-7." (Armies in Lebanon 1982-84, Samuel M. Katz, Osprey Publishing, London 1985).

Most PCs seem to do this last bit anyway, but here is an RL precedent. With high infantry casualties and a resulting surplus of infantry weapons, coupled with wider mission requirements, this sort of thing would become de-riguer.