Thread by @Sam_Cranny

"Not long ago we were shot at by BTR main gun. It to me is the worst...Wounds from these are horrible. A whole leg can be removed. A shot to the body makes someone almost explode. They are easy to destroy but not good to fight directly.”

The above is an account of a BTR's 30 mm 2A72 cannon collected by @BattlesandBeers it recounts the challenge posed by these weapons in combat - the same account remarks that they prefer to engage Russian tanks than their BTRs. So, let's look into this weapon:

The 2A72 is a lighter version of the 2A42 that arms the BMP-2, it is mounted in the BPPU-1 turret for the BTR-80 series vehicles and in a few other applications. It is stabilised and dual-feed, meaning the gunner can switch between high explosive and armour piercing ammo.

It can be elevated to +70 degrees, which is particularly useful in urban environments where targets are likely above the vehicle. It can engage armoured targets at 1.5 km and soft at 2 km, with a slant range of 4km. It has a rate of fire of 330 rounds per minute.

It can fire single shots, bursts or rapid fire and the turret can be traversed slowly or quickly, the former conferring greater accuracy. The AP rounds can penetrate 25 mm of armour, might not sound like a lot but this is problematic for most vehicles at short ranges.

The HE rounds are loaded with a projectile carrying 48.5 g of A-IX-2 explosive incendiary mix (RDX and aluminium), which means they will explode and create intense heat upon detonation. The fuze is a point detonating design with a 0.15 ms delay.

The efficacy of this weapon is wrapped up in a few things: The rate of fire is suppressive, and it does not have to be super accurate to pin an infantry section down. Note the huge damage mentioned above. Next is the range, whilst it may not be necessary to engage at 1.5 km in a

city, its range means that its dismounts can probably engage their target a long time before the target can engage them. Couple that with the rate of fire, and you have a difficult situation for infantry forces.

The armour of the vehicle means that only a shoulder fired weapon will do, but its dismounts mean that anyone firing such a weapon will have to take risk and ideally operate from a concealed place.

There is finally the effects of the rounds themselves. A single 30 mm round exploding releases a fair amount of energy - around 200 joules. This is quite a bit, but consider the cumulative effects of multiple rounds striking a target in quick succession, each creating fragments

All of this combined makes the 2A72, and its Ukrainian equivalent, a powerful weapon and one that is likely proving a challenge for both sides in the #WARINUKRAINE

Sources:
weaponsystems.net/system/534-30m…
instagram.com/battles.and.be…
funker530.com/video/russian-…