The M3 Bradley is a member of the Bradley family of American fighting vehicles which entered service with the U.S. Army in the early 1980s. Tankers may look forward to the addition of this iconic and much-anticipated vehicle to War Thunder with the upcoming update 1.85!

In War Thunder, the Bradley will be the first infantry fighting vehicle coming to the top rank of the American ground forces tree with the release of update 1.85. Extremely mobile and well armed, despite not seeming like it at first, the Bradley is able to strike fear into tankers commanding even the most heavily armored top tier MBTs!

As most vehicles of this class, the M3 Bradley is rather lightly armored and is only capable of withstanding heavy machine gun and some light cannon fire, thanks to its spaced laminate aluminium armor. Although this armor solution doesn’t offer superb protection characteristics, it does help with keeping the vehicle’s weight as low as possible, which in turn has a positive effect on mobility.

Speaking of which, the M3 Bradley is capable of reaching a top speed of up to 41 mph (66 km/h) on roads, thanks to its 600 horsepower diesel engine. While this doesn’t make it the fastest vehicle of its class compared to similar vehicles of other nations, it’s still more than enough to allow it to cover ground quickly and outmaneuver potential opponents, even in relatively rough terrain.

Being armed with a 25mm chain gun, the M3 Bradley isn’t able to fight enemy MBTs with composite and reactive armor solutions head on. However, when taking advantage of the vehicle’s excellent mobility, the M3 Bradley is more than capable of piercing the relatively thinly armored sides of most MBTs and deal tremendous damage with its respectable rate of fire of 200 rounds/min.

Future Bradley commanders will inevitably sometimes find themselves in the situation where either the enemy can’t be flanked or is too far away to effectively combat using the main gun. In such circumstances, you’ll be glad to hear that the Bradley also has a dual TOW ATGM launcher mounted on the side of the turret. The familiar TOW missiles will allow Bradley commanders to engage targets at far range with great precision as well as take on enemy MBTs head on, if the need arises.

However, it’s also important to mention that the TOW launcher on the Bradley is unable to fire its missiles while on the move and at high speeds. Bradley crews in real life would retract the launcher during travel in order to prevent it from possibly detaching itself from the vehicle at high speeds. This procedure will also be simulated in the game, with the launcher automatically retracting and deploying itself, depending on if and how fast the vehicle is moving.

The long-awaited M3 Bradley is finally coming to War Thunder with the upcoming update 1.85 and will be available to all tankers at the top rank of the American ground forces research tree. In the meantime, stay tuned to the news for more information regarding the next major update. Until then, tankers!

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