Last edited 16. Feb.

2022

Mutiny Gaming
ARMOR MANUAL

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 INTRODUCTION

This guide will cover all the necessary basics for manning any of the crew slots of armored
assets during our Operations. It will teach you everything from how to build your personal
loadout, which ammo to shoot at specific targets and how to interact with your crewmates. It
will (hopefully) ensure that you can reliably work with most armored assets in our arsenal
and should prevent you from ending up like these guys:

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 CREW LOADOUT

Generally your personal loadout isn’t as important as with other specialist roles.
Nevertheless there are some handy items you should always have close at hand, these are
shown below.

Must have
- Tanker Helmet or earplugs
- Backpack with Toolkit, Surgical Kit, CTab interface and entrenching tool
- SR Radio
- Primary and Secondary weapons + ammo
- Medical supplies (Bandages, Tourniquet, Morphine)
- Binoculars or Laser Designator

Optional/ useful on occasion

- LR Radio for the Vehicle Commander
- Blood supply
- smoke grenades
- NVGs

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 ROLES

Tank Commander
The Tank Commander makes the magic come together inside the vehicle. He will
give the destination to the driver, direct targets for the gunner, and instruct what kind of
shell to load up based on the target. They are also usually provided with smoke launchers
to help cover the tank. Lastly, the Tank Commander is in charge of receiving and
replying to all incoming radio calls from command and other squads.

The Gunner
The gunner of the vehicle is fairly self explanatory. He receives targets from the Tank
Commander, takes aim, and blows away whatever is in his sights. The gunner also
normally has access to a MG to use against infantry and soft-targets. The gunner may also
sometimes double-down as a loader if the tank is equipped with an auto-loader for
ammunition which means the gunner will be responsible for loading the correct ammunition.
He may also give directions to the driver to re-adjust if he doesn't have a good view of the
target.

The Driver
The driver is in charge of getting the crew to the correct destination and following the
Tank Commanders orders in order to be the most effective. The driver may also
take directions from the Gunner if he doesn't have a good view of the target.

The Loader
The loader is in charge of loading the correct ammunition for the current target. The
ammunition type is usually requested by the Tank Commander or the Gunner. The loader
may have an MG when turned out in some cases. In some tanks, the loader position may be
replaced with an auto-loader that the gunner will have access to, meaning there will not be a
loader position available. If the loader spot is available, it will reduce the reloading time
significantly.

COMMUNICATION

Communication is the most important part of being a successful tank crew. There are many
ways that can affect how radios are going to be used for missions but the most important
radio setup should be between the tank crew.

Inside the Tank

While inside there is usually an intercom channel that allows normal talking without using the
radio. There should also be a radio channel for tank crew to be able to communicate if a
crew member has to leave the vehicle. This channel would be private for each tank.

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Command
As indicated with the comm chart during the briefing. The Tank Commander should be in LR
communication with the Team Chief or Ground Controller to receive orders and share the
tank’s status

Squad Leaders
Depending on the situation and the type of objective, it might be a smart idea to have a
direct line to the squad leader that the tank is working with.

CREW COMMANDS

Inside the tank it is important to be able to understand and give orders in a clear manner.
The orders that are given should be understood by drivers and gunners and they should be
able to tell what the commander is asking them to do. As the commander, always start
orders to your crew by addressing them as "Driver" or "gunner."(or by name if you can
remember) ideally the commands should be acknowledged by the recipient.

i. e. “Driver, Reverse” - “Reversing” or “Gunner, target tank, bearing 069” - “Target identified”

Some commanders might change things up as they get more experience and develop their
own tactics.
Things like “go forwards” and “go backwards” and easy things to comprehend are not going
to be listed.

Advanced maneuvers and tactics should be explained by the commander before they are
executed to avoid any confusion. Many of those maneuvers require more coordination than
giving couple commands.

Driver Commands

● “Full Turn Left” → Turn 180 degrees backward. Turn around while going left
● “Half Turn Right” → Turn 90 degrees to the tank right.
● “Quarter Turn Left” → Turn 45 degrees to the left
● “Face bearing 150” → Turn the tank’s front facing 150 degrees

Gunner Commands

● ”Scan NW” → Scan the NW region for enemies and report back
● “Aim at the Yellow building bearing 120 degrees” → Aim but do not fire at a target.
● “Fire at Technical bearing north” → Fire at the enemy technical that’s due north
● “Switch to AP” → Switch ammo type

Gunner Requests

● Depending on the situation and with permission from the commander,indicated to the
driver by a short command like “Gunner has control” or “Gunner’s tank”. The gunner may
give movement orders to the driver to better engage targets.

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● When the tank is near friendly infantry the gunner has to ask for permission to fire. Like
launchers, tank cannons emit an overpressure blast that will injure or even knock friendly
troops unconscious.

TARGET PRIORITY

Target priority is something that is necessary to save ammo and to make sure that the tank
stays alive as long as possible. Nearly all enemy units in an AO will cause a threat to infantry
but this is not true for armor. When the AO has multiple types of armor and enemy
emplacements, this list should be the priority for the armor assets to neutralize.

1. Tanks
- Since they have AP rounds and can take out tanks the easiest

2. IFVs
- Some IFVs come equipped with ATGMs
- Many IFVs have cannons that can damage and disable tank systems

3. AT Statics
- Statics are usually equipped with laser guided missiles and target locking

4. Penetrating Statics (i.e. .50 cal M2, DShK, ZU-23)

- Some static weapons can shed through the armor and take out the
crew

5. AT infantry
- Amongst the threats against tanks these have the least range but that
does not mean they should be taken lightly.
- Especially dangerous in terrain with short view distances

6. Statics
- Statics may not be strong against armor but are a threat to friendly
infantry

7. Infantry
- Enemy infantry is a major threat to friendly infantry.

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 AMMO TYPES

Note: If an ammo type is followed by ”-T” (like: “APFSDS-T), it means that the shell acts as a
tracer and gives a light trail when fired (same effect as rifle tracers).

APFSDS - ARMOR-PIERCING FIN-STABILIZED DISCARDING-SABOT

Often called “Sabot'' or “AP”. These have the best penetration, except at extreme ranges.
Their penetrating power comes from the extreme velocity they are fired at. This round has
little to no area of effect, so it is best used on heavily armored targets.

HEAT - HIGH EXPLOSIVE ANTI TANK

A big shell that unlike kinetic rounds, uses chemical energy to penetrate targets. Very good
against soft to medium armored targets. Has no drop off in penetration and is thus useful for
all ranges and target types except heavily armored ones.

HE - HIGH EXPLOSIVE
Explodes on impact and delivers shrapnel and blast damage over a large area, however it
has almost no penetration power. Very effective against buildings, light vehicles and infantry.

ATGM - ANTI-TANK GUIDED MISSILE

This is a guided missile with (usually) a HEAT warhead. Use these against targets you would
use HEAT shells against. Good for extreme ranges, can be used to engage low flying
helicopters.

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 ARMOR AND COUNTERMEASURES

Armor Types:

Composite armor:
The armor used for modern MBT’s front and turret protection. It is designed to have higher
armor values than steel while saving weight. Its strength comes from multiple layers of
differing materials. Designed to have high resistance to HEAT rounds.

Armored steel:
A solid layer of armor steel that is still used on most IFVs (BMP series, Bradleys) , older
tanks (T-34, T-55, M60) and lighter vehicles (MRAPs). The side and rear armor of most
modern MBTs are armored this way. Can be effectively engaged by both AP and HEAT
rounds.

Other protective measures:

ERA - Explosive Reactive Armor:

An applique armor plate that consists of pressure sensitive explosives between two steel
plates that explode outwards when hit. This will decrease or eliminate the penetrating power
of the shell or missile. Once hit the charge is destroyed and no longer usable. Very effective
against HEAT shells.

Smoke launchers:
Most modern tanks are equipped with smoke launchers. These launchers will fire off
projectiles that produce smoke to give a smoke screen around the tank. Most tanks will
deploy smoke in the direction the turret is facing. Some vehicles can also generate smoke
behind the vehicle by injecting chemicals into the engine.

APS - Active protection system

A system that detects incoming missiles and shoots those down or interrupts the guidance
system. Not common on tanks and the only frontline service has been in Israeli Merkava
Mk4 and the Russian T-90 tanks.

DUKE System
System is a vehicle-mounted, lightweight system that neutralizes IED
threats. It can be found in most RHS US tanks and vehicles and it gets enabled by
pressing “CTRL + C” to find and pressing “C” to enable it. It will not allow IED’s to be
destroyed but it is possible for the system to jam TFAR radios. Be aware that IEDs might
explode after leaving the radius of the DUKE system. Due to the jamming it is
recommended to only have the lead vehicle enable the DUKE system and having some
distance from the lead vehicle.

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 VEHICLE IDENTIFICATION

Generally enemy vehicles should be engaged until

- the vehicle is destroyed (usually indicated by a big explosion)

- the enemy (AI) crew has abandoned the vehicle, this is most reliably
accomplished by destroying a vehicles tracks, engine or gun(s)

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 FIRE CONTROL SYSTEMS

ArmA 3 FCS

The jets DLC brought some changes to the vanilla FCS, most tanks now have an indicator of
the targets range, and their speed. To get these you use the “lase Range” keybind and wait
for the “LAY” indicator to change to “RDY” This will handle range, and target leading.

CUP/CWR FCS
Generally, don’t trust any of the extra stuff put on the reticle for CUP vehicles, it's not
accurate, not even for a guesstimate.

Figure 1: Reticle used in most Russian CUP vehicles.

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BMP-1, BMP-2, T-55: No FCS, guns zeroed to around 400m.

T-72: “Lase Range” key, to get target range. These all use the same reticle seen in Figure 1
above. Aim with only that center dot, nothing else does anything, or matches up for any
distances, don't even trust the ranging indicator on the bottom right, as it's completely wrong
("5" matches around 80m for a man, or around 150m for a MBT). it does seem as though the
autocannon and coax are both zeroed to 500m based on the center-circle, and the arrow
one if you're fully zoomed in.

T-90: “Lase Range” key, to get target range. Aim with only the center chevron.

BMP-3, BTR80 A, BTR-90, BPPU Vodnik: Aim at target, press “Lase Range” key, range
should appear in the bottom in red, and then you can manually zero the gun to this range.

T-34-85, BTR-60: Gun can be manually zeroed, extra sight indicators don’t do anything.

BRDM-2: gun zeroed for the small chevron in the sight, and range indicators actually work
for the guns (kindof)

M1A1 Abrams, Amtrak, Bradley, LAV-25, Stryker: Aim at target, press “Lase Range” key,
range should appear in the bottom in red, depending on the variant the range will be set
automatically or you can manually zero the gun to this range.

MCV-80 Warrior: Automatic ranging with “Lase Range” key.

RHS FCS

This is used only by RHS vehicles.

US vehicles:

Abrams: Aim at the target and press the “Lase Range” key to range to the target - after a
square appears in front of the range indicator (bottom middle of the screen) the gun is
zeroed to that range; this will zero all weapons. You must wait for the square before firing or
else the gun will not be zeroed correctly. The gun can only be zeroed for ranges over 450m.

The Abrams also has target leading. If the turret is turning when a target is ranged then the
lead will be set, this can also be dumped by pressing “G”

Bradley: Range and zero with “Lase Range” this zeros all weapons. Also there's a sloped
indicator at the bottom to give you a range estimate on infantry.

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Russian vehicles:

Figure 2: HUD and Reticle for Russian MBTs

Most Russian vehicles tend to share a sight similar to Figure 2 above. In general, the
chevron at the top of the vertical line is what you use to range a target, and to aim.

A. Compass- shows your bearing in degrees/10.

B. Indicator which shows gunner and commander direction relative to the tank hull.
C. Ready to fire light- lit when cannon is loaded
D. Range/loaded round indicator - left most character is loaded round, following four are
range.
E. Next load indicator.

For tanks with autoloaders (T-80, A, B, U and T-90) there's a feature where you can press
"x" to change which shell will be loaded next, the icon in the upper right will notify you what
will be loaded next. Unfortunately, it's in Russian. With some tanks you can switch the
autoloader mode between load next round automatically, and only load on command. To do
this press “Z” and you will have to press “R” to load each round.

Russian symbols for round type/weapon type:

• "0" Frag rounds
• "6" AP ammo
• “K" HEAT
• “Y" Wire-guided ATGM
• “H" coaxial MG

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You also have to range for each ammo type you use. HE rounds tend to have a significantly
lower velocity than AP (they actually tend to follow a similar path to the typical coaxial PKT).

To the lower left of the main sight there's a sloped indicator which can be used for ranging an
MBT-sized target quickly. By default, page up and page down should manually adjust the
zeroing of the cannon.

Most Russian vehicles also have smoke countermeasures in the form of smoke grenades
and a smoke generator. These can be cycled between with the default keybind of "Ctrl+C"

Night sights: Most Russian vehicles have night vision sights, unfortunately they are often
not able to be used with the FCS. One workaround for this is to aim at the target with NV on,
then switch to normal to range the target. The NV sights will retain the zero for the gun
unless zeroing up/down is pressed.

Figure 3: Sight for the T-72, and base T-80 variant. A) PKT range (PKT will hit to the right of
the vertical line, not on the left) B) Range finder, set for the height of MBTs C) cannon status,
Red= ready to fire, Black=reloading.

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T-72, T-80: aim the small red circle at the target when you have the cannon equipped and
press "T" the shell will impact just at the tip of the chevron. Be sure to wait for the sight to
finish adjustment before firing or the shot will miss. Additionally, these tanks need to be
reloaded by pressing “R” after each cannon shot. The FCS will not zero the PKT, but using it
when the PKT is selected will bring the sight where you can use the range indicators for it.
These variants also have night vision sights, and can use the FCS while in those modes.

T-72B3: This has a fancy modern-ish FCS. Press “T” on to range to what you’re aiming at,
then fire. It’ll also zero the PKT. Also has thermal sights which can be used with the FCS.

T-80A, B, U: these function simply by putting the aiming chevron on the target, then pressing
"T" to start ranging the gun. Ranging will take a few seconds and visibly move the crosshair
on the scope, use the chevron to aim once it stops moving. The lower indicators are all for
the coax, it does not range with the cannon.

These variants of the T-80 also have a lead system that works as you lase a target. Pressing
"G" will dump the lead information.

The T-80UM, UK and UE-1, all have thermals for night fighting, and can use the FCS with it.
All other variants only have night vision which must be manually zeroed.

T-90: Has the same FCS as the T-80A-U variants.

T-90A has thermal sights which will work with the FCS, the stock variant only has manually
zeroed NV. It also sports some missile countermeasures (like the T-80-UK). How it works is
that by default it operates in "automatic mode" and if a laser-guided missile or vehicle
ranging lasers are used on it then the turret will rotate to face the laser, and infrared
"dazzlers” will activate to disrupt the missile. This only seems to work against RHS
weapons.

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 TERRAIN SITUATIONS

URBAN

Armored forces are at a severe disadvantage during urban combat, but a few
tanks working with infantry can be very effective, especially if they work well
together. Tank and infantry task forces are normally formed to attack fortified areas.
Individual tanks or pairs of tanks can work together with rifle squads or platoons.

Tanks need infantry on the ground to provide security in urban areas and to designate
targets. Do not leave tanks alone because they are not able to secure their flanks in close
quarters situations. Tanks are extremely vulnerable to infantry attack when operating in
urban terrain. Due to the nature of urban warfare tanks remain relatively stationary for
prolonged periods allowing enemy AT teams to maneuver to a position of advantage.

The infantry normally leads movement through urban areas, the tanks follow and
provide close overwatch. After taking time to assess the situation or conduct short-range
reconnaissance, the infantry squad leader directs the tank to move, if necessary, and
identifies specific targets for the tank to engage. Should the infantry discover an enemy
position or encounter resistance, the tanks immediately respond with appropriate supporting
fire to fix the enemy in place or suppress him to allow the infantry to exploit the situation.

FOREST

Densely forested areas, where tree trunks are close, may make movement difficult. Thick
trees may slow or even stop tanks. Because the tank's mobility is greatly restricted in forest
terrain, its role is different in the forest than that on more open terrain. Instead of rapid
deployment and deep penetrations, tanks primarily provide fire support for infantry in forest
fighting.

Tanks can perform the following missions in the forest:

● Support attacking infantry. In the movement to contact, infantry will normally

lead, supported by tanks from overwatch positions whenever the terrain permits.
Terrain and vegetation will dictate distances between the forces, but the tanks
should be close enough to the infantry to be able to move forward quickly to
provide immediate fire support.
● Provide heavy fire support in the defense and conduct counterattacks. Tanks in
the forest defense are vulnerable to infiltrators; consequently, all-round security
and close coordination with infantry are essential.
● Support infantry in retrograde actions(retreating/breaking contact). Contrary to general
practice, in forests tanks will often disengage first, covered by the infantry.

OPEN FIELD

The open fields offer excellent fields of fire. Tanks should be sited to take advantage of
their long range and accuracy. Firing first and accurately are the most important
considerations.

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In open fields, hull and turret defilades for tactical vehicles are essential. This allows a
defending force to take advantage of their long-range weapon systems in the face of
enemy fire. Dispersion and frequent moves are other survivability techniques that can
be used.

Because open fields are an outstanding environment for employing aircraft, forces
should be reinforced with additional air-defense weapons.

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 USEFUL TACTICS

Keeping a Distance
Tanks in Arma 3 can accurately fire from distances of 1 km and more. Some of the ATGMs
have a range of 3750 meters. Keep these facts in mind when operating a tank.
As a tank, staying at a long distance will allow you to spot enemy positions, armor count and
other information. At that distance, many but not all infantry launchers will have a
harder time hitting your tank. Unlike with infantry, the tank’s effectiveness goes
down as the range decreases.At longer distances, many rockets and anti tank weapons will
lose their power and be less effective in damaging your tank. Staying at a distance would
also allow the tank to act as overwatch as other friendly assets get closer to the objective
area.

Dead Zones
Tanks are sometimes at a disadvantage because their main guns cannot depress or
elevate sufficiently to fire into basements and upper floors at close range . Western vehicles
generally have good depression and elevation angles. Most russian vehicles have relatively
poor depression angles, but higher elevation than many western vehicles.

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Elevation / Cover / Positioning
Each tank position should be constructed to provide both a level hull-defilade firing position
and a level turret-defilade observation position. Hull-defilade allows the tank to engage
targets with its main gun and machine guns. The turret-defilade allows the tank commander
to observe the engagement area without exposing the tank to enemy fire. Illustrates a
correctly prepared tank defensive position.

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Shoot and Cover
This tactic focuses on engaging strong enemy targets like tanks or bunkers with AT
capabilities. When facing these threats, reloading the cannon should be done in cover if
possible. This tactic demonstrated below allows the tank to be safe and not in enemy
crosshairs when it is at its most vulnerable. If the situation allows advancing on
different sides from a building to engage the target would make it harder for the enemy
to predict your movements and will keep your tank surviving longer.

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Staying Mobile
During combat and especially when traversing on open terrain, it is important to be
mobile. This will make it harder for enemy AT assets to get your range and make it harder for
them to hit you. If a shot needs to be taken, it is ok to stop momentarily and start moving.
Slow or stop, quickly aim and fire, then continue to take up a better position against the
enemy while reloading. If you stand still, you'll be easy prey for enemy tanks and artillery.

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