BZS-320 Infantry Support Vehicle

The BZS-320 is the primary armored fighting vehicle of the Imperial Tekkelien Ground Forces. Its main purpose is to accompany motorized infantry formations and provide direct fire support while also absorbing incoming enemy small arms fire. Imperial doctrine favors fast-moving light armor with a high damage output, especially for urban warfare. The ISV is capable of maneuvering through the tight streets of colonial cities while also providing a high volume of suppressive direct fire. Its weapons are optimized to be most effective against groups of enemy infantry, but it can also engage other armored vehicles and even tanks in a limited capacity with its missile launchers.

## Specifications

### Armament

30mm Autocannon, 7.9mm GPMG, 76mm recoilless rifle, anti-tank missiles, rarely 80mm direct-fire gun

### Speed

50 mph on road40 mph off-road5 mph in water

## Design

The infantry fighting vehicle is a mid-20th century concept that came about from the need for more heavily armored vehicles that were lighter and faster than tanks, and could be produced in much greater numbers. Its firepower is designed to kill groups of entrenched infantry, usually with a rapid-firing autocannon armed with high-explosive and incendiary shells, but its armor is strong enough to survive the majority of anti-vehicle weapons that would be employed to take out troop transports and APCs.

The Centennial 30mm autocannon is the same weapon used on the Imperial Navy's fighter-bombers, which can fire either high-explosive, incendiary or armor-piercing rounds. AP rounds are made of solid tungsten or depleted uranium and are highly effective against similar types of vehicles. It is gyroscopically stabilized and has a fire control computer that allows it to lead moving targets and even slow-moving aircraft such as dropships.

The entire cabin is protected by 1-3 inches of rolled homogenous steel armor. Eklesian steel has a very high yield strength and is capable of withstanding almost all small-arms fire on its own. The bare steel armor of the ISV is rated to withstand .50 caliber machine guns and 20mm autocannon shells. The angled frontal plate gives an effective thickness enough to withstand up to 30mm rounds.

One specialty of the ISV is its modularity. There are numerous hardpoints where various additional equipment can be bolted on at any motor pool. The most common addition to the sides of the hull are non-explosive reactive armor. Sacrificial NxRA blocks are made of a composite expanding material sandwiched between two thin steel plates. When they are hit by a normally penetrating shot, the flexible material within them expands to increase the effective thickness of the armor, but only once since this causes the steel plates to fall off.

Active protection systems are another common feature, which track incoming anti-tank rockets and shoot down them with a shotgun-like device.

Many different weapons are also bolted onto hardpoints above the secondary gunner's hatch, this gives the vehicle a lot of options for facing different environments and types of enemy forces. Grenade launchers, recoilless rifles and even flamethrowers can be mounted externally. However, because these weapons are bolted onto the outside, it requires the secondary gunner to open the hatch and expose his upper body to enemy fire as he operates it. It may also be awkward to operate and even worse to reload. Reloading may include climbing out of the vehicle entirely. In a chemical or nuclear contaminated battlefield, using these weapons are not possible.