Add-on Applique Armor - How to represent it?

[MarkSheppard]

According to Army Technology, the German Puma IFV will have:

The vehicle is built with the option of three levels of protection to suit the operational requirements. The versions weigh 29.4t, 31.45t and 43t.

The basic Level 1, 29.4t, version provides protection against explosively formed projectile (EFP) mines, top attack artillery projectiles and has all round protection against 14.5mm kinetic energy rounds and RPG-7 rocket propelled grenades. The front and flank of the vehicle are fitted with a higher level of protection against 30mm kinetic energy rounds.

Level A has been selected as the baseline armour protection for the Puma IFV for the German Army. Level A gives all round protection against 14.5mm machine gun rounds and artillery fragments. The front and flank are protected against 30mm cannon rounds. The front armour protects against hollow charge rounds. The vehicle is also protected against 10kg blast and EFP mines. The German Army Puma with Level A protection has a combat weight of 31.45t and is air transportable in the A400M aircraft.

Additional armour modules can be fitted to the hull and turret to provide Level C protection. With Level C armour protection the combat weight is increased to 43t. It would be necessary to deploy four A400M transporters to carry three Puma infantry fighting vehicles fitted with Level C armour protection, the fourth aircraft lifting the additional modular armour fits.

As more and more vehicles are designed from the start
with add-on armor packages, should the differing levels
of add on armor be shown in SPMBT OOBs as separate
vehicles? Or is this already being done with the
various Stryker variants?

[Arralen]

Wrote about the (outdate and inaccurate) info about Puma and what to put into WinSPMBT here : http://www.shrapnelcommunity.com/thr...=&sb=5&o=&vc=1


Only "Schutzstufe A" and "Schutzstufe C" armor variants will be build (with 32/43 ton weight).
Here are some more pages about Puma:
http://www.freundeskreis-panzergrenadiere.de/87.0.html

So we would only need 2 different versions in the OOB -

* the airlift configuration, with low side armor, resistant to 14,5mm anti-equipment snipers and arty shrapnel; resistant to conventional 30mm AP and RPG-7 from the front and grazing hits on the flanks

* full armor config; 30mm and RPG-7 on 3 sides

Btw., applying those armor kits (9-10 tons!) is definitly not within the time frame of a WinSPMBT battle - in fact, they are still not sure how the grunts are supposed to handle the armor slabs at all


And, yes,IMHO it would make sense to put both variants into the OOB - seems entirely feasable to me that the vehicle might see some combat before anyone had the time (and possibilities) to apply the armor kit, as it is airlift-able combat ready, IIRC (in contrast to any Stryker variant).
There might be a problem with the AI buy routine - don't think the AI could "understand" where the low-armor variant "results" from, and use it accordingly in a generated battle.