Whats the difference between an APC and an IFV?

Question

whats the difference between an armored personel carrier and an infantry fighting vehichle? And also is the half-track considered the apc of ww2?

Answer 1

An APC is an armored taxi. Its purpose is to transport its primary weapon ( the 8-12 soft squishy things in the back) to a point near the target in relative safety, then dump them out to achieve their objective. Armor is thick enough to protect against small arms fire and shell splinters, armament is the minimum necessary to give some fire support to the dismounted troops - usually just a machine gun or two.



http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cf/M113.jpg

http://www.vojsko.net/photo/pozemni/otbvp/amx_vci_01.jpg



The IFV is more heavily armed and armored. It is intended to if necessary proceed all the way on to the objective and even fight with the infantry still mounted. It has more firepower able to deal with a greater array of targets up to and including tanks in some cases and typically offers greater protection to its occupants from a wider variety of enemy weapons.



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http://www.army-technology.com/projects/cv90/images/cv90_8.jpg

http://www.znamia.ru/th/images/cms/data/bmp_13.jpg-thumb(600,800,crop).jpg



World War 2 half-tracks such as the American M2 and M3 series and the German Sdkfz.250 and .251 were early armored personel carriers. They were issued to infantry battalions in armored (tank) divisions to allow the infantry to have similar mobility to the tanks they were operating with while at the same time offering them some protection against enemy fire. The half-track was a clearly inferior way to achieve this and was replaced quickly after WW2 by fully-tracked APC's.

Answer 2

A Fighting Vehicle is usually more heavily armed and armored, but can sometimes double as an Infantry Carrier, such as with the US Army's M2 Bradley & USMC LAV-25. The IFV is sort of a successor to medium & light tanks.



The Half-Tracks in WW2 served many functions- armored transport variant was one of them. The most similar vehicle today would be the US Army's Stryker family of vehicles - there are ten variants including infantry carrier, mortar carrier, and medical evacuation to name a few.

Answer 3

In basic and simplest terms, an APC merely transports troops... add a gun to it and it becomes an IFV.



Armored Personnel Carriers & Infantry Fighting Vehicles

http://defenceforumindia.com/forum/land-forces/11877-armored-personnel-carriers-infantry-fighting-vehicles.html

Answer 4

APC is for carrying infantry to the battlefield in armoires vehicle with little to no combat capability meanwhile IFV is for engaging infantry with strictly anti- infantry weapons such as Machine guns'light cannons, and even flamethrowers

Answer 5

A IFV is basically a APC that can shoot back a bit. It typically has a anti tank missile or light cannon for defense.

Answer 6

Don't consider that to be correct

Answer 7

@needful..nice description..but totally bass ackwards



Edit:



Ok..I see you caught that