The BTR-3E1 should keep its thermal sights

[Gridt]

Hello, and welcome to my discussion of the inaccurate removal of thermal sights from the BTR-3E1 in the Thai subtree in Japan’s research tree in the ‘Heavy Cavalry’ update.

I have already talked about this before in the Machinery of Discussion page.

I am talking about this as I am Thai-Irish and it disappoints me that a Thai vehicle is getting nerfed, let alone artificially.

And kind of unrelated to this topic, but Thailand looked for a different vehicle to the T-84 Oplot-T due to delivery issues, and decided on either the T-90S, K1A1 and the chosen VT4, meaning that the Royal Thai Army could have operated Russian tanks, along with having proposed ordering Su-30s in 2004.

This is a screenshot of a declassified document mentioning the thermal sights of the vehicle, with one translated in English, one translated into Russian and the original Ukrainian document.
While it is for the Shturm-S turret, which despite having some differences with the Shturm-M, It appears most of them are visual differences and have none or minimal difference in performance.

English translation:

Russian translation:

Ukrainian original:

Instead of this nerf to the thermals, I would recommend changing the number of Barrier ATGMs from 6 to 4 based off official information from the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence as shown below (circled in red):

Sources

Spoiler

ODIN (has information based on declassified military documents)
ODIN - OE Data Integration Network

Source of the declassified documents for BTR-4 and BTR-3 (In Ukrainian):
https://.com.ua/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/%D0%92%D0%9F-7-0003.01-%D0%A2%D0%B0%D0%BA%D1%82%D0%B8%D0%BA%D0%B0-%D0%B7%D0%B0%D1%81%D1%82%D0%BE%D1%81%D1%83%D0%B2%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%BD%D1%8F-%D0%91%D0%A2%D0%A0-34-%D1%82%D0%B0-%D1%96%CC%88%D1%85-%D0%BC%D0%BE%D0%B4%D0%B8%D1%84%D1%96%D0%BA%D0%B0%D1%86%D1%96%D1%96%CC%88.pdf

[F-16D_Barak_II]

It is very weird that it lost its thermals, especially considering how there’s plenty of footage on youtube of it having thermals

[ChieftainWarrior]

1. ODIN is not a reputable source in the slightest
2. You’ll need the manual for the Shturm-M
3. IIRC, the change was made based on a Shturm-S manual, so you’re most likely out of luck. If that’s what it says, then there are no thermals.

[F-16D_Barak_II]

I’m not sure if it is the same as the domestic version or if Thai exports gained thermals but I’ve seen a video by the thai military where i’m pretty sure it had thermals

[gfdsa_killer]

I have seen videos of ukranian btr-3 with thermals, considering the 3e1 its a modern version, doesnt make sense they removed such an important feature.

Edit: found a video of thai btr-3 with thermals 4:50 and 6:10

- YouTube

[Kicimijazawa]

Im surprised ukrainian vehicle made it to the game in a first place, im not surprised it got stripped of some vital parts.

[stubbornemil]

That’s news to me

[Nowel]

@gfdsa_killer

btr-3 with thermals 4:50 and 6:10

This doesnt look like a themal view to me, more like a high contrast or black and white day camera

[SchwerPanzer]

I’m not sure the E1 gets thermals as there is no mention of it by Ukraine. The only model with thermals mentioned is the BTR-3DA model. -E1 has enhanced night vision, but no thermal sight.

[Nowel]

Yeah, i have only seen it on the DA, the black and white seem to trick a lot of people but this is something that the ukranians seems to like, this is from a btr4 and it is very clear that it is not an thermal channel
![

[Norm_Von_Dolbit]

Those are not thermals but cosntrast vision, I’ve looked through multiple of them. Our best hope is the patent for Shturm module that mentions “ability of thermals to be installed”.

“може бути інтегрована тепловізійна камера” - “an integrated thermal imaging camera can be included”

[SchwerPanzer]

I mean there may be some upgraded E variants now in Ukraine itself, because they decided to field it domestically. I doubt it though, because then you’d be stretching the supply of thermal imagers into another line of vehicles.

[Norm_Von_Dolbit]

This change was 99% histirocally accurate, so instead I would rather focus on the other yet to be implemented capabilities:

[DEV] BTR-3E1: Unable to fire ATGM on the move.
BTR-3E1: Incorrect ATGMs vertical limits.
BTR-3E1: Missing telescopic commander sight functionality.
BTR-3E1: Missing ATGM dedicated optics

[Norm_Von_Dolbit]

Lets give it a shot Community Bug Reporting System

[gfdsa_killer]

ah I see