I posted this picture previosuly:
The BTR is one of the products of Soviet military thinking of the heydays of the Cold War. A cheaper, mass produced alternative to the BMP-1 for the ever increasing ranks of motorized infantry of the Red Army and its allies. As such, it was conceived as a true battle taxi or APC in Western parlance. The taxi ride it was supposed to go from Moscow to Paris fighting a nuclear war. Pressurized compartment, boat-like hull for improved swimming, easy to operate and maintain and able to withstand quite damage for that time period. Obviously communist minded engineer took poor account of what we know today as "ergonomics" in every aspect.
For the purpose of our game I found out, quite surprisingly, that the veteran BTR series in its -70s modernized version has been a notch above the LAV III (a couple generations ahead vehicle) for the team:
First of all was availability. The complex systems of the LAV III were in serious need of maintenance and landed the vehicle in the shop for a while. The first mission, the recce of Stanley Park was a foot patrol that almost ended in disaster. Since the personnel and equipment of Bulat's gang was possible to be included in the team's mission availability was granted at all times.
Secondly is mobility. The impressive combat load of the LAV III at 19 tons prevented the deployment across the Lions Gate Bridge due to the 15 tons load limit. The lack of amphibious capability ruined Taras plans to use it in a river crossing assault.
Obvious advantage for the LAV III comes with more powerful armamanet and sophisticated sensors. Also this machine is an IFV more than a battle taxi per se and there is a 40 years gap design between them. Still, the current threat level doesn't seem to require a tank killer 25 mm autocannon (so far...) Curiosly enough the BTR main armament is classified as Heavy Machine Gun and yet sports almost double the muzzle energy as the NATO standard .50 cal. The high arc of fire of the turret would be also useful in our urban scenario. So far the main use of the LAV III has been as an ISR platform thanks to the thermal camera. For that matter the BTR could have also fulfill this role while using the MULAT, the thermal sight associated to the AT-4 Fagot. This portable unit, although less capable, already compromised a covert recce in the North Shore.
The best way to take advantage of "the best of both worlds" is obviously combining them. It happened before in the Stanley Park take over, for instance. The team has already experience in this matter with previous missions and the current one is no exception. Perhaps is a matter of developing new tactics, techniques and procedures to have a winning duo.
My 0.02 kopecks!