Battlefield 3 Premium Guide Essentials Vehicles

Mobile AA

Despite their rugged armored appearance, these vehicles aren’t intended for toe-to-toe slugfests with enemy tanks. In fact, their armor isn’t different from that found on the IFVs. But these vehicles are designed for the sole purpose of shooting down enemy aircraft. Move them to strategically advantageous locations to provide your forces protection from air strikes. The auto-cannons on these vehicles are great for shredding helicopters and jets alike. But these weapons can also be very effective when targeting infantry and light vehicles. These vehicles are rare, so take steps to protect them by keeping them repaired.

Mobile AA Unlock Progression

Name	Loadout Slot	Points	Description
IR Smoke	Gadget	400	Smoke grenades enhanced with metal filaments that when launched remove laser-designation, spoof incoming guided missiles, and prevent enemies from revealing your position to teammates.
Anti-Air Missile	Weapon	1,200	Anti-aircraft missile launchers are mounted on the turret and will lock on to and track enemy air vehicles.
Belt Speed	Upgrade	2,500	An enhanced mechanism decreases the minimum time between firing bursts with your main weapon.
Zoom Optics	Gadget	4,400	A secondary weapon sight with up to 3x magnification.
Proximity Scan	Upgrade	7,000	External sensors detect and reveal enemy units on your minimap.
Thermal Optics	Gadget	10,000	A secondary weapon sight with thermal optics that highlights soldiers and vehicles for efficient target identification.
Air Radar	Upgrade	14,000	The range of your minimap increases greatly and reveals all friendly and enemy aircraft.
Maintenance	Upgrade	19,000	Preventative maintenance procedures improve your vehicles recovery from damage.
Thermal Camo	Upgrade	25,000	Antireflective coating on your vehicle increases enemy locking and tracking difficulty and decreases the time you are revealed to the enemy when spotted.
Reactive Armor	Upgrade	32,000	Reactive armor panels and/or slats absorb the impact from anti-tank weapons, protecting you from damage but becoming destroyed in the process.

LAV-AD

Nationality : US

Description : The LAV-AD includes the Avenger anti-air system on a LAV-25 chassis.

Vehicle Performance

Speed
Armor
Firepower

Vehicle Occupancy

Seat	Position	Weapon
1	Driver	None
2	Gunner	12.7mm Machine Gun
3	Passenger	Troop Kit

9K22 Tunguska-M

Nationality : RU

Description : This mobile surface-to-air gun and missile system has been in service since 1982. It was developed in response to range shortcomings in the ZU-23 Shilka design.

Vehicle Performance

Speed
Armor
Firepower

Vehicle Occupancy

Seat	Position	Weapon
1	Driver	25mm AA Cannon

[ Mobile AA Tactics ]

Before moving out, analyze your team’s air defenses and move the vehicle to an area where it can protect your team. Make an effort to park it in a well-protected area that is out of sight from advancing enemy tanks and infantry. While scanning the skies for targets, it’s easy to lose sight of the battle happening around you.

Instead of constantly rotating the turret looking for targets, rely on the minimap to spot enemy jets and helicopters. If your vehicle is spotted by teammates, these threats appear as red icons on the minimap. So rotate the turret in the direction of these icons, then scan the sky for the target—if still spotted, a red icon appears above the aircraft, making it easy to track. The Air Radar upgrade automatically marks the positions of all enemy aircraft on the minimap.

The mobile AA vehicles have unlimited ammo, but the cannons tend to overheat when fired for long, uninterrupted bursts. To prevent overheating, fire in bursts that last no longer than four seconds. A brief pause in firing allows the guns to cool down.

When attacking one of these vehicles, try to hit them from the side or rear, where their armor is weakest. Although they fill a very specialized role, these vehicles have thick armor capable of withstanding heavy damage. Tanks and IFVs are best suited for taking out these vehicles.

These vehicles have only one weapon unlock in the form of the Anti-Air Missile. This is a heat-seeking missile similar to those fired by the Stinger and IGLA missiles carried by engineers. When selected, these missiles automatically track targets in the center of your screen, indicated by a red bounded box. Keep tracking the target across the sky until a lock is achieved, then fire the missile. The pilot you’re tracking is made aware of the missile lock and may deploy IR Flares in an effort to break the lock. So consider waiting for the pilot to dump their flares before reacquiring a lock and firing a missile. If the lock is achieved quickly, the pilot won’t have a chance to deploy a second set of flares.

Mobile Artillery in Armored Kill

The new M142 and BM-23 mobile artillery units launch volleys of high-explosive rockets over great distances, giving each team the ability to bombard targets from across the map. Each vehicle is capable of launching up to six rockets in quick succession. From the gunner position, use the ladder-like reticle to adjust your aim, moving the rocket tubes both vertically and horizontally. When making vertical adjustments, the higher the pitch of the rocket tubes, the farther the rockets will travel. The rockets are by no means precision weapons and greatly benefit from the assistance of a forward spotter, helping you adjust your aim. If your rockets are falling short of the target, increase the pitch of the rocket tubes. Likewise, if the rockets are overshooting the target, reduce the pitch of the rocket tubes. When fired at great distances, the rockets impact beyond your visual range. So if you don’t have the feedback of a forward spotter, you’re firing blind. After firing six rockets, the vehicle automatically begins the long reload process. During this time the vehicle is completely defenseless unless fitted with one of the unlockable weapon upgrades. At close range mobile artillery units are vulnerable to attacks by infantry, tanks, and aircraft. So keep these units back from the front lines, where they’re less likely to be harassed by enemies.

Mobile Artillery Unlock Progression

Name	Loadout Slot	Points	Description
IR Smoke	Gadget	400	Smoke grenades enhanced with metal filaments that when launched remove laser-designation, spoof incoming guided missiles, and prevent enemies from revealing your position to teammates.
Autoloader	Upgrade	800	An enhanced mechanism decreases the minimum time between firing rounds in your main weapon.
Proximity Scan	Upgrade	1,600	External sensors detect and reveal enemy units on your minimap.
ATACMS Missile	Weapon	2,500	Locks on ground vehicles and laser-designated targets.
Maintenance	Upgrade	3,500	Preventative maintenance procedures improve your vehicle’s recovery from damage.
Zoom Optics	Gadget	4,500	A secondary weapon sight with up to 3x magnification.
Thermal Camo	Upgrade	5,500	Anti-reflective coating on your vehicle increases enemy locking and tracking difficulty and decreases the time you are revealed to the enemy after being spotted.
TOW	Weapon	7,000	Wire-guided anti-tank missile launcher.
Proximity Defense	Gadget	9,000	Incendiary smoke that damages enemies within the proximity.

M142

Nationality : US

Description : Mobile rocket artillery used by the US Marine Corps and Fire Brigade.

Vehicle Performance

Speed
Armor
Firepower

Vehicle Occupancy

Seat	Position	Weapon
1	Driver	None
2	Gunner	227mm Rockets

BM-23

Nationality : RU

Description : Russian multiple rocket launcher system mounted on a Soviet truck.

Vehicle Performance

Speed
Armor
Firepower

Vehicle Occupancy

Seat	Position	Weapon
1	Driver	None
2	Gunner	300mm Rockets

[Mobile Artillery Tactics]

Despite their impressive display, the standard rockets fired by the mobile artillery units don’t cause much splash damage. It practically takes a direct hit to significantly damage an armored vehicle like a tank or tank destroyer. But the impact of multiple rockets in a small area can have a significant psychological effect on infantry, causing them to scramble for cover. So even if you don’t score too many kills with these vehicles, they play a big role in suppressing enemy troops during attacks on control points and M-COM stations. Complete the Rocket Specialist assignment to unlock air-burst rockets for greater effectiveness against infantry.
Always employ a squadmate to act as a forward observer when firing rockets at targets beyond your visual range. Being able to speak with your forward observer through a headset makes a huge difference when it comes to accurately placing rockets on target.
The rockets have an effective range of approximately 650 meters when the rocket tubes are raised to their maximum angle and when the vehicle is parked on even terrain. However, you can get a bit more distance from the rockets by parking the unit on an elevated slope. This allows you fire the rockets at a steeper trajectory, resulting in greater range.
Make a habit of parking these vehicles in remote areas of the map where they’re less likely to be disturbed by enemies traveling between control points or other high-traffic areas. However, once you start firing rockets, your position will be easy to spot. So make a habit of moving the vehicle after you’ve fired a volley of rockets. Staying in one position too long can make you an easy target for enemy aircraft and counter-artillery bombardments.
When encountering enemy vehicles at close range, these vehicles are defenseless unless equipped with one of the unlocked weapon upgrades, such as the ATACMS or TOW missiles. These weapons are far more accurate against nearby targets than the standard rockets. Enemy infantry are more problematic. The Proximity Defense upgrade deploys toxic smoke around the vehicle, giving you a chance to escape.