Heavy Infantry Fighing Vehicles

[Marcello]

pdoktar said:
Still you need to put a top-line FC and TI and 120mm gun or some heavy missile, with enough rounds, if you want to meet requirement to take on heavy armored vehicles. So weight is an issue, logistics is an issue and cost is an issue. Still you just put 5-8 grunts on an armored box, where they don´t like to be anyhow, when the firing starts, as they themselves have no control over being killed or surviving, when some bloke on the enemy side wants to drill a hole into the vehicle, which HE considers as a first-rate THREAT, since it has the FIREPOWER and armor to knock HIM out.

Frankly I find the IFV situation a mess. The issue is that there is an "arms race" of sort built in the IFV concept. You want an IFV capable of taking on enemy IFVs, which means progressively better guns and armor (and greater cost and logistical footprint).
In addition to this many IFVs have been equipped with ATGMs and tasked with tank destroyer missions.Add the RPG threat and mix it with the imperative to minimize casualties and the trend towards smaller forces. Considered all these pressures it does not seem all that implausible as an end point. Many critics can be made for any solution adopted.