| Description | At present all variants of the Bradley Fighting Vehicle in the USAF mod have a 3+6 (driver, gunner, commander + 6 dismounts) capacity. However this is inaccurate for the M2A3 variant of the vehicle platform.
The M2A3 is 3+7 (driver, gunner, commander + 7 dismounts). This is to allow for personnel such as the platoon leader's assistant gunner to accompany the PL without compromising that section's ability to carry troops. This seventh seat is located behind the driver, facing rearward (forward of the turret, putting them back-to-back with the track driver).
In real life this seat is typically used by one of the riflemen or grenadiers of the infantry squads (in the cases of BFV 2, 3, and 4 of a mechanized infantry platoon), or for an Assistant Gunner.
While an admittedly anecdotal source, I can confirm this through factual experience during my time in the Army where I acted as a vehicle commander in a mechanized infantry platoon using the M2A3, and through reference of FM 3-21.71 "Mechanized Infantry Platoon and Squad (Bradley)" (published, August 2002) and ATP 3-21.8 "Infantry Platoon and Squad" (published, April 2016). The third link is an independently made graphic displaying how a mechanized platoon would arrange itself since 2002 (updated with weapons of 2019 listed) in utilizing that seventh seat.
Note the seventh seat's location is not to scale (it is back-to-back with the driver, not beside the turret well).
FM 3-21.71 = https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/policy/army/fm/3-21-71/ch1.htm#sec2 [^]
ATP 3-21.8 = https://armypubs.army.mil/epubs/DR_pubs/DR_a/pdf/web/ARN13842_ATP%203-21x8%20FINAL%20WEB%20INCL%20C1.pdf [^]
Graphic = https://static.wixstatic.com/media/a137e0_2b74ca6c2c7d48468bfdac859137e199~mv2.png [^] |
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