Infantry Fighting Vehicle

The Infantry Fighting Vehicle (abbreviated as IFV) is a light Allied vehicle in Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 and Yuri's Revenge. It changes its purpose and weapon pod based on the infantry unit transported within it, but is by default an anti-air unit.

Background
The IFV can be garrisoned by one infantry unit. This will cause its weapon to change. Without any infantry inside, it is primarily an anti-aircraft unit and fires a weaker version of the missiles used by the Patriot Missile System against both ground and air targets. While fast, the IFV is very lightly armoured. It requires support from other vehicles or the element of surprise in order to last long.

An IFV that has been promoted to heroic however becomes surprisingly effective as both an Anti-Air and Anti-Ground unit; capable of destroying Kirov airships and other durable air units with just a few salvoes of missiles. It also becomes dramatically more effective against ground targets, killing groups of infantry in a single salvo, tanks in a few, and any Barracks, War Factory, or Ore Refinery in less than four. That said, it should be micromanaged because of its light armor.

Infantry effects
See this article's video gallery for demonstrations of each combination.
 * GI, conscript, or spy: machine gun
 * Guardian GI: advanced anti-armour missile launcher
 * Engineer: crane/welder for repairing vehicles
 * Attack dog or slave: none (retains the missile launcher)
 * Sniper: sniper rifle with improved range and rate of fire
 * Chrono legionnaire: Chrono gun
 * Tanya, Navy SEAL, Chrono commando, psi commando, or Boris: advanced machine gun
 * Flak trooper: flak cannon (incapable of firing at air units.)
 * Tesla trooper: powerful anti-surface Tesla weapon
 * Desolator: anti-infantry rad-cannon with improved range and rate of fire
 * Crazy Ivan, Chrono Ivan, or terrorist: suicide bomb
 * Note: The effect also irradiates the ground. However, it is smaller in range but longer duration than that of a demolition truck.
 * Initiate: enhanced pyrokinesis
 * Virus: Virus rifle with improved range and rate of fire
 * Psi-Corps trooper / Yuri clone: anti-infantry psychic blast

When garrisoned with a president, Cow, or other animal, the IFV will gain a Prism weapon similar to that of the Prism Tower, but more powerful. This does not usually happen during regular gameplay. Mind-controlling civilian units does not work, because mind-controlled infantry cannot be garrisoned.

Aftermath
In the new timeline created by the Soviet time travel, the Multigunner IFV took on the same role as the original IFV.

Changelog

 * Red Alert 2 patch 1.004:
 * Chrono legionnaire's weapon's damage reduced from 10 to 5.
 * Tesla trooper's weapon's rate of fire increased from 30 to 45.
 * Terrorist's explosive damage reduced from 600 to 200.
 * Red Alert 2 patch 1.005: Chrono IFV no longer loses its target when selecting a target further than his firing range - now it moves within attack range and fires without losing focus at any moment.
 * Yuri's Revenge patch 1.001: an IFV loaded with infantry can no longer be made to look like a standard IFV by building a wall around it, then deploying it.

Quotes
Note: in Red Alert 2, the IFV shares its quotes with the Grizzly battle tank.

When selected

 * Everything's made to fit!
 * IFV ready.
 * Need a conversion?
 * We can make adjustments.
 * Transformer panels in order.
 * Tools of the trade!

When moving

 * Fast and light!
 * Made for speed!
 * On the go!
 * Yup.
 * Runnin' smooth!
 * Watch my dust!

When ordered to attack

 * It's a sure shot!
 * We've got 'im!
 * Of course!
 * Takin' 'em down!
 * Hittin' 'em hard!

Cameos
In order: English, French, German, Korean, Chinese. Top row is standard, bottom row is veteran.

Trivia

 * During the development stages of Red Alert 2, the IFV sported a different design, having treads instead of tires and a different chassis. The tracked design was kept well into the beta stages, and was replaced not long before release. This tracked version resembles the German Marder IFV.
 * The lower part of the IFV for the final version of icon were taken from a Soviet / Russian 9K31 Strela-1 stock model.
 * The IFVs' missiles are weak against tanks in most cases, which contrary to many modern real-life IFVs that have anti-tank missiles.