Infantry Fighting Vehicle

The default IFV design with rocket launchers

Unit

Internal name

FV

Faction

Allied Forces

Role

Multipurpose support vehicle

Armament

Hover missiles (default)

Tech level

3

Properties

Hit points

200

Armor type

Light

Transport slots

1 infantry unit

Production

Cost

$600

Produced by

Allied war factory

Combat

Ground attack

25 (80 when elite) (HE)

Air attack

25 (AP)

Cooldown

50

Speed

10

Attack range

6 (ground)
10 (air)

Sight range

8

Function

Abilities

Changes weapon depending on infantry garrisoned within

Elite upgrade

Increased strength, firepower, rate of fire, self-healing

“

This sir, is our IFV. It is a multipurpose raider capable of boosting standard weapon capabilities of any infantryman inside.
- Eva Lee^(src)

”

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. This also includes engineers which will provide the IFV with a repair crane that provides quick and free repairs to nearby vehicles. 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.

Aftermath

In the new timeline created by the Einstein's erasure, the Multigunner IFV took on the same role as the original IFV.

Game unit

Unlike Battle Forts and garrisons, units will not fire as-is out of the vehicle; that means promotion- and crate- bonuses are not respected for passengers when the loaded IFVs fire. IFVs change their weapon based upon the passenger's type (disregarding promotion) but then do the actual firing.

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.

AI behavior

IFVs built by the AI have the following attack patterns:

Medium/Hard:

5x guarding Power Plants, Ore Refineries and Robot Control Centers
- This strike force will only be constructed if the enemy owns a Floating Disc
2x guarding Allied Barracks, accompanied by 2 Prism Tanks

Hard:

1x loaded with a Sniper, then proceed to target infantry
2x targeting ore miners, accompanied by 6 Grizzly Tanks
4x targeting production buildings, accompanied by 6 Grizzly Tanks and 3 Prism Tanks
- This strike force will only be constructed if the AI owns a Weather Control Device
2x targeting base defenses, accompanied by 4 Grizzly Tanks and 2 Prism Tanks

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!

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.
For unknown reasons, the IFV's weapon has been modified in the Soviet mission The Fox and The Hound to fire only one missile instead of two, and it has been modded to still do the same amount of damage with that one missile as it would with two.