Veterancy

Veterancy is the term used to describe unit promotion. By default there are two such levels, the first being 'veteran' followed by 'elite'. Units attain promotions by destroying objects, until the cumulative unit cost of destroyed enemies exceeds the units own Cost multiplied by VeteranRatio.

Each promotion level reached modifies the properties of the unit, according to the following multipliers found under the [General] section:

In Red Alert 2

When a unit reaches its full promotion to 'elite', the unit will switch to use ElitePrimary and EliteSecondary weapons if it has them. If only one of those is present, the main Primary or Secondary weapon will be used for the other. The above multipliers will then cumulatively increase the effectiveness of the weapon upgrade, potentially making 'elite' level vehicles quite fearsome.

Gaining New Abilities

When promoted from base to 'veteran' level, a unit is also granted a list of explicit abilities defined by the VeteranAbilities list, if present in the unit code. For the second stage promotion it will gain what's in EliteAbilities. The following abilities can be specified:

FASTER (speed multiplier)
STRONGER (armor multiplier)
FIREPOWER (damage multiplier)
ROF (fire rate multiplier)
CRUSHER (adds crushing ability regardless of SpeedType)
C4 (receives C4 planting ability, if weapon arrangement allows it)
SCATTER (auto-scatter when attacked by vehicles with StupidHunt or AutoCrush)
GUARD_AREA (equivalent to DefaultToGuardArea)
SIGHT (sight range multiplier)
SELF_HEAL (equivalent to SelfHealing)
FEARLESS (Infantry will not go prone when attacked)
EXPLODES (Infantry will not use normal death Sequence)
RADAR_INVISIBLE (mini-map will not show unit to enemies)
CLOAK (equivalent to Cloakable)
SENSORS (reveals cloaked units nearby)
TIBERIUM_HEAL (used by Harvesters to regain health while on Tiberiums)
TIBERIUM_PROOF (won't take damage on Tiberium, irrelevant in RA2)
VEIN_PROOF (won't take damage on Weeds, irrelevant in RA2)