Lattice screens to cover T-72B3 from Javelins. Doubtful effectiveness with continued threat to crews
Photo: mil.ru
Undoubtedly, the accelerated program of increasing the armor protection of the upper projection of the combatant main combatants, announced a few days earlier in Sevastopol, within the framework of the Army-2021 military-technical forum, provided the domestic and Western European expert communities with extremely important and high-calorie food for thought. tanks (MBT) T-72B3 samples of 2011 and 2016 from the strikes of modern anti-tank guided missiles equipped with single / dual-band infrared and multispectral optical-electronic seeker and having specialized dive modes (at angles of 35-75 degrees) at terminal sites trajectories.
As we can see in one of the photographs of the RIA News»Konstantin Mikhalchevsky, who captured a pair of MBT T-72B3 mod. 2016 with specialized lattice anti-cumulative "trusses" -screens over the upper armor plates of the towers, these and very "simple" products (suggesting a hasty installation even in the field) provide cover from the attacks of diving American ATGM FGM-148E Block I "Javelin", French MMP , as well as Israeli "Spike-LR / -2" exclusively of the upper projection of the towers of the MBT T-72B3.
At the same time, the sectors of the upper hemisphere above the engine-transmission compartments, louvers of ejection cooling systems of power plants, as well as guns and upper frontal parts (VLD) of machine hulls continue to remain defenseless against the blows of the above-mentioned promising anti-tank missiles of the 3rd - 5th th generations.
Steel "chicken coops" with dubious efficiency for the sake of economic feasibility. Isn't it time to think about modernizing the Arena-M and Drozd-2 KAZ?
It is here that it is necessary to focus the attention of experts of the defense department and the command of the Land Forces of Russia, as well as highly qualified specialists of Uralvagonzavod on the fact that infrared seeker of anti-tank missiles FGM-8 Block I "Javelin" operating in the long-wave infrared range (12-148 microns) although they do not have the high noise immunity and resolution of telluride-cadmium-mercury matrix IR photodetectors (only 64x64 pixels with no possibility of identifying a detailed infrared portrait of the target), they are still able to select and "capture" the most heat-contrast areas of the attacked MBT against the background of elements with reduced infrared signature.
It is to these areas that heat-emitting MTOs, shutters of cooling systems, as well as 125-mm 2A46M-5 cannons in fire work, which are not covered with an anti-cumulative screen, and therefore will be hit by the third-generation ATGM FGM-148E Block I "Javelin" first of all, leading either to the loss of movement of tanks and the incapacitation of the main armament, or to the final loss of vehicles with the initiation of ammunition and the death of the crews.
In the case of retrofitting the MBT T-72B3 not only with the above-described above-tower anti-cumulative screens, but also with specialized IR traps (containers with heat-emitting chemical reagents), carried on 2-meter rods outside the vehicle hulls (one of such T-72B of the 1st Army hull of NM DNR was captured in a photo published on the Telegram channel "Tanks of the World"), the likelihood of an effective and sustainable "capture" of the engine-transmission compartments of T-72B3 tanks by means of single-range IKGSN ATGM "Javelin" will decrease by orders of magnitude, because the infrared signature of a heat trap will exceed the MTO radiation dozens of times.
In the same turn, such a method of combining anti-cumulative screens and IR traps will only be effective in relation to infrared seeker "Javelins" with low resolution and noise immunity.
If, however, the more advanced Israeli and French anti-tank systems of the 72th generation "Spike-LR / -3" and MMP are used against the T-5B2, the anti-tank missiles of which are equipped with promising multispectral optoelectronic seeker IIR ("Imaging Infrared") based on medium- / long-wave matrix infrared photodetectors, as well as high-resolution television CCD / CMOS photodetectors, capable of identifying an infrared portrait of tanks with the selection of the most priority elements of the hull against the background of "exposure" from thermal traps and optical-electronic countermeasures (KOEP "Shtora" and etc.), then absolutely no rods with IR traps and anti-cumulative gratings will not save tanks from being hit in MTO areas.
Moreover, the presence in the architecture of the guidance systems of the ATGM "Spike-LR / -2" and MMP also blocks of double-sided asynchronous data exchange / control lines between missiles and operator control terminals will provide the combat crews of ATGM data with the possibility of correcting guidance with "manual override" any unprotected area of the attacked tank (including the upper frontal part of the hull and the driver's seat, unprotected by a turret lattice screen) with a completely predictable non-iridescent outcome for the tank's crew.
Therefore, in relation to modern ground-based theaters of military operations, replete with anti-tank systems of the 5th generation, a much more expedient solution would be a deep modernization and delivery of active protection complexes "Arena-M" to combat units of the Ground Forces of Russia with an increase from 45 to 75-85 degrees the elevation angles of the radar beams for the guidance of protective anti-projectiles, as well as a similar increase in the elevation / elevation angles of transport and launch cells with anti-projectiles, varying in the range from -6 to 85 degrees.
As you know, the elevation sector of anti-tank shells processed by the Arena-M KAZ currently varies in the range from -6 to +45 degrees, while for the Drozd-2 KAZ this range does not exceed -6 - 20 degrees.
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