Explosives overhead: tank visors with dynamic protection in the special operation zone
There is a catchphrase "if you want to live, you won't get so upset”From the movie “Peculiarities of the National Hunt”, which is very appropriate for how craftsmen in repair shops and crews additionally armor military equipment if a welding machine and some scrap metal come to hand. It happens that quite viable creations are obtained from this, and sometimes - something that can only bring complacency as a benefit. But these aspirations are quite understandable: the vehicles on which you have to go into battle have their own weakened zones. And the operators themselves are sometimes forced to deal with their elimination.
However, steel structures in the form of screens installed on the towers of our tanks and nicknamed by the people as visors or barbecues, stand somewhat apart from other handicrafts. They began to be installed quite serially long before the special operation in Ukraine, and with its start, "brazier production" was put on stream, moreover, in the style of "who cares what." Now, apparently, the design idea has reached the final point - the visors began to acquire dynamic protection. In this connection, many again started talking about the anti-missile orientation of these creations.
And the roof is "leaky"
We have already written more than once about why tanks have been produced for many decades based on the principle of differentiated armor, so we will not touch this topic now. After all, everyone already knows that the main array of tank armor is located in the frontal parts of the hull and turret, where, in theory and in practice, the largest number of shells arrive. But this very practice also shows that the crew of a combat vehicle cannot feel confident even if all the basic rules of combat are observed, including the notorious one: to the enemy - forehead. And all, of course, because of the widest distribution of anti-tank weapons, including drones, which have become a kind of symbol of the NWO.
In short, under the current conditions, it can fly anywhere, and not always in a strong forehead - weak sides and a tower roof remain a priority. At the same time, if the problem with the sides can still be somehow solved by installing additional dynamic protection (in bags or metal containers), then things are bad with the roof.
Conditional forty millimeters of steel armor, even if equipped with standard dynamic protection, will not be able to oppose anything to Javelins hitting the roof, missiles from multi-purpose drones and, in some cases, even FPV drones with RPG rounds attached. So the maximum that you can count on here is protection against small-caliber cumulative submunitions and low-power projectiles dropped from UAVs. But on the condition that the hit will fall on the “reactive armor” block, with which the roof is not completely blocked.
It is impossible to correct this situation by installing multi-layer dynamic protection, which is guaranteed not to leave any residual armor penetration when hit by a cumulative missile - the entire surface of the roof cannot be closed, and “stacks” of blocks completely block the entire view from the tank. And the thickening of the roof armor, even in the long term on tanks of the classical layout, is nothing more than fantasy. Although, it must be admitted, there are still people who seriously talk about the great prospects for all-round protected tanks weighing under a hundred tons.
But if we touch on the long term, then active protection in one form or another is still the most viable way to radically increase the capabilities of combat vehicles - but where is it?
Peaks and barbecues
At the beginning of this material, it was not in vain that it was said about solving the problems of protecting military vehicles by the hands of the military. The fact that something needs to be done with a very weakened zone in the form of a tower roof was clear for a long time, but what exactly should be done? Logic suggests that one of the simplest and at the same time effective means against cumulative ammunition is the screens on which they detonate and, accordingly, significantly lose penetration due to the fact that the cumulative jet travels a long distance through the air before penetrating into armor.
It was precisely those very visors or "barbecues" that were originally supposed to carry this function, protecting the projection of the tank roof from both Javelin-type missiles attacking from above and guided projectiles launched from under the wing of Bayraktars and other UAVs of this type, and against loitering ammunition.
The solution, I must say, is not the first freshness and was tested long before the current events. But in the Russian troops, visors, serially installed on tanks, were demonstrated in 2021 in the troops of the Southern Military District. By the way, Belarusians later took advantage of the same idea, adopting at the same time such a useless accessory as a cylindrical tray with glowing coals mounted on a rod, in theory (not in practice, of course) designed to drive infrared homing missiles crazy.
And then a special military operation began in Ukraine, and they began to remake all tanks indiscriminately to the standard of steel visors. Often, as they say, on the knee and with the hope of some kind of effective work of products. It is noteworthy that sometimes it came to the point that the visors were assembled from some kind of thin reinforcement, and their appearance alone inspired confidence: one kick was enough for the structure to collapse.
Useful not always
A lot has been said about how the visors complicate the operation of the machine and can sometimes become a threat to the life of the crew. But, if we touch on the very idea of installing them: can they successfully perform their tasks?
Initially assigned to them, the function of protection against missiles and other means attacking the roof is not quite. Yes, in a number of situations they can really save from ATGMs and some loitering ammunition with cumulative warheads, acting as initiating (detonation-causing) screens in tandem with standard roof-mounted dynamic protection. But once at a time, as they say, it is not necessary. Not all tanks have this dynamic protection, and, as we have already said, far from the entire roof area is blocked by it, including the crew hatch covers.
Therefore, in order to exclude as much as possible any possibility of breaking through the roof with a powerful cumulative warhead, the distance between it and the visor should be at least a meter and a half, or even more.
The fact is that the detonation of a shaped charge (they are different, but if taken on average) at a distance from the armor to a certain limit only increases its penetration - we are talking about 5-6 of its calibers. Whereas a decrease in armor penetration characteristics to near zero is usually achieved at a distance much greater than 10-12 of its calibers. That is, relatively speaking and as an example, for a shaped charge with a diameter of 100 millimeters, the screen must be at a distance of more than 1,2 meters so that the thin armor is not pierced.
But there are no standards in handicrafts, of course, at all. You can observe both tall "barbecues", which can be seen for half a kilometer, and visors, which are similar in height to kindergarten "mushrooms" - under them it is impossible to even sit on the roof of the tower without bending your head. But in general, based on the available data, the work of this type of add. protection, even in an ideal performance, depends on a number of factors (the angle of impact of a missile, the power of its warhead, etc.), so we are more likely to talk about chance.
Is it worth saying in this case that such constructions can give some meaningful guarantee? Here it would be more appropriate to compare them with lattice screens on tanks and other equipment, which with a probability of about 50% can work out qualitatively against a very narrow range of attacking projectiles. Sometime it really works out and saves the lives of the crew and the tank itself, but sometime it doesn’t.
Nevertheless, the scope of visors in the NWO zone turned out to be somewhat wider than originally thought. One way or another, they act as a more or less effective defense against small ammunition dropped from drones onto tank roofs and into open hatches, acting as a kind of toadstool catcher. Also, camouflage means are attached to them and all sorts of soldier's belongings are thrown on them, using them as a trunk - in the end, since there is such a convenient shelf, then why not.
In general, today, by and large, it is these factors that determine the need for visors, since Javelin-type missiles and other “roof-breakers” are actually not very common things that play not the most important role on the battlefields.
Will dynamic protection help?
The installation of dynamic protection on the visors of tanks is also far from new, at least in the time frame of the special military operation in Ukraine. It’s just that the media paid attention to this only just a few days ago, although vehicles equipped with explosive “boxes” were seen on the fronts before that - only the execution options differ.
T-72B3 with a visor on which dynamic protection is installed. February 2023
The reason is the same: to maximize the protection of a thin roof from cumulative weapons attacking from above. After all, the probability of the arrival of something powerful in any case is present.
As a "protagonist" is by no means "Relikt" or "Contact-5", but a simple complex of hinged dynamic protection "Contact", which has been installed on tanks since the mid-80s of the last century. It works exclusively against cumulative weapons, and only monoblock ones that do not have any leading precharges. The latter circumstance at once answers a number of questions regarding the notorious Javelins and other products of this kind - they are tandem, so they, in simple terms, don’t give a damn about Contact. The result will still be the same: the neutralization of the "reactive armor" and the impact of an insufficiently deformed and fragmented cumulative jet straight into the roof.
So, if you focus on these missiles, the visors should be "two-story" in order to neutralize the effect of the leading cumulative precharges on dynamic protection. In addition, one cannot discount the fact that "Contact" is explosives in steel boxes. There is not so much of it, but, coupled with a detonating projectile, it will be enough to turn the visor, or, at best, demolish some of the blocks with a blast wave.
The contraption comes out conditionally disposable, but it is not completely devoid of prospects. Those 200-400 millimeters that "Kontakt" is able to "shave off" in the penetration of single-block cumulative means, depending on the angle of impact, can be of great help. Basically against various abominations dropped from drones or cluster shells, as well as kamikaze drones and even infantry with anti-tank weapons, when it comes to difficult conditions - for example, battles in urban areas.
But a crutch is also a crutch in Africa. All these visors and other barbecues are the result of the emergence and wide spread of new types of threats on the battlefield, which in the future will still require some radical solutions, but not in the conditions of repair shops, but somewhere at a higher level, in the Ministry of Defense and design bureaus .
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