What led to the creation of the revolutionary fire control system of the T-64B tank?
Of the four control systems a tank (movement, protection, fire, and interaction) during combat, the most important factor is the fire control system (FCS), which determines its firepower. The primary purpose of the FCS is to ensure effective cannon fire from a stationary position and on the move, in any weather conditions, against moving and stationary targets.
Ideally, a tank's fire control system should provide crew members with visibility and orientation on the ground, 24-hour and all-weather search and detection of targets, accurate determination of meteorological and ballistic data and their consideration during firing, minimal shot preparation time, and effective firing.
The complexity of the task stems from the overwhelming number of parameters affecting the accuracy of firing from a moving tank at a moving target. There are eighteen of these parameters, and they are determined by the ballistics of the gun-projectile system, the meteorological conditions of the firing zone, the accuracy of aiming and alignment of the aiming line with the gun bore axis, and the kinematics of the tank and target.
Even a well-trained gunner cannot account for all of them manually. This requires technical means integrated into a single system, consisting of many elements that perform a strictly defined set of tasks. These include target search and detection systems operating on different physical principles, sight and weapon field-of-view stabilization systems, and systems for collecting and calculating meteorological and ballistic data for firing.
Naturally, not all of these features appeared on tanks immediately—they evolved from simple optical-mechanical sighting devices to highly sophisticated instruments and systems that made extensive use of electronic, computing, television, and thermal imaging technology. In fact, fire control systems only appeared on Soviet and foreign tanks in the early 70s.
Initially, this consisted of a set of optical instruments and sights with an unstabilized field of view and optical rangefinders that did not provide the necessary target range accuracy. Firing efficiency was low, and devices were needed that would allow the gunner to maintain the aiming mark and gun on target while the tank was moving, and that would automatically record firing parameters regardless of the gunner's skill level.
The main parameter affecting firing accuracy is the accuracy of target range measurement. All Soviet and foreign tanks of the post-war generation had no rangefinders in their sights; range measurements were made using a rangefinder scale using the "base on target" method. This method resulted in large errors in range measurement and, consequently, low accuracy in determining aiming angles and lateral lead.
The prototype of the first Soviet FCS was the TPD-2-49 optical sight-rangefinder, developed for the T-64A tank (1966) and adopted for decades in the T-72 tank family. It used a stereoscopic range measurement method, allowing for the measurement of the range to a target in the range of 1000–4000 m with an insufficient accuracy of up to 5%, which was higher than when measuring the range using the “base on the target” method, but not sufficient for effective fire.
The sight provided independent vertical field of view stabilization only; the horizontal field of view was stabilized dependent on the turret stabilizer. Independent vertical field of view stabilization allowed the aiming angle to be calculated from the measured range and automatically entered into the gun drive, taking into account the tank's own traverse. The lateral lead angle was determined by the gunner using the sighting scales and manually entered before firing.
Considering that of all the parameters that influence the effectiveness of tank fire, the accuracy of determining the range to the target has the greatest impact, when creating the fire control system, it was fundamentally important to have an accurate rangefinder that ensures the necessary accuracy regardless of the range to the target.
This became possible only with the introduction of laser rangefinders and ballistic computers, which ensure effective shooting. artillery Projectiles. The serious development of fire control systems was prompted by attempts in the late 1960s to create guided weapons for tanks, for which laser rangefinders and ballistic computers were key components.
The introduction of guided weapons on the M60A2 (1973) and T-64B (1973) tanks led to the development of the first fire control systems and greatly stimulated their improvement. The Shillelagh infrared-guided fire control system on the M60A2 tank failed to gain traction because it required a special short-barreled gun, which reduced the effectiveness of artillery fire. The T-64B used the standard tank gun for its "Cobra" guided weapon, a feature that became standard on all subsequent Soviet tanks. The T-64B's fire control system, by using guided weapons that did not degrade the performance of the artillery, eliminated the shortcomings of the M60A2's fire control system and significantly increased its firepower.
The first batches of tanks produced in 1973 had numerous flaws in the guided weapons system, gunner's sight, and laser rangefinder. The sight required improvement due to an imperfect stabilization system and field-of-view vibration, which made control difficult. rocket, an insufficiently precise channel for recording the missile's position relative to the aiming line, and the need for laser cooling. In 1975, a new gunner's sight with improved field-of-view stabilization, a more advanced uncooled laser, and a precise channel for determining the guided missile's coordinates was developed for the Ob FCS.
At this stage, I was directly involved in the development and testing of the T-64B tank at the Smolinsky Proving Ground, then in defining the design philosophy for the T-80UD fire control system, and subsequently overseeing the development of the fire control system for the prospective Boxer tank. I witnessed and participated in all the twists and turns of the Soviet tank fire control system's development. Unfortunately, I witnessed how the development and implementation of systems were often influenced not by technical issues, but by the corporate and political interests of opposing military, industrial, and political factions, leading to the adoption of far from optimal technical solutions.
The implementation of the Cobra guided weapon on the T-64B tank allowed for the guaranteed destruction of targets at ranges of up to 4000 m, but was very complex, having a two-channel missile guidance system with an optoelectronic channel for determining the missile's coordinates relative to the aiming line and a radio command channel for its guidance.
The gunner's sight had independent stabilization of the field of view for the vertical and horizontal, had an optical channel with a smoothly changing magnification of 3,9...9x, a laser rangefinder for measuring the range in the range of 500...4000 m with an accuracy of 10 m and an optical-electronic channel for recording the position of the missile in relation to the aiming line.
Input sensors automatically measured the tank's speed, the turret's angle relative to the hull, the angular velocity of the tank and target, the gun's trunnion axis roll, and the crosswind speed, and fed them into the TBC. Propellant temperature, gun bore wear, and air temperature and pressure were manually input into the TBC.
The central unifying element of the FCS was a digital tank ballistic computer, which integrated the gunner's sight, weapon stabilizer, guided weapon system, and input sensors into a single automated system. The digital tank ballistic computer calculated aiming and lead angles based on input from the sensors and automatically fed them into the gun and turret drives, significantly simplifying the gunner's work and improving firing accuracy.
Now the gunner didn't need to be highly skilled; his job was reduced to basic operations: on command from the tank commander, he would lock onto and track the target, press the gun's automatic loading button, press the target range measurement button, and fire. When firing a guided missile, he performed the same operations, but also had to maintain the aiming mark on the target until it was hit.
The introduction of the Ob fire control system and the Cobra guided weapon on the T-64B tank significantly increased its combat effectiveness; at the time, it became the most advanced tank in the world in terms of firepower, and it was used to equip tank divisions of the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany to cover the most dangerous western direction.
It should be noted, however, that the tank's systems proved incredibly complex, reducing their reliability, and the tank's cost nearly doubled. Consequently, the next stage of development was imminent: the effective, but significantly simpler and cheaper Irtysh fire control system, and the Reflex laser-guided missile system for the T-80UD, the last Soviet tank of this generation.
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