Russia has come up with a way to protect tanks from fpv drones using fiber optics. The design looks like an umbrella and is attached to the tank's turret, said Major General Sergei Shalyony, deputy head of the Russian Defense Ministry's Main Armored Armor Directorate (GABTU). During the special operation, a large number of innovations aimed at improving the survivability of armored vehicles were introduced. "Izvestia" managed to visit the military training ground and get acquainted with the latest protection samples of Russian tanks.
Simplicity and reliability
There is a strong wind in the Moscow region. After a prolonged thaw, the training ground begins to be covered with snow. Several armored vehicles are on display on the concrete ground: T-72B3M, T-80BVM, T-90M with and without trawls, as well as a new armored repair and recovery vehicle BREM-80. Harsh winter weather goes to the armored vehicles - emphasizes its power. It is immediately noticeable that the vehicles have seriously changed during the special military operation.
While the tankers are preparing to warm up the tanks, the deputy chief of the Russian Defense Ministry's GABTU, Major General Sergei Shalyony, is talking about the modernization of combat vehicles.
- Opportunities for improvements and performance enhancement largely depend on the scientific and technical reserve that we have," the general said. - They largely depend on those technologies and on the capabilities of the industry for mass introduction of these developments, but first of all on the means of fire defeat, which are used by the enemy in the zone of a special military operation and the ways of application of these means of defeat. Physical and geographical conditions are also taken into account.
The main attention during modernization is paid to the combat characteristics of the tanks, the general explained. They are assessed according to the main combat indicators - there are four of them.
- These are the protection of the vehicles, their firepower, command controllability and mobility," Sergey Shalyonyi noted.
According to the general, in a good tank the crew should quickly get used to it. The vehicle should also be easy to use. This is taken into account when modernizing tanks.
Combat vehicles at the training range are covered with a special complex of visibility reduction means "Nakidka".
- It helps protect the vehicles from optical, thermal and radar detection," the tankers explain.
Alexander Pogrebsky, Acting Chairman of the Scientific and Technical Committee of the GABTU, said that the vehicles presented at the range are mass-produced and are being delivered to the SSO zone.
- Soldiers say that the protection of the modernized tanks has improved significantly," he said. - We have protected the places that were considered the most vulnerable. We have real-time feedback from combat units as well as designers at industrial plants.
Meanwhile, tankers with call signs Starover and Daga are showing the new BREM-80 armored repair and recovery vehicle.
- The vehicle has become more powerful and taller, and therefore more passable," they say. - The protection has been seriously improved.
Fighting against "kamikazes"
Defense against fpv-drones, which are controlled via radio channels, is currently the most urgent in the NWO zone. The main way to combat them is to install electronic warfare (EW) systems. They "jam" the channels on which the enemy controls UAVs and prevent them from approaching combat vehicles.
- Now on our armored vehicles we use REB with the so-called extended range and since the end of last year they have been installed on every vehicle," explained Sergey Shalyonyi.
In the course of modernization, the T-72B3M and T-80BVM tanks were additionally covered with dynamic protection (DP) modules on the lower frontal part, the gun armor mask and the turret chase. The side side shields and the aft projection of the hull are equipped with DZ modules. Both vehicles are equipped with additional protection against upper hemisphere attacking munitions and kamikaze UAVs. The T-80 BVM is also equipped with visibility reduction equipment.
The T-90M is protected by the glass of the commander's panoramic sight. Additional Relikt antitank containers have been installed on the hull and turret. This is not a complete list of improvements to the updated Russian armored vehicles.
Tankers note that in combat units and subdivisions, improvements are often carried out for specific narrowly specialized tasks and taking into account the theater of operations.
Tanks known as "Tsar-mangals" may come in handy in a given place and situation, but during factory upgrades, all the main characteristics of combat armored vehicles should be preserved as much as possible.
Against drones on fiber optics
We ask what unpleasant "surprises" the enemy can present on the battlefield to our tankers. GABTU knows about them and is preparing a worthy response.
Sergei Shalyony says that now Ukrainian fpv-drones on fiber optics have begun to appear on the line of contact - there are few of them so far, but inevitably there will be more.
REB systems do not work against these UAVs, as they are controlled via fiber optic cable and for this reason they cannot suppress the signal.
- Only mechanical defense is possible against such drones," says the general. - That is, in the short term - it is lattice and mesh screens, and in the medium term - the use of active defense systems, the so-called KAZ (active defense complexes - Ed.).
Mechanical protection will be attached to the tower and will look like an umbrella, it has already been developed. The KAZ, in turn, is designed to protect tanks from anti-tank shaped charges, ATGMs, shells and UAVs. It consists of a detection station and protective munitions that, if threatened, destroy the target on approach to the armored vehicle.
Tanks in combat
Tanks play an important role on the battlefield. Earlier, Izvestia reported how tankers of the 1st Slavyansk Brigade of the 51st Donetsk Army destroyed one of the fortifications where Ukrainian militants were entrenched in the Toretsk direction.
The tankers received coordinates before the combat sortie and then moved to a closed firing position. Infantry and scouts helped to correct the fire.
The tankers quickly took aim and then fired at least two dozen shells at the house.
After another direct hit, a request for a temporary cease-fire is heard over the comms. Next, an infantry unit comes into action and storms the already half-destroyed house.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
