Posted on 12/01/2021 4:39:52 AM PST by tlozo
As Russian mechanized forces massing near Ukraine raise fears of an invasion this winter, tank watchers on social media have identified more and more Russian tanks sporting unsubtle field modifications seemingly aimed at fending off Ukraine’s newest weapons: U.S.-supplied Javelin anti-tank guided missiles and TB2 Bayraktar drones supplied by Turkey. Both pose a deadly threat to the top armor of armored vehicles, where protection is drastically weaker... Russia’s military is visibly experimenting with at least two new methods to protect against top-attacking menaces.
The first is to fit an umbrella of slatted armor on top of the tank. Slat armor is intended to disable or misdirect the fuse of the chemical-energy HEAT munitions in an anti-tank missile, causing it to unleash its jet of armor-piercing molten metal at an ineffectual angle and/or distance vis-a-vis the tank’s turret... These modifications, which have been seen on Russia’s workhorse T-72B and T-72B3 tanks, are non-standardized, suggesting experiments implemented in the field to address a possible operational contingency, rather than a factory-issued perfected solution...
Furthermore, according to munitions expert Neil Gibson, the molten jet projected by a Javelin’s warhead is likely long enough and a tank’s top armor thin enough that the cage armor would provide insufficient protection even if its triggers the main warhead from 0.5 to 1.5 meters away.
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
You can see their promo videos featuring Arena on BMPs back to 1993. The promos stipulated the modification capable to defeat top attack munitions already back then. It is not that hard, given that Javelin is a very slow missile. Early APS developed for the Afghan war lacked the angle of protection because top attack wasn’t a threat at the time. That’s ‘Drozd’ on T-55AD with the 60 degree protection arc, primarily geared against RPG/recoilless rifles. It was about 80% effective in field. Arena is obviously more capable.
How did we get on the subject of Cold War French tanks?
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