T-72 ΜΒΤ modernisation and variants #2

Regular wrote:^^^
The issue is that we rarely see Trophy engaging RPGs. So not only their tank usage is flawed operationally, but there is this little technical nuance as well

In urban areas I doubt the radar and launching system ha e time to detect a rocket and deploy the interception explosives.

An rpg will travel at 300 or m/s. If it's shot 10m away by a team hidding in a building it gives not even 1sec to react.

The radar is also affected by such closed spaces with lot of noise coming from metalic structures around that bounce the signals.

In urban areas I doubt the radar and launching system ha e time to detect a rocket and deploy the interception explosives.

I have to agree... ARENA and DROZD had munitions pointed in fixed directions with a bit of overlap so three missiles coming from the same direction could be intercepted without needing to turn the munitions launcher (ie turret).

The speed of reaction can be high because as soon as it detects the incoming target it knows which munition to fire and will quickly calculate when...

With and aimed munition launcher what happens if it is pointed in the opposite direction to that needed to work?

Is there time to turn it 180 degrees?

I personally liked the original ARENA design with a row of vertically launched downward firing munitions located behind the front row of ERA around the turret front... whether fired or not they add to the frontal protection of the tank. The new ARENA has boxes of munitions each able to cover a quarter of the vehicle... so one box carrying munitions for the left and right side and one box carrying munitions to cover the front and the rear.

Why not go for both where munitions around the entire circumference of the turret and be launched up and away from the tank to fire downwards on incoming threats, while a couple of boxes hold further munitions to cover from any direction too... perhaps also diving top attack threats too.

Those munitions around the turret could also be manually launched against enemy troops near the tank or hiding in nearby trenches.

An rpg will travel at 300 or m/s. If it's shot 10m away by a team hidding in a building it gives not even 1sec to react.

Most RPGs wont arm that close and would likely kill the guy launching the rocket if it did.

The standard RPG-7 has a propellant charge to blow the rocket out of the tube at about 180m/s and after the rocket travels about 14-16m the sustainer rocket motor ignites and accelerates the rocket to about 370m/s to its target.

When the sustainer motor burns out it sets off the warhead and acts like a safety system so you don't have rockets landing from tens of kms away.

This self destruct feature works at about 930-950m and is sometimes used to get helicopters.... when a flying helicopter is about 940m away launch an RPG and it will explode rather close to the helicopter even if it doesn't hit it.

T-72B3Ms spearheading the attacks on the Avdiivka Terrikon.


Exhibit A of why armor will never go away as long as humans fight on land. You need armor to lead the charge and draw out enemy fire because everything else will get destroyed before you can identify where the enemy positions are and return effective fire.

You can also see the annular splashes from 155 mm cassette shells at some points. The spin from the rifling disperses the submunitions in a very thin circular pattern with a very sparse coverage of the actual aimpoint. You would need a massive barrage of at least a couple hundred shells to really do some damage with against armored columns.

Hole wrote:[url=https://servimg.com/view/19891322/9449]
Another T-72 with a different jammer, this one has 360° coverage.

Surely look much better, other resembled as they have mounted a makeshift DJ set on to entertain the troops with a Shaman's live session.

Seems like it should be top priority to install APUs in every fielded vehicle to power these jammers even when the engine isn't running.

Most diesel engined tanks use very little fuel when idling... you might notice most bus drivers keep their engines running even if they are sitting still for a long period of time.

With T-80s with gas turbines then the case for APUs is bigger... most command tanks with extra radio sets already have APUs to power them, but for most vehicles it would be a useful addition and perhaps could have other systems attached to it like drones on a tether etc.

GarryB wrote:Most diesel engined tanks use very little fuel when idling... you might notice most bus drivers keep their engines running even if they are sitting still for a long period of time.

With T-80s with gas turbines then the case for APUs is bigger... most command tanks with extra radio sets already have APUs to power them, but for most vehicles it would be a useful addition and perhaps could have other systems attached to it like drones on a tether etc.

Fuel consumption isn't the only issue, running the engine causes a much larger heat signature than just running an APU. There's a reason why the T-90M received one.

This is true, but materials like Nakidka and external coatings and even metal frames with ERA blocks on them will not be heated by the engine running so they will conceal the engine heat from multiple useful angles.

Using heated decoys with your real vehicles with their heat signature concealed makes more sense than having APUs, though the added digitalisation with all the electronics on vehicles these days a decent APU would be valuable.

A small gas turbine based APU can be rather compact and quite powerful, while at the same time not use a lot of fuel because they are not run under load, so they can run at efficient speeds to avoid excessive waste of fuel.

New designs seem to separate the fuel driven power supply from the electric drive wheels, so technically the fuel driven engine is essentially an APU... the main power unit being batteries.

APUs are becoming mandatory because high power electronics like radios and jammers require a steady source of electricity. A generator mechanically coupled to an engine will have its output fluctuate in response to dynamic mechanical loads on the latter. At best you have power cycling issues with the equipment. The worst that can happen is you stall on the field and your electronics stop working too.