T-72 ΜΒΤ modernisation and variants #2

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:https://i.servimg.com/u/f10/19/89/13/22/005211.jpg
https://i.servimg.com/u/f10/19/89/13/22/005315.jpg
He is more jammer than tank. 

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More info

https://www.facebook.com/K01Archive/posts/pfbid0NM1mSc8utU1pZ7FRgCTHttMLEANTuFiUmHuw6yS96Bdet9GXL7PqFpay5nbY2sd6l

Other images of the super bulking jammer just installed above Russian tanks.

Each of the jamming blocks consists of 16 antenna broadcasting many kinds of jamming waves, allows it to disrupt many kinds of signal from commanding signals to GPS.

However it is energy consuming and generate much heat, which requires a strong car battery and a separeated electric generator.

What happens when these jammers fall into the hand of Ukrainian forces ? Nothing, as these jammers have simple design and use common technology. There is no super alien tech here.

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.

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.

And there it is. The ideal drone cage. Excellent coverage of the turret all around, but more importantly the turret can still traverse a full 360 degrees. Great visibility too.

Note the extended rear cage. Most FPV pilots are trained to trail a tank and hit them at the unprotected bustle for NATO MBTs or the exposed nape for Soviet MBTs. The idea being to blow up the ammo and kill the crew, or failing that, damage the turret ring and significantly degrade the combat potential of the tank until major repairs are made.

The hull remains unprotected but thats not really a problem. FPV drones have issues with the ground bouncing off its own signal when they get around 1-2 m off the ground so hull hits are seldom done on purpose.

Nice.

Notice at about 54 seconds when he is on the turret and looking to the left of the panoramic sight with the roof mounted HMG mount you can see an open box on the side of the turret bustle that seems to be filled with track links.

Useful and further protection for bustle loaded ammo.

Those thick rubber or plastic sheets will certainly make things harder for FPV drones to get clean hits without obscuring the Tank commanders vision... and it would also block the IR heat from the engine and the engine deck for weapons like Javelin and drones with thermal cameras.

Really? Reverse as the lead vehicle in an ambush?

The War Thunder tank school is going to get so many people killed. Use some common sense.

The way I see it the T-72 crew did their job. When the shooting started they immediately went on the offensive, charging straight out of the killbox while accurately firing back (and hitting) at least one of the enemy vehicle that was eventually found abandoned and droned. Popping smoke is counter-productive once you have sight of your targets.

They were only unlucky the first hit took out the left track which made the vehicle pivot to the left once the tank has ran its left track out.

If anything this episode shows just how shit the Leopard 2's antiquated thermals is. Misidentifying the MBT and IFV at practically point blank range and shooting the wrong shell for each - tsk, tsk, tsk.