![]() ![]() So it would appear that Russia has the technology to defeat many of the anti-tank weapons ( Javelin, NLAW etc) which have been used so effectively in Ukraine against its MBTs and armoured fighting vehicles. The current Russian APS is called Arena, a hard-kill system like Drozd, designed to destroy an incoming missile’s warhead through the use of munitions before it reaches the vehicle being protected. This system was designed as an addition to passive or reactive armour against anti-tank weapons using shaped-charge technology. It was, however, the Soviets/Russians who developed the first active protection system between 19, named Drozd. The best known of these is perhaps the Israeli Trophy system which has saved many a tank or armoured vehicle of theirs for a good few years now, and which I understand is being procured by the British Royal Armoured Corps for Challenger 3, of which more later. The key to defeating loitering munitions and kamikaze drones lies in the latter, usually referred to as active protection systems (APS). So tank protection can now be considered in the categories of passive (armour plate or composite), reactive (exploding bolt-on boxes), or active (interceptor missiles, disruptive munitions, or jamming), sometimes categorised into soft-kill and hard-kill systems. And finally, active armour, which senses the incoming round or missile and intercepts it before it even reaches the MBT. Then explosive reactive armour, placed on the outside of conventional protection, which detonates to disrupt the incoming attack. Then spaced or composite armour designed to defeat an attack by high explosive shaped-charge warheads designed to penetrate steel plate using molten, focused metal jets. This competition has continued ever since. The enemy quickly devised and deployed anti-tank rifles which fired a bigger, heavier round to penetrate the tanks’ armour. When first deployed on the Somme the tank was proof against German machine guns (although not against artillery rounds). ![]() And it won’t come to pass this time either, not yet anyway, for reasons I shall now explain.įirst, the history of the tank in warfare since its first introduction by the British in 1916 during the Great War has been one of a see-saw battle between its protection levels and the potency of weapons designed to defeat that protection. I have heard this cry numerous times before over the past forty years and it has yet to come to pass. If you would like to submit your own article on this topic or any other, please see our submission guidelines. This article is the opinion of the author and not necessarily that of the UK Defence Journal. What has been widely portrayed in the popular media has led, once again, to predictions that “the age of the tank is over”. Unfortunately, the abiding images in the public view are of heavily armed and armoured, not to say highly expensive, armoured fighting vehicles being destroyed and neutralised wither by plucky individuals with hand-held anti-tank weapons or by cheap – relatively speaking – armed drones and the so-called ‘loitering’ or ‘kamikaze’ munitions. "It's pretty obvious from that, that the tank is still an important part of the battlefield.Recent conflicts in Nagorno-Karabakh between Armenia and Azerbaijan and, more tellingly, the current war in Ukraine have brought a renewed focus on the role of the main battle tank in modern, conventional military operations. Crane, senior historian and acting editor-in-chief at USAWC Press. "If you look at what the Ukrainians are doing, they're desperately trying to get hold of our Abrams tanks and German Leopard tanks and some of the better quality arms," said Conrad C. The department estimates that sending M1A1s will speed up the estimated delivery time to the fall. Department of Defense recently announced that it would be sending refurbished M1A1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine. "You need something that's going to have some protection behind it, that's going to allow infantry to be able to either use it for cover or use it for indirect fires."Īs Ukrainian tank crews learn how to operate the various donated tanks from Western countries, the U.S. "When you look at how combat has proceeded, and Ukraine has been a great example of that, tanks have been very important to be able to gain and take territory, " said Bryan Clark, director of the Center for Defense Concepts and Technology at the Hudson Institute. Personal Loans for 670 Credit Score or Lowerĭespite the effectiveness of anti-tank systems, such as the U.S.-made Javelin and the British-produced Next Generation Light Anti-tank Weapon, or NLAW, the heavy armor and firepower that tanks can bring to bear remain in demand by both sides of the conflict. ![]() Personal Loans for 580 Credit Score or Lower Best Debt Consolidation Loans for Bad Credit ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |