A bit of information about the active defense complex.
The T-80U tank equipped with the T08-A5 active protection system automatically detects and defeats incoming anti-tank grenades and guided missiles in all conditions of combat use at any time of the year and at any time of the day.Starting in the mid-1980s, the Design Bureau-3 in cooperation with KBM (Kolomna) created, installed on three T-80B tanks and tested a fundamentally new active protection system. Approaching shells were destroyed no closer than 5-10 m to the tank. The protection was almost circular. Weakened areas of the tank (sights, optical devices, turret epaulettes, gun and machine gun embrasures) were protected.Thus, the tank’s protection reached a qualitatively new level, taking into account the integration of KAZ with VDZ and passive protection.Prior to the Arena KAZ, there were attempts by other design bureaus and research institutes to create this type of protection, but they did not achieve positive results. The old element base implied large weight and size characteristics of the complexes, which made it impossible to use the first KAZ prototypes on tanks. However, experience was gained and used by KB-3 and KBM in the new Arena complex.
Exceptionally businesslike and friendly relations have been established between KB-3 and KBM. We would like to note the understanding of problems and their joint solution with mutual concessions. KBM and its co-executors-electronics engineers switched to a new element base and implemented fundamentally new solutions for noise immunity of the onboard radar. This made it possible to compactly place and protect the system components inside and outside the tank. The merit of the Chief Design Bureau designers S.P. Nepobedimy, N.I. Gushchin and, of course, those with whom they had to “contact” on a daily basis was undoubtedly due to the Head of the Department V.I. Timofeev, specialists B.C. Kharkin and A.Z. Kashubsky, as well as V.I. Chekulov, L.D. Lvov, V.A. Devyatkin and L.I. Lovkin. The Arena system was installed on the tank by the Design Bureau-3 designers N.N. Soloviev, M.G. Shklovsky, V.I. Pchelkin and M.F. Boytsov. I was appointed by the General Designer to be responsible for the installation of the “Arena” KAZ on the T-80. It was a great honor and great responsibility, and most importantly a daily “headache”,
Preliminary tests of the Arena system on the T-80B tank made a lasting impression. The flight of an incoming projectile and its destruction on the trajectory were recorded using high-speed photography. Viewing clearly showed how 5-10 meters from the tank the incoming shells (missiles) exploded before reaching it. Before the projectile (missile) was destroyed, a special cassette was seen leaving the cell of the complex, detonating at a height of 1 m from the tank turret, followed by the release of a directional stream of defeat elements and the explosion of the projectile.No similar CAS has existed in the world to date.Despite successful tests, work on the Arena CAS was stopped in the early 1990s due to the well-known events in the country. At present, the interrupted research is gradually resuming.
It is to be hoped that the tremendous work carried out jointly with KBM and the co-developers of the radio-electronic part will still be successfully completed, and we should rightfully become pioneers in the use of the KAZ in tanks.The essence of the active protection method is that from the desire to resist the impact of a projectile by increasing the strength of the armor, we switch to influencing the projectile even before it hits the armor in order to destroy or damage it. At present, this applies mainly to anti-tank weapons with shaped-charge warheads, which make up the majority on the battlefield. The principle of operation of the “Arena” anti-tank gun is that protective ammunition capable of firing to a height of about 1 m and then exploding, creating a directional flow of destructive elements (fragments), is installed on the tank turret in a circle from the axis of its rotation. Under their influence, the approaching projectile is damaged, making it unable to penetrate the armor, or explodes on the trajectory.
