Isn’t this thing supposed to have full side ERA coverage? The x-ray shows the back panels are 5mm of aluminium…
I really want them to fix the armor on this thing. I don’t get what’s the issue with them ignoring this.
Apparently the current configuration of the side skirts is accurate to the Oplot-T, according to info on the manual/textbook. The protection provided by the ERA in my opinion should be increased according to my calculations made here: Comprehensive Technical Review: BM “Oplot,” “Duplet”/”Nozh” Dynamic Protection System, and Modeling Deficiencies - #16 by ARC_Convoy_77
But overall I think the sides are accurate unless it is proven wrong by new information.
Swear I saw a promotional video showing it has full side coverage and picture somewhere here on the forums with the 6th panel opened where ERA would normally go.
Not that it would be enough information for them anyways and I’m not sure if it was Ukranian, if that differs at all other than Thai oplot has AC afaik.
But yeah, not fixing the plate and ERA at the minimum is frustrating.
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This probably has to be the most artificially nerfed ground vehicle in game. There’s loads of material including photos and videos of armour composition, tests against 3BM-42 and french 120mm ammunition etc…
On the other hand there is plenty of broken stuff in game and is only getting worse. Just few examles: Merkava 3b with 40mm LOS composide slab on the side of the turret offers better HEAT protection than ~200-300mm NERA on Ra’am Segol. Massive and heavy (5.5t) War Kit on Ariete offers less protection than (1t) armour on BMD-4M. MEXAS kit offers less KE modifiers than a rubber screen and bunch of other BS.
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that would be considered a malfunction in real life.
Not really.
It depends on the:
a) style of ERA placement
b) sensitivity of explosive used in ERA tiles
If we speak of T-80BVM,
a) ERA is fitted in brow-like manner, there are upper and lower angled tiles. If one ERA explodes, say, lower one, the explosion has a chance to trigger adjacent tiles, that would result in a bigger boom, leading to enitre “cheekbone” loosing ERA. Worth mentioning that K-5 does not use the principle of “focused” explosion, thus collateral damage around the tile explosion is higher.
b) I can’t find what kind of explosive is used in K-5, but I’d guess it would be better than TNT, however sensitivity of explosive also plays great role. Shockwave might also trigger explosive, thus leading to a chain “boom” across several points.
For BM Oplot,
a) ERA is fitted in different manner on turret and hull sides. The principle of Nizh is that it has “focused” explosion, e.g. it uses hollow-charge effect to slice projectiles. It doesn’t mean it offers no collateral damage, but most energy is focused “upwards”, thus ERA blocks on turret cheeks would not be fused because one was hit but because the one bellow it might “slice” the block above it, leading to chain damage. Worth noting that casing for Nizh on turret is also different, as these “slots” are also made of HHRHA, and offer a certain degree of protection to adjacent ERA blocks. On hull sides, if the back layer is triggered, it will slice the front ones too. The only problem is that devs wrongly combined some ERA tiles on turret, as if 2x tiles placed on top of each other with barely any separation give 140mm KE protection, even though a single tile gives the same result.
b) Nizh ERA uses hexogen (RDX), which is relatively insensetive, but the boom from such tile is still big, thus requires some extra casing. In fact, if you look at those trials of Duplet on hull front, there was a test of tandem hollow-charge projectile from RPG, and it only fused one lining of Duplet ERA, with the adjacent tiles being okay. But still, RDX is not completely insensitive, thus explosion of several tiles of Nizh/Duplet is also possible.
But the game does not represent chain ERA explosion in its entirety. If it did so, the enitrety of K-1/5 would be gone from UFP/sides/turret even from explosion of one tile, like it mostly does irl, but fortunately, we do not have such mechanic, so it is up to devs to decide what parts of ERA shall explode due to collateral damage or not.
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Look, there is no way developers could miss 50 mm plate in the UFP with all of their experience in analyzing sources for such data. The only reason it is not in game is because developers did not want it to be. And if this tank would have realistically modeled , we would have situation where ukrainian tank is obviously better than russian tanks, because it would offer same thing in terms of firepower, way batter protection due to multiple layers of ERA on the sides, and last but not least - !!!REVERSE SPEED!!! Developers, for obvious reasons, will never accept that so you all just wasting your time there.
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Not to mention that version in Ukrainian tree would have to be equiped with active protection system that is proven to provide at least (by most conservative estimates) 10% reduction of APFSDS rounds armor penetration. Coupled with enhanced ERA protection this would be just enough to make tank not to be constantly one-shoted like most soviet/russian MBTs. And developers do not want that.
Hexogen is in particular extremely volatile prone to explosion from even small arms fire.
In fact during invasion of Donbass by Ukraine 2014 bulat t64bm tank has suffered total destruction from it’s own era.
This is the same reason why duplet ERA has large gaps between era tiles (30mm or so) to avoid chain explosion. In game as simulated you can fit a sabot between the tiles.
This ERA design is good on paper but it’s extremely unstable IRL, requires hundreds kgs of copper to produce. The second layer is very hampered by the first one.
It’s a dead end design and that’s why soviets went for k5 instead. Later russia evolved it into relikt.
IIRC any rather modern Soviet/Russian ERA has separators. Relikt on T-72/90s comes with grids between ERA tiles on UFP as well, and as I said, RDX is not completely insensitive.
There is also a reason why I stated that UFP wasn’t completely begone when tested against tandem-heat projectiles, as separators do protect ERA tiles.
K-5 would also be completely gone from UFP as there are no separators, however game does not simulate reality to its entire extent.
Well, if it was indeed unstable and “dead end”, it wouldn’t be produced until nowadays (see ERA blocks on Ukrainian tanks).
I agree that Duplet IRL proved to be a rather dead concept (there is a reason why there wasn’t many projects including Duplet ERA).
But the fact that Nizh ERA specifically can be set on fire by small arms is wrong.
Any insert can explode from small arms, there is a reason why casing plays a huge role in protection of ERA tile itself. From K-5 and onwards the extra thick cover was used to reduce the penetrative and incendiary power of projectiles from small arms and heavy machine guns.
And even Nizh insert during some tests just didn’t set off when fired by 5.56/7.62, with no casing included.
Interesting. Would be fine to see what was used to set off Nizh tho, because I’ve seen destroyed T-64 before, and most damage was not done due to ERA setting off but because the projectile itself boasts great firepower (if it was 125mm HE shell, no wonder the damage would be high).
Exactly my point since Ukrainian tanks are no longer produced. Neither is ERA. Nor has anyone tried replicating it
Nizh is still produced… What I meant was Duplet never being a thing beyond Oplot.
That’s why they installed k1 on abrams leopard
They could only ever produce these ineffective geat ERA it’s not like they ever had @ choice. They’re stuck with it.
Sure, maybe because stockpiles of said ERA is not depleted? I already explained that available ERA > produced ERA.
@Yontzee also proved Nizh inserts can be used in K-1 casings.
That is question since nizh can be in k1 casing
As it can be but k1 being a weaker one still has one big advantage it has 280 grains of explosive per unit compared to +=1 kg for nizh it’s a lot cheaper both k1 and nizh are pretty much reactive both of them won’t sit down when something explodes nearby so here comes the economic suitability what can you afford producing nizh or k1.
You’re wrong here. There’s literal YouTube footage with 30mm bullets tested on k5 and it didn’t go off. Nizh duplet would go off 100%
Idk about this one. There are model 19A and 34P, the former used purely against HEAT jets and weights in total ~1.4kg and latter used in both anti-CE and KE and weights around 3kgs.
ХСЧКВ-19А definitely uses less than 1kg of explosive, and maybe it is more or less right for 34P, but mostly people exaggerate explosive weight (the TNTeq. tho is different subject).
Correct to most extent, but nowadays there are barely any tank duels involving shooting each other with APFSDS from 1.5-2km. In drone age, any ERA overall is better than nothing because mostly you would face RPG projectiles bolted on them drones, and both K-1 and Nizh counter them.
Hmm. I wonder if casing/cover was involved as well.
I also believe Nizh was never advertised as resistant to 30mm AP-I, AFAIK only 14.5mm AP-I.
26:50
Correction 12,7 mm and relikt
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