Ah no im not expecting them to be par on French Tanks considering they have different doctrine in tank battles but i thought starting with SEPV2 they were better than Russian tanks.
I always considered Leclerc,Type-10 and K2’s as a spear of the NATO forces so it makes sense them to have better FCS while Abrams,Merkava’s and Leopards be heavy shield and Challengers as for the last line.
As for Ariete’s, well its Ariete at the end of day but considering what i think i believe it suits Us doctrine to not upgrade FCS to latest gen until SEPV4.
It’s really that the US are losing their knowledge of building tanks. Aside from the armor and engine, most of the vital components are getting outsourced as time goes by, from German guns since the arrival of 120mm to French optics and FCS in their newer projects.
This is partly due to the US government not knowing what they want. US ground armor procurement has been a shitshow in the last few decades, with the M10 booker being the epitome of it, changing the requirements every odd day, ending with industrials not knowing what to do
T-90S tanks with some T-80UM tanks (for example Cyprus ones) have been shipped with ESSA or Plisa sights in late 1990s, both carrying Catherine-FC as well.
Those are, AFAIK, only present in export models. This is something that has happen in the post-cold war period, where Russia has exported tanks that are simply better than what they could afford for their own armies
ESSA and Plisa went into usage of Russia in 2006 on T-90A (2006 was also first appearance of Sosna sight on T-72B2) and in 2004 on T-80UE-1 and T-80UA tanks in form of Plisa. T-80UE-1 was built in number of 30 IIRC with T-90A getting much better numbers.
Dont currently know about T-80UA really, other than it’s adoption.
Same happened with Egypt Ka52 (Egypt at first having more Ka-52 than Russia for some time, Russia only buying Ka-52 because it was bought by others), Mi-35P, T-90S tanks to this day where T-90AS carry same side protection as T-90M while old T-90A dont get such upgrade unless remade into T-90M, BTR-82A (with Belarus ones getting thermals earlier than BTR-82AT went into full scale production), BMPT Terminator (IIRC some country bought them with Russia still not having them in full production)
Currently the pantsir is equipped with unique technologies not available in other countries and it is in game bullying every plane
Same could be said about ground Radar (available only to Russia afaik) the smokeless AIM-9M and the gun lead on the T-2 when they were introduced…
The only reason minor countries not having their technologies is the time of development for the low impact on the game in my opinion (developing 1 feature for only one vehicle unplayed by the majority isn’t good for business)
Even by 2022, the majority of Russian MBT’s did not field any thermal imagers, so I’m very curious why you’re claiming Catherine was the ‘‘standard’’ around 2004.
I mispoke. I don’t believe it to be false based on what I know. What I meant is that if you think the claim is incorrect then take it up with Thales. France supplied Russia with plenty of thermal imagers for service, testing and even helped established domestic manufacturing. In lieu of any other sources (which I don’t have the time to go looking for anytime soon), I’ll refer to what Thales said.
I am aware of that yes but the Russian army would (I hope) supply their T-90s and T-80s fully before moving onto T-72s. I don’t know when exactly the T-72s received their thermals but it was before the conflict.
T72B3 had it all along but T72B had gotten the same package. T72As are not deployed cause to be frank, T64s and T62 retired in USSR times are better preserved.
