Tuesday, August 25, 2015

Russia lying about Armata capabilites?

According to Jane's, the manufacturer of the new T-14 Armata main battle tank, made some very dubios claims about the T-14 Armata.

Vyacheslav Khalitov, the director of the tank manufacturer UralVagonZavod (UVZ), claimed that the T-14 Armata has stealth features like modern aircraft and cannot be detected by radar.

As written by Jane's "... US specialists with many years of experience in the design of current-generation armour and Russian experts on former Soviet programmes that were designed to reduce AFV signatures both expressed doubts."

What to think about this? A radar absorbing stealth tank? Am I the only one who would not see any use of this?
Radars might be used by long range reconnaisance to spot tanks, but on the tactical situation - i.e. on the battlefield - nobody will use radars for detecting tanks... tanks do not have radars, IFVs do not have radars, APCs do not have radars, the infantry doesn't carry radars - hell, even scout vehicles are not equipped with radars. There are ground surveillance systems with high sensitivity thermal detectors, which can spot tanks from 20 or more miles away. So why would they make the tank out of radar absorbing materials?

3 comments:

  1. Attack helicopters use radar. Obviously the claim that the T-14 is "invisible" is exaggerated.

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    1. That is indeed true, but not all attack helicopters utilize radars. The TIGER attack helicopter uses an optical main sight (OSIRIS) for guidance. Radars can be jammed to some degree, which is why the actual guidance of fire-and-forget missiles (PARS-3, current Hellfire versions) relies on thermal imaging.

      Russian anti-tank missiles are usually guided by a laser beam (e.g. 9M123).

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