Revealing the extremely powerful defense system on Vietnam's T-90 tank
Images of the state-of-the-art defense system on Vietnam's T-90 have just been revealed when Russia announced footage of testing this tank before handing it over to Vietnam.
Images of the test were published in a report broadcast on the "Red Star" TV Channel (TV Channel of the Russian Ministry of Defense - ND), the T-90s were transferred to the watertightness testing pool.
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| T-90 tank. |
This is one of the final stages before field testing and delivery to customers. Vietnam ordered a total of 64 T-90S/SK tanks from Russia in 2017, and these tanks will be completed and delivered to Vietnam by Russia in 2019.
According to the published images, the Vietnamese version of the T-90 is equipped with the Shtora-1 defense system with 2 OTShU-1-7 jamming lights (also known as red eyes). The main task of this defense system is to neutralize the laser guidance of enemy anti-tank missiles.
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| Close-up of T-90 tank. |
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The Shtora-1 includes laser seekers, which are used by rebels to designate targets and guide TOW missiles. When the Shtora-1 detects that a tank is being targeted by a laser, it automatically launches smoke grenades, creating a 20-meter-long, 10-meter-high smoke wall.
The smoke grenade launch takes less than three seconds and lasts about 20 seconds. The smoke screen acts as a camouflage for the tank in front of the TOW's optical sight, making it impossible for the rebels to accurately identify the target. The Shtora-1 is also equipped with an optical suppressor, which emits radiation with a frequency and wavelength similar to the missile's control light source.
The closer the missile gets to the tank, the fewer control signals it receives, while the radiation light becomes stronger, causing the missile's control system to be disturbed and command it to self-destruct or fly in another direction when it is a few meters away from the tank, leaving the vehicle unharmed./.
