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 as Russia released footage of testing the 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 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 wall of smoke.
The smoke grenade launch takes less than three seconds and lasts about 20 seconds. The smoke screen serves to camouflage the tank from 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 suppression light, 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 disrupted and commanded to self-destruct or fly in another direction when it is a few meters away from the tank, leaving the vehicle unharmed./.
