Russian armored vehicles can withstand the impact of anti-tank grenade launchers even of new generations.
It became known that three rockets from the NLAW grenade launcher flew into our T-72BM, but the tank retained mobility and emerged victorious from a difficult battle. Earlier, Ukrainians themselves posted a small, but very characteristic video on the Web. It shows how the T-72BM turret is fired from the same NLAW, an explosion is visible, and the tank, without slowing down, leaves the firing zone. This is explained by the fact that our tanks have the best dynamic protection in the world - built-in and mounted. It reflects the impact of the cumulative jet and breaks sub-caliber shells.
What is a cumulative jet and how to deal with it? A conical recess lined with a layer of copper is made in the head of the cumulative ammunition. When the armor is hit, the explosive is detonated, the detonation wave collapses the funnel to the axis of the projectile. A thin jet of metal hits the armor. Since the pressure of the explosion products is almost half a million atmospheres, the metal begins to behave like a liquid. In fact, it is like a "cold" flow of metal at a speed of more than 10 km/ s. The interaction of the cumulative jet and armor occurs according to the laws of hydrodynamics. The jet does not burn through the armor at all (this is a common misconception), but penetrates into it, just as a jet of water under pressure erodes sand.
In the USSR, they found a way to deal with cumulative projectiles. Tank hulls began to be made multi-layered. Gaskets made of synthetic materials were placed between the steel sheets, effectively quenching the cumulative jet. The so-called dynamic protection began to be placed on top of the hull and tower. It very effectively broke the cumulative jet before the molten copper reached the main armor of the tank. After the collapse of the Warsaw Pact, NATO got Soviet tanks with such protection. Naturally, they were fired upon. It turned out that even the T-72A1, obsolete by today, were invulnerable to American M829A1 shells with a depleted uranium core. This shell did not penetrate our tanks. Cumulative missiles and shells, moreover, did not cause any damage to the tanks.
The first Soviet dynamic protection systems were called "Kontakt-1". Now the tanks are protected by Kontakt-5 and new generation systems - Relict. Perhaps it was he who withstood the blows of NLAW.
This is a British-Swedish development of the XXI century. Naturally, it received the pretentious name NLAW - Next Generation Light Anti-tank Weapon. In Russian translation - a new generation of light anti-tank weapons. The first delivery to Ukraine of not cheap complexes was carried out in early January of this year. According to unconfirmed, but very reliable data, the AFU received about a thousand sets of NLAW, most of which are already at the disposal of the DPR and LPR fighters.
By the way, Ukrainian tanks also have dynamic protection of their own design - a widely advertised "Knife". Russian specialists have received and tested this protection. It turned out to be far from the declared characteristics.
Sergey Ptichkin
