"Armata" enters the battle in the special operation zone

A source of RIA Novosti told about the use of Armata tanks in Ukraine The Russian armed forces began using the latest T-14 Armata tanks to fire at the positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, media sources said.

Combat vehicles have not yet taken part in tank battles and attacks.

"Russian troops have started using the latest Armata tanks to fire at Ukrainian positions. They have not yet participated in direct assault operations," a source told RIA Novosti. According to him, since the end of last year, the crews have been undergoing combat coordination at landfills in one of the People's republics of Donbass.

A revolutionary breakthrough in tank building

The main tank T-14 "Armata" was developed in the Ural Design Bureau of Transport Engineering (part of the UVZ). In June 2020, Denis Manturov, the head of the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation, announced that the T-14 Armata had been run-in in Syria. According to the minister, these tanks were sent to Syria "to take into account all the nuances in combat conditions."

As the newspaper wrote earlier.Ru", T-14 - the newest Russian main tank with an uninhabited turret based on a unified tracked platform of heavy category (by weight) "Armata". The T-15 infantry fighting vehicle and the T-16 armored recovery vehicle were created at the same base.

Prior to that, all tanks in the world had a so-called "classic" layout, where the crew was housed in the hull and turret together with ammunition and fuel tanks, which negatively affects its survival on the battlefield.

Image source: Alina Jus/"Newspaper.Ru"

The T-14 tank is equipped for the first time with a unified on-board information and control system (BIUS) of armored vehicles. The key in the new system is the principle of network centrism and open architecture.

The main element of the electronic board is a digital information exchange network covering all units, nodes, complexes and subsystems. The network provides a standard interface for connecting subscribers to it. Subscribers are electronic units embedded in functional units, aggregates, complexes and subsystems.

Real-time information from all sensors is provided in the BIOS, control commands for all drives and actuators are present in the network, as well as information about the status of all controls. In other words, the network has everything digitally necessary for monitoring and controlling the tank. Elements of the Unified Tactical Management System (ESU TK) are integrated into the machine through the BIUS.

This makes it possible to create a single intelligence and information field of tactical formations that unite various types of troops, for example, in company and battalion tactical groups (BTGr).

In the BTGr equipped with Armata family vehicles, combat control cycles are significantly reduced, the effectiveness of fire damage increases sharply, and the possibilities of tactical maneuver increase.

The T-14 tank is the first in the world to use "stealth technologies" to reduce visibility in the entire electromagnetic spectrum.

Also, an active protection complex (KAZ) and a curtain setting system (SDZ) are installed on the machine. KAZ "Afganit" is the only one in the world capable of effectively fighting not only jet and missile anti-tank ammunition, but also high-speed armor-piercing sub-caliber projectiles. The curtain system provides automatic cover of the vehicle from all angles, including the upper hemisphere, from ammunition with any guidance systems, covering the entire electromagnetic spectrum.

The Armata tank is equipped with dynamic protection of the fourth generation "Malachite", which with a high probability removes or completely fends off the penetrating effect of cumulative and kinetic ammunition.

The main booking of the tank is combined, multi-layered, with rational angles of inclination. It uses the most modern and advanced armor materials.

The mobility of the machine is provided by a multi-fuel diesel engine with various power boost modes. The chassis is designed for high speeds on the terrain and on public roads. Motion control, engine and transmission condition monitoring are automated.

The basis of the tank's firepower is a 125 mm smoothbore 2A82-1M cannon, which has a new generation of shells and guided missiles in its ammunition. The tank's fire control system is fully digital. The gunner-operator and the tank commander do not have a direct optical channel, controlling weapons through digital interfaces. The fully digital ballistic path allows you to take into account and calculate all shooting conditions automatically, and also automatically accompany selected targets. It is possible to obtain target designation of external sources through the ESU TK interface and issue target designation to the BTGr network for hitting targets with other fire means.

In short, the T-14 tank has all the necessary qualities to become one of the best-selling main tank on the world arms market.

Nuances

There are a lot of questions about the T-14 engine. The Armata power plant is based on the 12N360 engine (also known as A-85-3A and 2B-12-3A), produced by the Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant "CHTZ-Uraltrak". Curiously, the engine is several years older than the universal T-14 platform. According to some reports, such an engine was created for the promising tank "Object 195" (aka "Black Eagle"), but this project, for various reasons, did not progress beyond testing.

Some experts consider the A-85-3A engine insufficiently finished. There is an opinion that the promising power plant for Armata is inferior to modern foreign models in terms of efficiency, heat transfer, resource, etc. And this does not suit the Russian military.

The tower of the T-14 tank is simply hung with various kinds of sensors - a weather station, sights, an active phased array, receiving antennas and GLONASS antennas, infrared cameras and other numerous devices and optics that can be easily "demolished" by bursts of 25-mm and 35-mm guns of armored combat vehicles of a likely enemy. All this splendor of the "Armata" is very vulnerable even from fragments of artillery shells and small arms fire (heavy machine guns).

Image source: RIA Novosti

The tank is simply stuffed with electronics with imported components. Whether it will retain its operability even with the ricocheting of an armor-piercing sub-caliber projectile (i.e. a simple blow) is a big question.

The use of an automatic loader in Armata is also very controversial. In case of its failure, manual loading is possible with a loss of rate of fire up to 1 shot per minute. Meanwhile, a good loader can easily load 3-4 shells per minute into a tank gun. So a significant number of specialists consider the use of automatic loading in promising tanks superfluous. This mechanism is not used in Western-made tanks.

In July 2018, Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Borisov said that the T-14 tanks on the Armata platform and the Boomerang armored personnel carrier are very expensive models compared to existing models of armored weapons.

"Why "flood" with "Armata" or "Boomerangs" all the Armed Forces? Our T-72 tank is in great demand in the market, everyone takes it. In comparison with Abrams, Leclerc and Leopards, it significantly surpasses them in price, efficiency and quality," Yuri Borisov said at that time.

The American answer to "Armata"

As the newspaper wrote earlier .Ru", the USA is developing a high-tech tank platform of the next generation. The ongoing modernization of the main tank of the US army "Abrams" will be the last, senior Pentagon officials say. Now we are working on the concept of a car that will replace it by the 2030s. The new tank will become lighter, will receive universal projectiles that change their properties for a specific task, the most modern sensors and the ability to control drones from the combat compartment, and its systems will be integrated into control networks for network-centric warfare.

The Armored Vehicle Center for Research, Creation and Modernization of armored Combat Vehicles of the US Army (Army's Tank Automotive Research, Development and Engineering Center, TARDEC) is engaged in the development of concepts for future high-tech tank platforms.

So far, we are talking about the first stages of creating new tanks - conceptual work and modeling. The first sample "in metal" is still far away, but the US ground forces are already formulating their views on the future machine.

It is assumed that the new armored combat vehicle will be able to detect and destroy a wider range of targets, including unmanned aerial vehicles equipped with laser weapons, and even enemy artillery shells in flight. It should enter the equipment of the US armed forces in the 2030s.

To some extent, the new tank will be based on the reserves created by armored vehicles of previous generations.

The appearance of the new main battle tank will be preceded by the modernization of the Abrams to the M1A2 SEP v4 (M1A2D) level in the 2020s.

This is a variant of the Abrams with significantly expanded firing capabilities. The tank will be equipped with the latest generation of various sensors with a dramatically increased range: a laser rangefinder, video cameras, meteorological sensors and laser receivers warning of the possible use of enemy weapons on the tank. The equipment of the vehicles will also be adapted for conducting network-centric combat operations, including the transmission of data on the ammunition used.

Upgraded AMP (Advanced Multi-Purpose, AMP ammunition) multi-purpose projectiles will be delivered to the 120-millimeter cannon, which will simultaneously have a contact fuse, a delayed fuse and an air explosion, which will allow the operator, without reloading the gun, to choose the most suitable type of detonation to defeat a specific type of targets - infantry, armored vehicles or structures.

Mikhail Khodarenok