1.
M60 Patton
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The M60 Patton is a main battle tank introduced in December 1960. With the United States Armys deactivation of their last heavy tank battalion in 1963, although developed from the M48 Patton, the M60 series was never officially classified as a Patton tank, but as a product-improved descendant of the Patton series. In March 1959, the tank was officially standardized as the 105 mm Gun Full Tracked Combat Tank M60, the M60 underwent many updates over its service life. The interior layout, based on the design of the M48, provided room for updates and improvements. Egypt is currently the largest operator with 1,716 upgraded M60A3s, Turkey is second with 866 upgraded units in service, during the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, a Soviet T-54A medium tank was driven onto the grounds of the British embassy in Budapest by the Hungarians. After a brief examination of this armor and 100 mm gun. There were also rumors of an even larger 115 mm gun in the works, hence there was a need to adopt a 105 mm gun, which emerged as the famed Royal Ordnance L7. This information made its way to the United States, where the Army had been experimenting with a series of upgrades to their M48 Patton tanks. These experiments were concerned with improving the armor and the introduction of a variety of systems, such as that used in the 105 mm gun tank T54. The T95 program, launched after the Questionmark III conference in June 1954, was the replacement to the M48. It featured a host of innovative and experimental components such as its 90 mm smoothbore T208 cannon rigidly affixed to its turret, the burden of developing them however slowed the overall program to a crawl. General Taylor approved of a new development program in August 1957. The MBT was to combine the firepower and protection sufficient for the role with the mobility to perform as a medium tank. A tank of the T95 series, armed with a smoothbore cannon, the course of this tank program was the source of widespread debate. The Bureau of Budget believed that the Army was not progressing with sufficient speed in its modernization program. The alternative was to introduce a tank from the T95 series, an influential group of senior officers, by May 1958, concluded that the T95 had only marginal advantages over the M48A2. They proposed that the most important improvements, better firepower and fuel economy, could be achieved by mounting a compression ignition engine, the main gun was chosen after a comparative firing test on the Aberdeen Proving Grounds. Participating in the test were six guns, the 90 mm M41, the 90 mm T208E9, the 105 mm X15E8, the 105 mm T254, the 120 mm T123E6, and the 120 mm M58
2.
T-72
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The T-72 is a Soviet second-generation main battle tank that entered production in 1971. About 20,000 T-72 tanks were built, making it one of the most widely produced post–World War II tanks, the T-72 was widely exported and saw service in 40 countries and in numerous conflicts. The development of the T-72 was a result of the introduction of the T-64 tank. The T-64 was an ambitious project to build a competitive tank with a weight of not more than 36 tons under the direction of Alexander Morozov in Kharkov. To achieve that goal, the crew was reduced to three soldiers, saving the loader by introducing an automated loading system and this and other steps allowed a reduced weight, but caused problems when looking for a reliable engine to fit in the smaller hull. The production of the T-64 with a 115-mm gun began in 1964, problems with the first batch of T-64 tanks were centred on the 5TDF700 hp engine and the auto loading mechanism. The engine was unreliable, was difficult to repair and had a life span of only a World War 2-era tank engine. A strong lobby around designer Morozov advocated for the T-64 in Moscow, preventing rival developments, the 5TDF was too complex and its production twice as costly as the V-45 engine. In 1967, the Uralvagonzavod formed Section 520, which was to prepare the serial production of the T-64 for 1970. The team soon found out that the more powerful V-45 engine put a lot of stress on the fragile T-64 hull, a more stable solution had to be found. Under influence from Kharkov, the idea had been turned down by Moscow, but this construction, with its big, rubbercoated roadwheels now formed the basis for the mobilisation model of the T-64. Additional changes were made to the loading system, which also was taken from an earlier project. Ammunition, consisting of a projectile and a propellant charge was now stored horizontally on two levels, not vertically on one level like in the T-64. It was said to be more reliable than the T-64 autoloader, in 1964, two 125-mm guns of the D-81 type had been used to test their installation in the T-62, so the Ural plant was ready to adopt the 125-mm calibre for the T-64A as well. Uralvagonzavod produced the first prototype with a 125-mm gun and V-45K engine in 1968 as Object 172, after intensive comparative testing with the T-64A, Object 172 was re-engineered in 1970 to deal with some minor problems. However, being only a model, a serial production of Object 172 was not possible in peacetime. In an unclear political process decree number 326-113 was issued, which allowed the production of Object 172 in the Soviet Union from 1, January 1972 and freed Uralvagonzavod from the T-64A production. At least some technical documentation on the T-72 is known to have passed to the CIA by the Polish Colonel Ryszard Kuklinski between 1971 and 1982
3.
1982 Lebanon War
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The military operation was launched after gunmen from Abu Nidals organization attempted to assassinate Shlomo Argov, Israels ambassador to the United Kingdom. Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin blamed Abu Nidals enemy, the PLO, for the incident, the PLO, under the chairmanship of Yasser Arafat, had relocated its headquarters to Tripoli in June 1982. Following the assassination of Gemayel in September 1982, Israels position in Beirut became untenable and the signing of a peace treaty became increasingly unlikely. After Israeli forces withdrew from most of Lebanon, the War of the Camps broke out between Lebanese factions, the remains of the PLO and Syria, in which Syria fought its former Palestinian allies. At the same time, Shia militant groups began consolidating and waging a low-intensity guerrilla war over the Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon, the Lebanese Civil War would continue until 1990, at which point Syria had established complete dominance over Lebanon. After the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, Lebanon became home to more than 110,000 Palestinian refugees, after their settlements in Palestine and Israel had been depopulated as a result of the war. After its founding in 1964 and the radicalization among Palestinians, which followed the Six Day War, continual violence near the Lebanese border occurred between Israel and the PLO starting from 1968, this peaked, following the relocation of PLO bases to Lebanon after the civil war in Jordan. The violence between Israel and the PLO peaked during Operation Litani in 1978, provoked by the Coastal Road Massacre which was carried out by Palestinian militants, as early as 1976, Israel had been assisting Lebanese Christian militias in their sporadic battles against the PLO. But Israels main partner was to be the Maronite Phalange party, whose paramilitary was led by Bashir Gemayel, gemayels strategy during the early stages of the Lebanese Civil War was to provoke the Syrians into retaliatory attacks on Christians, such that Israel could not ignore. In 1978, Menachem Begin declared that Israel would not allow a genocide of Lebanese Christians, hundreds of Lebanese militiamen began to train in Israel, at the IDF Staff and Command College. During the period June to December 1980 the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon recorded an increase in activities along the border zone, during the same period Israel protested numerous attacks by Palestinian forces, unrelated to the Lebanese border zone. In contrast the IDF had launched attacks on Lebanese territory often in support of the Lebanese Christian militia. In doing so Israel had violated UN Security Council resolution 425 on hundreds of occasions, in the subsequent period 16 June to 10 December 1981, a relative quiet was reported continuing from 29 May 1981 until 10 July. This was broken when Israeli aircraft resumed strikes against targets in southern Lebanon north of the UNIFIL area, led to exchanges of heavy firing between armed elements, on the one hand, and IDF and the de facto forces on the other. On 13 and 14 July, widespread Israeli air-strikes continued, armed elements fired into the enclave and northern Israel. Israeli-initiated attacks had led to rocket and artillery fire on northern Israel and this pattern continued in the coming days. Israel renewed its air strikes in an attempt to trigger a war that would allow it to out the PLO. On 17 July, the Israel Air Force launched an attack on PLO buildings in downtown Beirut
4.
T-90
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The T-90 is a third-generation Russian battle tank that entered service in 1993. The tank is a variation of the T-72B and incorporates many features found on the T-80U. Originally called the T-72BU, but later renamed to T-90, it is a tank in service with Russian Ground Forces. The T-90 uses a 125mm 2A46 smoothbore main gun, the 1A45T fire-control system, an uprated engine, standard protective measures include a blend of steel and composite armour, smoke grenade dischargers, Kontakt-5 explosive-reactive armour and the Shtora infrared ATGM jamming system. It was designed and built by Uralvagonzavod, in Nizhny Tagil, since 2011, the Russian armed forces have ceased any further orders for the T-90, and are instead anticipating the development of the T-14 Armata that is expected to enter service in 2016. The T-90 has its origins in a Soviet-era program aimed at developing a replacement for the T-64, T-72. The T-72 platform was selected as the basis for the new generation of tank owing to its cost-effectiveness, simplicity, development work was approved in 1986 and the first prototypes were completed by 1988. The vehicles resulting from the Object 187 program have not been declassified to this date, less than 200 T-90 tanks were delivered to the Russian Ground Forces before production was resumed in 2005 of an upgraded version. By September 1995, some 107 T-90 tanks had been produced, located in the Siberian Military District. The first 42 complete Indian tanks were delivered in 2001 and were designated T-90S, still equipped with the older cast turrets of the early series and powered by the V-84 engine making 840hp. This was followed up next year with delivery of 82 vehicles, now equipped with the new welded turrets, in 2005 the Russian army resumed delivery of the T-90, requesting the original specification for the vehicle with a cast turret. That same year saw delivery of an additional 18 new tanks - enough to one whole battalion. These new Russian tanks were powered by the V-92S2 engine, carried a T01-K05 Buran-M gunners sight and were protected by the most recent Kontakt-5 reactive armor with 4S22 explosive tiles, since 2008, the Russian army has received 62 tanks annually, suspending orders in 2011. Russia is developing the new Armata Universal Combat Platform to be ready for use by 2016 and it is expected to employ a more powerful engine, improved armor, main gun and autoloader, with ammunition storage separated from the crew. An early variant of the export-oriented T-90S allegedly saw combat action during the 1999 Chechen invasion of Dagestan instead of being delivered to India, according to Moscow Defence Brief, one vehicle was hit by seven RPG anti-tank rockets but remained in action. The journal concluded that with regular equipment, the upgraded T-90 seems to be the best protected Russian tank, especially with the implementation of Shtora-1, the T-90A was deployed to Syria in 2015 to support the Russian involvement in the Syrian Civil War. In early February 2016, Syrian Army forces began using T-90As in combat, in late February, a video was leaked on the internet which showed a T-90 survive a direct frontal turret hit by a TOW-2A missile in Aleppo. The first alleged footage of the targeted tank showed only minor damage to Shtora-1 jammer optics, in early May there was another TOW attack scoring a hit on a different vehicle operated by Syrian loyalist forces
5.
Soviet Union
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The Soviet Union, officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a socialist state in Eurasia that existed from 1922 to 1991. It was nominally a union of national republics, but its government. The Soviet Union had its roots in the October Revolution of 1917 and this established the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and started the Russian Civil War between the revolutionary Reds and the counter-revolutionary Whites. In 1922, the communists were victorious, forming the Soviet Union with the unification of the Russian, Transcaucasian, Ukrainian, following Lenins death in 1924, a collective leadership and a brief power struggle, Joseph Stalin came to power in the mid-1920s. Stalin suppressed all opposition to his rule, committed the state ideology to Marxism–Leninism. As a result, the country underwent a period of rapid industrialization and collectivization which laid the foundation for its victory in World War II and postwar dominance of Eastern Europe. Shortly before World War II, Stalin signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact agreeing to non-aggression with Nazi Germany, in June 1941, the Germans invaded the Soviet Union, opening the largest and bloodiest theater of war in history. Soviet war casualties accounted for the highest proportion of the conflict in the effort of acquiring the upper hand over Axis forces at battles such as Stalingrad. Soviet forces eventually captured Berlin in 1945, the territory overtaken by the Red Army became satellite states of the Eastern Bloc. The Cold War emerged by 1947 as the Soviet bloc confronted the Western states that united in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in 1949. Following Stalins death in 1953, a period of political and economic liberalization, known as de-Stalinization and Khrushchevs Thaw, the country developed rapidly, as millions of peasants were moved into industrialized cities. The USSR took a lead in the Space Race with Sputnik 1, the first ever satellite, and Vostok 1. In the 1970s, there was a brief détente of relations with the United States, the war drained economic resources and was matched by an escalation of American military aid to Mujahideen fighters. In the mid-1980s, the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, sought to reform and liberalize the economy through his policies of glasnost. The goal was to preserve the Communist Party while reversing the economic stagnation, the Cold War ended during his tenure, and in 1989 Soviet satellite countries in Eastern Europe overthrew their respective communist regimes. This led to the rise of strong nationalist and separatist movements inside the USSR as well, in August 1991, a coup détat was attempted by Communist Party hardliners. It failed, with Russian President Boris Yeltsin playing a role in facing down the coup. On 25 December 1991, Gorbachev resigned and the twelve constituent republics emerged from the dissolution of the Soviet Union as independent post-Soviet states
6.
T-54/T-55
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The T-54 and T-55 tanks are a series of Soviet main battle tanks introduced just as the Second World War ended. The first T-54 prototype was completed at Nizhni Tagli by the end of 1945, the T-54 eventually became the main tank for armoured units of the Soviet Army, armies of the Warsaw Pact countries, and many others. T-54s and T-55s have been involved in many of the armed conflicts since the later part of the 20th century. The T-54/55 series eventually became the tank in military history. Estimated production numbers for the range from 86,000 to 100,000. During the Cold War, Soviet tanks never directly faced their NATO adversaries in combat in Europe, the Soviet T-34 medium tank of the 1940s is considered to have the best balance of firepower, protection and mobility for its cost of any tank of its time in the world. In 1943, the Morozov Design Bureau resurrected the pre-war T-34M development project, by the time the T-44 was ready for production, the T-34 had also been modified to fit the same gun. The T-44 was produced in small numbers, around 2,000 being completed during the war. Instead, the continued to use the design as the basis for further improved guns, experimenting with a 122 mm design. Efforts to fit the 100 mm gun to the T-44 demonstrated that changes to the design would greatly improve the combination. The main issue was a turret ring, which suggested slightly enlarging the hull. A prototype of the new design, about 40 centimetres longer and this model looked almost identical to the original T-44, albeit with a much larger gun. In testing, there were drawbacks that required correction and many alterations that had to be made to the vehicles design. It was decided to begin production of the new vehicle. It would go into production in Nizhni Tagil in 1947 and Kharkov in 1948, production of the initial series of T-54s began slowly as 1,490 modifications were made. The Red Army received a tank that was superior to World War II designs, the 100 mm gun fired BR-412 series full-calibre APHE ammunition, which had superior penetration capability when compared to the T-34 that it replaced. The serial production version, designated T-54-1, differed from the second T-54 prototype, as production ramped up, quality problems emerged. Production was stopped and an improved T-54-2 version was designed, several changes were made and a new turret was fitted
7.
T-62
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The T-62 is a Soviet main battle tank that was first introduced 1961. As a further development of the T-55 series, the T-62 retained many design elements of its predecessor including low profile. In contrast previous tanks, which were armed with rifled tank guns, while 100 mm HEAT ammo could have accomplished the task, they were much less accurate than APDS shells, and the relatively low flight velocity resulted in poorer accuracy if used on moving targets. It was decided to up-gun the T-55 with a 115 mm smoothbore cannon, experimental trials showed that the T-55 was inherently unsuited to mount the larger new cannon, and work therefore began on a new tank. The bigger gun required a turret and turret ring to absorb the higher recoil. This in turn necessitated a larger hull, as the T-55 hull was too small to accept the new turret. The T-62 thus took shape, marking an improvement upon the T-55. At the time when Alexander Morozov was working on his Obyekt 430 tank and he was responsible for the T-54A and T-54B modernizations of the T-54 main battle tank, the brainchild of Morozov. After work on the T-54M modernization was abandoned, he and his team started working on a new tank. The new tank had a suspension with six road wheels made of aluminum. The turret was cast and armed with a 100 mm D-54TS tank gun with the Molniya two-plane stabilization system, the tank carried 50 rounds and was powered by a V-36 diesel engine developed by engineer Artiemejev. The engine was placed on the bottom of the hull, a solution which reduced the height of the engine compartment, the Obyekt 140 weighed 37.6 tonnes. Morozovs Obyekt 430 tank had a hull of welded rolled steel plates, the turret had three-layer armour with an overall thickness of 185 mm to 240 mm. It was armed with the same D-54TS tank gun as Kartsevs Obyekt 140, in 1957, Uralvagonzavod built two Obyekt 140 prototypes which were put on trials soon after. The trials showed that because of the construction of many of the tanks systems, Kartsevs tank would be expensive in serial production. This increased the load carried by the tank to 45 rounds. At the end of 1958, Kartsev decided to modernize the Obyekt 140 turret and he fitted it with a cartridge-case ejector and mounted it onto a stretched T-55 chassis with a new suspension. He also considered that designs based on already produced vehicles had a chance of acceptance
8.
Armoured fighting vehicle
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An armoured fighting vehicle is a combat vehicle, protected by strong armour and generally armed with weapons, which combines operational mobility, tactical offensive, and defensive capabilities. AFVs can be wheeled or tracked and it is not uncommon for AFVs to be simply referred to as armour. Armoured fighting vehicles are classified according to their role on the battlefield. This classification is not absolute, at different times different countries will classify the vehicle in different roles. For example, armoured carriers were generally replaced by infantry fighting vehicles in a similar role. Modern armoured fighting vehicles are the realization of an ancient concept, War machines with rudimentary armour have been used in battle for millennia. These designs historically struggled between the paradox of exposed-mobility, effective-firepower and cumbersome-protection, Siege engines, such as battering rams and trebuchets, would often be armoured in order to protect the crews from the defenders. Very large movable siege towers, helepolis were developed by Polyidus of Thessaly, the idea of a vehicle with a tortoise like cover has been known since antiquity. Frequently cited is Leonardo da Vincis 15th century sketch of a mobile, protected gun platform, the machine was to be mounted on four wheels which would be turned by the crew through a system of hand cranks and cage gears. Leonardo quoted I will build armored wagons which will be safe, there will be no obstacle which it cannot overcome. Modern replicas have demonstrated that the crew would have been able to move it over only short distances. The war wagon were medieval weapon-platforms developmed during the Hussite Wars around 1420 by Hussite forces rebelling in Bohemia. These heavy wagon were given protective sides with firing slits and heavy firepower from either a cannon or a force of hand-gunners and crossbowmen, supported by infantry using pikes, heavy arquebuses mounted on wagons were called arquebus à croc. These carried a ball of about 3.5 ounces, the first modern AFVs were armed cars, dating back virtually to the invention of the motor car. The Motor Scout was designed and built by British inventor F. R. Simms in 1898 and it was the first armed petrol engine powered vehicle ever built. The vehicle was a De Dion-Bouton quadricycle with a mounted Maxim machine gun on the front bar, an iron shield offered some protection for the driver from the front, but it lacked all-around protective armour. The armoured car was the first modern fully armoured fighting vehicle, the first of these was the Simms Motor War Car, designed by Simms and built by Vickers, Sons & Maxim in 1899. The vehicle had Vickers armour 6 mm thick and was powered by a four-cylinder 3. 3-litre 16 hp Cannstatt Daimler engine giving it a speed of around 9 miles per hour
9.
Capacitor
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A capacitor is a passive two-terminal electrical component that stores electrical energy in an electric field. The effect of a capacitor is known as capacitance, a capacitor was therefore historically first known as an electric condenser. The physical form and construction of practical capacitors vary widely and many types are in common use. Most capacitors contain at least two electrical conductors often in the form of plates or surfaces separated by a dielectric medium. A conductor may be a foil, thin film, sintered bead of metal, the nonconducting dielectric acts to increase the capacitors charge capacity. Materials commonly used as dielectrics include glass, ceramic, plastic film, paper, mica, Capacitors are widely used as parts of electrical circuits in many common electrical devices. Unlike a resistor, a capacitor does not dissipate energy. No current actually flows through the dielectric, instead, the effect is a displacement of charges through the source circuit, if the condition is maintained sufficiently long, this displacement current through the battery ceases. However, if a voltage is applied across the leads of the capacitor. Capacitance is defined as the ratio of the charge on each conductor to the potential difference between them. The unit of capacitance in the International System of Units is the farad, capacitance values of typical capacitors for use in general electronics range from about 1 pF to about 1 mF. The capacitance of a capacitor is proportional to the area of the plates. In practice, the dielectric between the plates passes a small amount of leakage current and it has an electric field strength limit, known as the breakdown voltage. The conductors and leads introduce an undesired inductance and resistance, Capacitors are widely used in electronic circuits for blocking direct current while allowing alternating current to pass. In analog filter networks, they smooth the output of power supplies, in resonant circuits they tune radios to particular frequencies. In electric power systems, they stabilize voltage and power flow. The property of energy storage in capacitors was exploited as dynamic memory in digital computers. Von Kleists hand and the water acted as conductors, and the jar as a dielectric, von Kleist found that touching the wire resulted in a powerful spark, much more painful than that obtained from an electrostatic machine
10.
Plasma (physics)
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Plasma is one of the four fundamental states of matter, the others being solid, liquid, and gas. Yet unlike these three states of matter, plasma does not naturally exist on the Earth under normal surface conditions, the term was first introduced by chemist Irving Langmuir in the 1920s. However, true plasma production is from the separation of these ions and electrons that produces an electric field. Based on the environmental temperature and density either partially ionised or fully ionised forms of plasma may be produced. The positive charge in ions is achieved by stripping away electrons from atomic nuclei, the number of electrons removed is related to either the increase in temperature or the local density of other ionised matter. Plasma may be the most abundant form of matter in the universe, although this is currently tentative based on the existence. Plasma is mostly associated with the Sun and stars, extending to the rarefied intracluster medium, Plasma was first identified in a Crookes tube, and so described by Sir William Crookes in 1879. The nature of the Crookes tube cathode ray matter was identified by British physicist Sir J. J. The term plasma was coined by Irving Langmuir in 1928, perhaps because the glowing discharge molds itself to the shape of the Crookes tube and we shall use the name plasma to describe this region containing balanced charges of ions and electrons. Plasma is a neutral medium of unbound positive and negative particles. Although these particles are unbound, they are not ‘free’ in the sense of not experiencing forces, in turn this governs collective behavior with many degrees of variation. The average number of particles in the Debye sphere is given by the plasma parameter, bulk interactions, The Debye screening length is short compared to the physical size of the plasma. This criterion means that interactions in the bulk of the plasma are more important than those at its edges, when this criterion is satisfied, the plasma is quasineutral. Plasma frequency, The electron plasma frequency is compared to the electron-neutral collision frequency. When this condition is valid, electrostatic interactions dominate over the processes of ordinary gas kinetics, for plasma to exist, ionization is necessary. The term plasma density by itself refers to the electron density, that is. The degree of ionization of a plasma is the proportion of atoms that have lost or gained electrons, even a partially ionized gas in which as little as 1% of the particles are ionized can have the characteristics of a plasma. The degree of ionization, α, is defined as α = n i n i + n n, where n i is the number density of ions and n n is the number density of neutral atoms
11.
Active protection system
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An active protection system is a system designed to prevent line-of-sight guided anti-tank missiles/projectiles from acquiring and/or destroying a target. Soft-kill measures are applied when it is expected that a weapon system can be successfully interfered with. The threat sensor can be either a one, e. g. a solid-state infrared detector, or the human sensory system. Soft-kill measures generally interfere with the signature of the target to be protected, whereas on-board measures are fixed on the platform to be protected, expendable measures are ejected from the platform. Preemptive action of countermeasures is directed to generally prevent lock-on of a sensor to a certain target. It is based on altering the signature of the target by either concealing the platform signature or enhancing the signature of the background, reactive action of countermeasures is directed toward break-lock of a threat already homing in on a certain target. It is based on the tactics of signature imitation, augmentation, generally one has to distinguish between infrared and radar countermeasures. The wavelength range between 0.8 and 5 µm is considered as Infrared, the range between 2 and 18 GHz is considered as Radar. Many commercial carriers found the price of countermeasures to be too costly. This caused concerns in some European countries, regarding the fire hazard at civilian airports. In 2007, Saab announced a new infrared countermeasure system called CAMPS that does not use pyrotechnic flares, iR-decoy flares serve to counter infrared-guided surface-to-air missiles or air-to-air missiles and can be expelled from a craft according to an anticipated threat in defined sequences. To counter radar-guided missiles, chaff is used and these are copper nickel-coated glass fibers or silver-coated nylon fibers having lengths equal to half of the anticipated radar wavelength. New systems, such as the BriteCloud expendable active decoy, use DRFM technology to generate a false target, land and sea-based forces can also use such countermeasures, as well as smoke-screens that can disrupt laser ranging, infrared detection, laser weapons, and visual observation. Except for countering intercontinental ballistic missiles, hard-kill measures generally refer to measures taken in the so-called end-game shortly before a warhead/missile hits its target, the hard-kill measure in general physically affects the incoming warhead/missile by means of either blast and/or fragment action. The action may lead to, disturbance of the stability of a kinetic energy penetrator which will decrease its ability as the deflection angle increases. Premature initiation of a charge, but most likely improper initiation, thereby impeding optimum jet development of the metallic lining, usually copper. The copper jet provides most of the anti armor capabilities of shaped charge weapons, destruction of the airframe of an inbound missile or shell. There are many examples of active countermeasures, for example, the Russian-made Arena system utilizes a Doppler radar to detect incoming threats and fires a top attack rocket to eliminate the threat
12.
Composite armour
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Composite armour is a type of vehicle armour consisting of layers of different material such as metals, plastics, ceramics or air. Most composite armours are lighter than their equivalent, but instead occupy a larger volume for the same resistance to penetration. Its primary purpose is to defeat high explosive anti-tank rounds. HEAT had posed a threat to armoured vehicles since its introduction in World War II. Lightweight and small, HEAT rounds could nevertheless penetrate hundreds of millimetres of the hardest steel armours, on a weight basis, lighter targets are more advantageous than heavier targets, but using large quantities of lightweight materials has obvious disadvantages in terms of mechanical layout. Certain materials have a compromise in terms of density that makes them particularly useful in this role. The earliest known composite armour for armoured vehicles was developed as part of the US Armys T95 experimental series from the mid-1950s, the T95 featured siliceous-cored armor which contained a plate of fused silica glass between rolled steel plates. The stopping power of glass exceeds that of armour on a thickness basis. The first widespread use of a composite armour appears to have been on the Soviet T-64 and it used an armour known as Combination K, which apparently is glass-reinforced plastic sandwiched between inner and outer steel layers. Through a mechanism called thixotropy, the changes to a fluid under constant pressure. Later models of the T-64, along with designs, used a boron carbide-filled resin aggregate for greatly improved protection. The Soviets also invested heavily in reactive armour, which allowed them some ability to control quality, the most common type of composite armour today is Chobham armour, first developed and used by the British in the experimental FV4211 tank, which was based on Chieftain tank components. Chobham sandwiches a layer of ceramic between two plates of armour, which was shown to dramatically increase the resistance to HEAT rounds. Chobham was such an improvement that it was used on the new U. S. M1 Abrams main battle tank as well. It is the fabrication of the ceramic in large tiles that gives the Challenger, chobhams precise mechanism for defeating HEAT was uncovered in the 1980s. The effectiveness of the system was demonstrated in Desert Storm. Chobham-type armour is currently in its generation and is used on modern western tanks such as the British Challenger 2. The adoption of Modular composite armour design facilitated upgrading and exchange of the armour, composite armour has since been applied to smaller vehicles, right down to jeep-sized
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