Experts compare the effectiveness of the use of WTO with tactical nuclear weapons - they can inflict such damage on enemy equipment. For example, in Iraq, 121 Sadarm self-targeting cluster warheads destroyed 48 tanks and self-propelled guns at once, and tests of the Smart 155 cluster element showed that 2-3 pieces were sufficient for one tank. Therefore, the relevance of the introduction of means of reducing the visibility for expensive armored vehicles will only increase every year. I single out two areas of work: reducing the visibility from space and aviation reconnaissance, as well as reducing the likelihood of hitting an already detected armored vehicle.
Let's start with the visible range. The traditional methods of reducing the visibility for the human eye have become deforming coloration, the installation of various masks and camouflage nets to distort the image of the tank. Examples are the Cape T-72 kit and the standard Leopard 2A6 three-component deforming paint used in most NATO countries.
The set "Cape" and the deforming color of the Research Institute of Steel for domestic tanks. Source: army-news.ru
It is assumed that a set of measures for deforming coloring reduces the probability of detecting military equipment by a factor of 1.5 … 2.0. Now abroad, work is underway to create inconspicuous armored objects, such as the light Swedish CV90120 tank and the Polish PL-01. The silhouettes of the tanks are formed by elongated bulwarks, recessed into the hull of the aerosol curtain system, as well as the AMAP-ADS active protection system, located without violating the principles of rational architecture. Domestic deforming painting, developed by the Research Institute of Steel on the basis of XC-5146 enamels, is the base for modern armored vehicles in Russia. The staining system consists of three colors: green, gray-yellow and black. Carefully selected spectral characteristics are as close as possible to the corresponding backgrounds and natural objects. The figures in deforming colors should be irregular, not resemble geometric figures and have an inclination to the longitudinal axis of the product. The maximum effectiveness of the impact on the viewer is achieved at observation ranges of ATGM operators and gunners of artillery pieces. The main thing in the deforming coloration of armored vehicles is the ratio of spots of green and gray-yellow colors. The "habitat" of the tank is responsible for this ratio - for the Central European theater of operations it is 60:35, and for the Middle East region, the proportions are reversed. The black color in the camouflage symbolizes shadows on trees and shrubs, so their proportion is constant. It is possible to apply the development of the Research Institute of Steel on surfaces made of steel, aluminum, titanium, rubber, as well as on radio-absorbing materials. Moreover, it is ineffective to paint the tank's road wheels - they literally spoil the whole picture, therefore, rubber-fabric "skirts" appear almost to the very ground, increasing the area of the tank's masked surface. So, on the French Leclerc, elastic screens with deforming "make-up" are lowered to a level of 390 mm from the ground with a clearance of 500 mm. The US Army typically uses four camouflage colors: green (40%), yellow-gray (15%), brown (40%), and black (5%). The latter is designed to form contrast marks with a width of 0.1 … 0.2 m and a length of 0.5 … 0.8 m, which allows you to hide attachments and weapons. The evolution of the deforming coloring of German technology is interesting. Over time, the Teutons moved away from the monotonous olive-yellow color scheme in favor of the NATO tricolor standard, and then introduced the specialized coating Leopard-2PSO, which is an alternation of rectangular spots of white, light green and black colors.
"Urban" deforming color Leopard-2PSO. Source: dogwars.ru
This was done to reduce the tank's signature in urban environments. Masks made of natural and artificial materials become an effective way to make an armored vehicle conditionally invisible. Synthetic foliage on a grid compares favorably with natural fabrics in its durability. On average, a tank disguised in this way cannot be distinguished from a green background at a distance of 500 m. In the United States, the troops use a lightweight LCSS kit, which is a trapezoidal panel, support legs in the form of folding plastic rods with disc-shaped heads, pegs and connecting cords. Four support legs are placed along each side and two in the frontal part of the tank hull. The camouflage kit is bolted directly to the tank and has three color options for the nets: for the forest, for the desert and for the Arctic.
Abrams in the Baltic States in a forest "camouflage" LCSS. Source: baltnews.lv
Further progress in the means of visual camouflage is associated with the development of universal coatings and materials that can "close" the tank not only from the eyes of the enemy, but also from his infrared devices, as well as locators. The most effective, obviously, is the Swedish development of SAAB under the name Barracuda "Mobile Camouflage System" (MCS). The task of shielding the tank in the IR and radar ranges is achieved by filling the networks with three-dimensional special reflectors that effectively dissipate thermal and radar radiation. The visibility for locators decreases in the range of 1-100 GHz, and the IR contrast is leveled in the visible and near spectrum. Barracuda is famous and supplied to 50 countries of the world.
Barracuda MCS from SAAB in various variants. Sources: aststandonzombieisland.files.wordpress, defpost.com, defesaaereanaval.com.br
In Russia, the analogue is the mentioned "Cape" from JSC "Research Institute of Steel".
It is not enough to protect the tank from visual identification, it is necessary to reduce the vehicle's visibility in the radar range. It is extremely difficult to do this due to the variety of reflector shapes: flat surfaces, dihedral and triangular corner fragments, cylinders and spheres. As a result, the radar portrait of the tank becomes vivid and memorable - the ammunition homing head perfectly selects such targets in the general noise. The stealth technology, already tested on airplanes and ships, is becoming a kind of salvation, and it is necessary to introduce its principles at the earliest stages of design. But even at the level of calculations and creation of models, problems arise. With an airplane and a ship, everything is quite simple - the atmosphere and the water surface are relatively stable by the radio signature around. But with ground vehicles, you also need to take into account the various characteristics of the underlying surface, which can change the visibility of the tank for the locator by an order of magnitude. At the moment, it is obvious that one of the world leaders in the level of radar stealth is the domestic T-14 "Armata". However, even an approximate radar portrait of the T-14 will be guarded no worse than the characteristics of the armor. Can you imagine if the signature of our "Armata" is hammered into each anti-tank shell as a priority target?
Below are images of the design model of the tank and its radio signature, formed by Norwegian researchers.
Tank model and radio signature. Source: "News of the Russian Academy of Rocket and Artillery Sciences"
Russian engineers from VNIITransmash, as well as the scientific research center of electronic weapons and the formation of information resources of the Navy, have created an electrodynamic model of a regular tank and a hypothetical "excellent" radar stealth. Photos are presented below.
Model of a standard tank and a diagram of its backscattering of radar radiation. Source: "News of the Russian Academy of Rocket and Artillery Sciences"
Model of a hypothetical tank with rational architecture and its backscatter diagram. Source: "News of the Russian Academy of Rocket and Artillery Sciences"
The third unmasking feature of a tank can be considered its thermal radiation, which, like radar visibility, cannot be hidden either day or night. At the moment, there are no technologies at all to convert the thermal energy of a tank into other forms that are not perceived by reconnaissance means. To reduce the thermal effect, engineers have developed a set of stationary measures, including the use of screens, special enamels, rational elements of the construction of tanks, as well as removable devices - capes and covers. They also isolate the engine and gearbox, wrapping them in thermocoons, and, finally, remove the exhaust gases "in the stern and down." A powerful source of heat is the MTO cover, the temperature contrast of which is determined by the engine operating mode. To neutralize this, thermal insulation of the exhaust manifold is used, the installation of fans for cooling engine blocks and gas exhaust units with external air, installation of a heat-insulating cape or cover on the MTO with a gap and blowing it with cold air. So, on the T-80UD, a double MTO cover is installed, blown with air (developed by the Research Institute of Steel) and reducing the heat from the tank going upwards by 6 times. The key goal of this refinement was to reduce the detection range of the tank by the Skeet and Sadarm homing heads from the upper angles. The sensitivity of modern means of detecting thermal radiation is in the range up to 16 microns. In the operating wavelength ranges of thermal imaging technology, the atmosphere has an absorptive capacity on the absorption lines of oxygen, hydrogen, water, carbon, carbon dioxide, nitrogen and other substances present in it. Studies show that it is possible to remove heat outside together with exhaust gases, which have a line radiation spectrum. It is interesting that in the exhaust gases there are lines of the same elements as in the atmosphere. To ensure the frequency coincidence of the emission lines with the absorption lines, it is necessary to bring their temperatures closer. To do this, the exhaust gases are diluted with atmospheric air in a special chamber. According to calculations, it is effective to dilute gases from the engine with air in a ratio of 5: 1 by weight - the Americans were the first to use this method in metal in the M-60A3.
Leclerc with INTERMAT equipment complex. Source: intermatstealth.com
A modern example of a set of such measures is Leclerc, equipped with the INTERMAT system, which includes elongated bulwarks, camouflage paint and structural elements to reduce visibility in the infrared range. The aforementioned CV90120 armored vehicle in the T version is equipped with special panels of 14 cm hexagonal tiles made of thermoelectric material installed on the sides. During the battle, the on-board computer forms a thermal image of a passenger car on these panels, consisting of 1000 tiles, misleading the enemy.
CV90120T from BAE Systems. Source - baesystems.com
FLIR cameras operate separately on this light tank, monitoring the thermal signature of the environment and adjusting the temperature of the panels to the background. The combat resistance to large-caliber small arms of such an armored vehicle is not reported.
And finally, a large mass of steel in any tank has another drawback - significant thermal inertia. When the ambient temperature changes (drove into the shade, the sun went down), the low thermal inertia of the surrounding background allows it to quickly adapt to new conditions. And the tank, due to the high thermal conductivity of steel, will be very contrastingly displayed on the thermal imager screen even after a long stay. The way to eliminate such a fundamental drawback would be the application of thermal insulation with a thickness of 8 … 10 mm, applied, in the most ideal case, with a millimeter gap on the armor. But the question remains: how will it look in practice?
Experts have calculated that with the full implementation of the entire set of measures described above to reduce the visibility of a tank, it is possible to reduce the probability of detection using optics by 1.5 times, by radars by 3-6 times, and the thermal contrast on various backgrounds will decrease by 10 times. An interesting conclusion arises from this. The fact is that high-precision ammunition can be used only with a sufficiently high probability of target detection - this is all due to the cost, reaching $ 100 thousand for some models. For the Americans, the most advantageous is the probability of 0.8, and if this indicator increases the tank's camouflage complex by at least 1.5 times, then high-precision weapons for tanks become ineffective?
