The use of modern technologies will provide the crews of armored vehicles with the highest level of situational awareness, the effectiveness of the management of reconnaissance assets and weapons. The exchange of intelligence both with the unit's ground combat vehicles and with other combat units of the battlefield will further increase the effectiveness of their joint actions. However, these measures are not exhaustive from the point of view of providing armored vehicles with intelligence information.
Limited visibility
Air reconnaissance means will always have an advantage over ground ones, at least for the reason that the range of visibility of ground vehicles is limited by the curvature of the surface, natural (mountains, hills, forests) and artificial (buildings and structures) obstacles. Accordingly, the worse the view - the more uneven terrain, green spaces, buildings, the greater the threat this area poses to ground troops. This is confirmed by numerous local conflicts, when the greatest losses were carried by armored vehicles in the mountains or during the assault on populated areas. In the absence of the possibility of conducting reconnaissance in advance, armored vehicles can only rely on a high reaction rate to an attack and their ability to “take a hit”.
Proposals to destroy cities with massive artillery strikes or even nuclear weapons are unlikely to be taken seriously, as this may be politically and ethically unacceptable. In addition, a situation may arise when the enemy has carried out an operation to capture the city, in which case the population that has not been evacuated will become his "human shield".
At the moment, the best solution is the joint actions of infantry and armored vehicles, but this greatly reduces the mobility of ground forces (you can easily imagine how much the speed of movement of the columns will decrease when accompanied by infantry).
Additional reconnaissance information can be provided to ground forces by the Air Force (Air Force), but their priorities will always be shifted towards solving their own tasks, while manned assets, when operating at low altitude and low speed, are extremely vulnerable to enemy fire from both small arms and and from portable anti-aircraft missile systems. In other words, the Air Force will not be able to provide continuous air support for the ground forces at will, and the capabilities of aviation to detect a camouflaged enemy will be limited by the altitude and speed of the aircraft. In addition, air support is more effective against enemy armored vehicles than against dispersed and disguised manpower.
In fact, what they usually like to compare the tanks of the armed forces of the world in, that is, the confrontation "tank versus tank", can be considered the least likely scenario of a military confrontation, since the main threat to tanks is just aviation and the enemy's disguised manpower with anti-tank weapons.
UAV for a tank
A distinctive feature of the armed forces of the XXI century is their saturation with unmanned and remotely piloted aerial vehicles (UAVs and RPVs), ground, surface and underwater robotic systems.
The tasks of unmanned and remotely piloted complexes range from actions in the interests of individual military personnel, for UAVs launched from the hand, such as the Black Hornet micro-helicopter, to solving strategic tasks with ultra-complex systems, such as the American strategic reconnaissance UAV RQ-4 Global Hawk or the Russian unmanned underwater vehicle Poseidon.
In the interests of armored vehicles, reconnaissance can be carried out by small, relatively low-altitude UAVs with a long flight duration, for example, such as the UAV "Corsair", developed by JSC "KB" Luch ". The possibility of being in the air for a long time will allow the UAV to "hang" over the battlefield, promptly providing reconnaissance information to ground forces. The survival of UAVs should be ensured by their low visibility in the radar, infrared and optical ranges.
Nevertheless, despite all the benefits that UAVs of the "Corsair" type can bring, they cannot be considered a solution to all the problems of providing armored vehicles with intelligence information. Such UAVs can act in the interests of not each specific unit of armored vehicles, but only in the interests of a group of armored vehicles. At the same time, the high rate of change in the situation on the battlefield can make the reconnaissance information provided by the UAV obsolete even when it is transmitted in real time.
UAV on a tank
The miniaturization of UAVs makes it possible to consider the possibility of placing them directly on the tank. In particular, the option of placing such a UAV on the armored vehicles of the Armata platform is being considered. The drone must take off from a special mount on the body and return to it. UAV control and power supply to it must be carried out via a flexible cable. The development of the UAV "Pterodactyl" for the platform "Armata" is carried out by the Department of "Aviation Robotic Systems" MAI.
Another similar complex is the "Whirlwind" UAV of a quadrocopter (hexacopter / octacopter) type, first introduced in 2016 and intended for use in armored vehicles as a highly mobile reconnaissance vehicle.
Considering the rate at which the market for drone-type UAVs is growing, it can be assumed that their design will be rapidly improved. Therefore, the appearance of this type of UAV as part of the standard means of reconnaissance of armored vehicles can be considered only a matter of time.
It can be assumed that the "tank" UAV will differ from its civilian counterparts in a reinforced design. Providing power to the UAV via a flexible cable will increase the power of the drives and the carrying capacity, which can be used to increase the protection of the UAV from fragments and collisions with obstacles. In the event of a cable break or the need to go beyond its length, the UAV should be equipped with backup batteries for 5-10 minutes of flight and a backup radio channel for data exchange.
In the previous article, we talked about the fact that increasing situational awareness, optimizing the ergonomics of the cockpit and the use of high-speed guidance drives will allow you to abandon one of the crew members without losing combat effectiveness. In this case, you can combine the position of commander and gunner. However, the appearance of the UAV as part of the reconnaissance means of armored vehicles requires a separate operator to control it. It is on the commander of the armored vehicle that this task should be entrusted. The expanded view that the UAV will provide to the commander of the armored vehicle will allow him to timely detect targets hidden by the terrain, natural or artificial obstacles,and mark their position on a digital map of the area.
This article does not consider ground-based robotic systems, since from the point of view of situational awareness, they will not give armored vehicles significant advantages, and the implementation of existing solutions raises certain questions. Perhaps we will return to ground reconnaissance and combat robotic systems in a separate article.
The influence of UAVs on the tactics of using armored vehicles
In addition to early detection of the enemy, "eyes in the air" will allow armored vehicles to use weapons outside the zone of visibility of ground reconnaissance means. The main armament of armored vehicles operating directly on the battlefield (we are not yet considering artillery and various missile systems) is designed to engage targets with direct fire, however, it can also be used to effectively engage targets beyond the obstacle, consider several options:
1. When an armored vehicle moves in an urban area, the commander, using a UAV, discovers sheltered grenade launchers on the upper floors of the building, waiting for a convenient moment to attack from the rear hemisphere. The gunner, using a DUMV with a cannon of 30 mm or more, can destroy grenade launchers using projectiles with a contact fuse or remote detonation on the trajectory, or armor-piercing feathered subcaliber projectiles (BOPS), capable of penetrating the walls of most modern buildings with the formation of a field of secondary damaging elements (brick and concrete chips).
2. When driving over rough terrain, with the help of a UAV, an ATGM crew was found, hidden from the main means of reconnaissance of an armored vehicle by a natural obstacle. Depending on the range to the target, it can be hit by shells of rapid-fire cannons or a tank gun with remote detonation on the trajectory or an ATGM missile, also with the implementation of the remote detonation mode on the trajectory.
3. While moving in urban areas, the UAV detected a firing point or an enemy armored vehicle located around the corner or on the other side of the building. In this case, the option of hitting the target of the BOPS tank gun can be considered. According to some reports, when a tank BOPS is fired at the end of the building, it punches it to the fourth entrance. In theory, this allows you to hit lightly armored targets, and possibly tanks (in side projections) located behind the building. Of course, this will require testing to confirm the possibility of hitting targets behind an obstacle in terms of energy and the accuracy of hitting a projectile after flying through a building. Alternatively, the armored vehicle moves to engage the target from the side that is less controlled by the enemy (weapons and observation devices are turned away).
Shooting over the horizon
In addition to weapons designed for direct fire, armored vehicles can also be equipped with weapons capable of hitting the enemy outside the line of sight. In this case, there are only two options for its use - external target designation or target designation from an armored vehicle's own UAV. Obviously, the second option significantly increases the ability of armored vehicles to attack distant targets.
Guided high-explosive fragmentation (HE) projectiles can be used as a tank weapon to defeat targets outside the line of sight, which can be easily adapted for 125 mm cannons. If a 152 mm cannon is adopted, the existing Krasnopol guided artillery shells (UAS) with a firing range of about 25 km can be used from it.
Of the armament of infantry fighting vehicles (BMP) can be used anti-tank guided missiles (ATGM) of the "Kornet" type with a firing range of up to 10 km or promising long-range ATGM "Hermes". Of course, for the use of the above ammunition, the UAV must be equipped with the appropriate equipment.
Another example of weapons that allows you to fire at targets with indirect fire are mortars. The Israeli Armed Forces quite successfully use a 60 mm mortar as part of the Merkava tank armament. The implementation of automated complexes based on small-caliber mortars in combination with the capabilities of UAVs for reconnaissance of targets can become an effective solution to combat certain types of targets.
The question arises, is there any point in using long-range weapons on armored vehicles designed to work at the forefront of hostilities, in particular on tanks? The answer will definitely be positive. The increase in the range of use of weapons occurs simultaneously with the development of camouflage means and network-centric principles of command and control of the armed forces. In these conditions, threats to armored vehicles can arise both in the immediate vicinity, which requires armor, active protection and a high reaction rate, and at a distance, which requires the presence of appropriate weapons that allow “reaching” distant targets. It should be borne in mind that equipping armored vehicles of the "front line" with long-range weapons should not become an end in itself to the detriment of the main characteristics.
Output
The presence of a UAV integrated into the design of promising armored vehicles and controlled by the commander will potentially allow to move the boundaries of view by several tens of kilometers, provide an opportunity to conduct reconnaissance of targets in buildings, behind natural and artificial obstacles, and provide the possibility of using weapons with a long firing range.
In the next article, we will consider various options for the composition and layout of weapons that can be implemented on promising armored vehicles.
