After the start of the US aggression against Iraq, the attitude towards tanks changed.
According to the Washington Post, the US Department of Defense has decided to send M1 Abrams tanks to Afghanistan. They were not previously used in the war against the Taliban. To begin with, it is planned to transfer 16 such vehicles, which will support the actions of the marines deployed in Helmand and Kandahar provinces. This decision of the Pentagon was approved by the commander of the US and NATO forces in Afghanistan, General David Petraeus. His predecessor, General David McKiernan, was against the use of tanks, since they would have reminded Afghans of Soviet troops who widely used heavy armored vehicles in the fight against the Mujahideen. Now, apparently, psychological motives have been thrown away. Moreover, in the near future, according to the Washington Post, the US "tank presence" in Afghanistan may be increased.
If after the end of the Cold War it was customary to speak of tanks in the West as “relics of the past”, then after the start of the US aggression against Iraq, the attitude towards them changed. Yes, the US armored units suffered serious losses there. As of February 2005, 70% of the 1,135 M1 Abrams deployed in Iraq received varying degrees of damage. 80 of them had to be sent to the manufacturer for overhaul. And about 20 tanks were lost irretrievably. But it was tanks, not high-precision cruise missiles, that made it possible to end the regime of Saddam Hussein and occupy a very large Middle Eastern country. American Abrams literally ironed all of Iraq and rolled insurgents into asphalt and dust with their caterpillars. Despite the high vulnerability of tanks in cities, they actually took them. The fire of 120-mm guns with high efficiency supported the infantry, and the armor and maneuver introduced the enemy into a state of shock and awe.
By the way, even now tanks play an important role in “pacifying” the situation in Iraq. At the beginning of this year, the United States delivered 63 Abrams tanks to the Armed Forces of this country. In total, it is planned to transfer 140 vehicles, which will be equipped with four armored battalions, designed to maintain order in the territories from which the Americans are leaving.
According to American military experts, tank guns shoot more accurately than field artillery. Tanks more quickly cope with the task of suppressing fire pockets of enemy resistance than aviation, which must first be called in, and then still wait, while trying not to become a victim of its "friendly fire".
In Afghanistan, Danish and Canadian contingents are already using a number of tanks. The successful experience of their application has attracted close attention of the Americans.
Almost simultaneously with the publication of the Washington Post, the annual analysis of the tank market by the American consulting firm Forecast International Weapons Group was released. It makes it clear that by 2020 more than 5,900 main battle tanks will be produced on the international market for over $ 25 billion. And this market will not be dominated by the United States and its NATO partners, but by Russia with the T-90, Pakistan with the tank. Al-Khalid and China with Type 98 MBT.
For the T-90, the glory of the "tank king" has long been entrenched, which leads the international market for ground forces equipment. And who are his competitors?
A remark should be made here. Forecast International's forecasts need to be treated with caution. This renowned consulting firm primarily reflects the interests of American arms manufacturers, so it does not miss the opportunity to influence the market in order to harm US competitors. But in this case, Forecast International's forecast is quite objective, only, in our opinion, it has been adjusted towards a slight decrease in numbers and does not take into account the factor of the appearance of new models of armored vehicles.
In our opinion, the Pakistani Al-Khalid tank certainly has some market prospects, primarily in Muslim countries, but they are not obvious. This vehicle was created by Pakistani and Chinese designers on the basis of the Soviet T-80UD tank with the active participation of Ukrainian specialists.
The T-80UD became the progenitor not only of Al-Khalid, but also of the Chinese type 90-II tank, which is also an export version - MVT-2000, and a whole family of other more advanced models of Chinese tanks. Today, it is impossible to put Al-Khalid on a par with Russian and Chinese tanks. It is more the machine of yesterday than the future.
Much more serious competition to manufacturers from Russia and China can be Ukrainian tanks of the T-84 family. In Ukraine, they are serially produced under the brands "Oplot" and "Oplot M" (the first 24 vehicles of this model have been ordered). They are a further development of the T-80UD "Bulat" tanks, but are equipped with more powerful diesel engines (1200 hp), a Ukrainian-made 125-mm cannon, a new generation of built-in reactive armor "Knife-2", a "Varta" system for fighting with guided enemy anti-tank weapons, a combined panoramic commander's sight with independent day and thermal imaging channels, a separate commander (independent of the gunner) thermal imager and a laser rangefinder, new radio communications and other modern "bells and whistles."
And although the export version of the T-84 - the Yatagan with a 120-mm NATO cannon and Western-made optoelectronic means - lost in the Turkish tank tender to the German leopards, this does not mean that Oplot has no prospects on the international market. And, obviously, in the next decade, this machine and its modifications will seriously compete with domestic developments.
The same applies to modern Chinese tanks. They, as already noted, were created under the influence of the Soviet school, and in recent years with the direct participation of Ukrainian specialists. Of course, the Chinese designers could not ignore the experience of their Western colleagues, from whom they borrowed a lot with their usual persistence.
Tank "type 98" (ZTZ-98), which is mentioned in the analytical report of Forecast International, was a further development of "type 90-II", that is, the Ukrainian T-80UD "Bulat". It was produced in a small batch. Now it has been replaced by a Type 99 (ZTZ-99) tank. Its chief designer, Zhu Yusheng, claims that the "Type 99" tank is the best in the world in terms of the three most important indicators of combat potential - mobility, firepower and security. Like all Chinese, and not only Chinese, creators of weapons, Mr. Yusheng is certainly inclined to exaggerate the merits of his brainchild. But it requires attention, since it is extraordinary in the Chinese tank fleet. The chassis, armament, and automatic loader are almost completely borrowed from the "Type 90-II" tank. However, a new welded turret appeared on this vehicle, more reliably protecting the crew. The thickness of the armor of the turret of the tank "Type 99" in the frontal projection reaches 700 mm, of the hull - 500-600 mm. Combined armor protection of the frontal projection is enhanced by the installation of built-in reactive armor (ERA) located on top of the main armor. In addition, the aft niche of the tower is protected, where the DZ closes the lattice basket.
The tank is equipped with a 1200 hp turbocharged diesel engine, allowing it to accelerate to 32 km / h in 12 seconds. In the future, the ZTZ-99 should receive a 1500-horsepower diesel engine, which is now being developed in China.
The traditional 125-mm smoothbore cannon, typical of late Soviet, Russian and Ukrainian tanks, according to Chinese designers, is significantly superior in power to the 120-mm NATO gun. The range of ZTZ-99 rounds includes projectiles with a tungsten core and a tail stabilizer, capable of penetrating 850 mm homogeneous armor. There are also penetrator projectiles consisting of several penetrating elements made of special alloys. They pierce 960mm armor. The tank uses a hunter-killer type of fire control system, that is, "hunter-killer". Thanks to her, not only the gunner, but the tank commander can accompany the target and fire at it.
The undisputed highlight of the ZTZ-99 is the JD-3 integrated active countermeasures laser complex. It consists of a built-in laser rangefinder, an LRW laser warning sensor and an LSDW combat quantum generator. When a signal is received about the enemy's laser beam irradiation, the system turns the tower towards the detected source, then a low-power laser beam is turned on, which determines the exact location of the target, after which the beam power sharply increases to a critical level and incapacitates the optical means or organs of vision of the enemy operator. Such weapons are prohibited by the UN Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons. But this does not bother the Chinese.
Finally, the defensive potential of Type 99 tanks is complemented by an active defense system, which automatically detects an approaching projectile or missile, uses a high-speed computer to determine its flight path and fires an interceptor charge. The radius of deviation from the target, according to the designers of the ZTZ-99, does not exceed one meter, which makes it possible to destroy attacking objects with a high degree of guarantee.
Tank "Type 99" belongs to the same category of sensational Chinese military development, as the fifth generation fighter J-20 Black Eagle, which made its first flight on January 11 this year. Only the tank appeared much earlier.
Serial production of the Type 99 tank is undoubtedly alarming. And not only in connection with its possible appearance on the international market. After all, the ZTZ-99 primarily re-equips the Chinese armored units stationed near the borders of Russia. Where else could they be? After all, it is impossible to storm Taiwan and the Himalayas with these armored vehicles.
How will Russia respond? “And in response there is silence,” as the song says. For now, anyway. But there is something to answer.
Taking into account the operation in the troops, Uralvagonzavod carried out a serious modernization of the T-90. But the T-90M version, surpassing foreign models in many respects, did not interest the military leadership. Why? It is not clear.
Last summer, at the Defense and Defense 2010 exhibition in Nizhny Tagil, a promising T-95 tank was demonstrated to a narrow circle of people, which has no analogues in the world. But its funding from the Ministry of Defense has been discontinued. Uralvagonzavod continues the development on its own initiative. However, even this large enterprise is difficult to pull off the project. After all, it requires the involvement of subcontractors from various branches of science and industry.
International cooperation remains. Recently, a Russian-Indian agreement was reached on the joint creation of a fifth-generation multifunctional fighter based on the experimental T-50 aircraft of the Sukhoi Design Bureau. For several years, negotiations have been underway on the joint development of a promising tank. The requirements of the Indian Ground Forces for the Future Main Battle Tank (FMBT) largely coincide with the characteristics laid down in the Russian T-95. And such machines, which are considered in Delhi "the second deterrent factor after nuclear weapons," if efforts are combined, it will be possible to obtain much earlier than the currently planned 2020. And there, you see, Moscow will come to its senses. After all, without tanks, there is no victory.
