As it became known from the reports of the Israeli media, on Tuesday, during the battle on the border with the Gaza Strip, the Israeli military tested in the case of an active system of protection against anti-tank missiles Windbreaker.
According to sources, in the Kibu Oz area, Palestinians used RPGs to attack an Israeli tank. The missile directed against the tank was successfully shot down. The Windbreaker system in the Israeli army is currently equipped with one battalion.
The Windbreaker system was developed by the Israeli corporation Rafael five years ago, and the cost of one set of the system is 200 thousand dollars. The IDF has become the second army in the world to be armed with an active defense system.
Despite this, it is known that Israeli tank builders were not the first to develop and implement active protection systems for tanks. The pioneers were the designers of the USSR, who back in 1977-1978 developed the Drozd active tank protection system. And the principle of active protection itself was developed in the early 60s at TsKB-14 (Tula).
In 1982-1983, the Drozd complex passed military trials. And in 1983 it was put into service and installed on the T-55A tank, which received the T-55AD index.
T-55AD
"Drozd" was produced for more than six years, was discontinued due to the inclusion of the T-55 tank in the list of liquidated weapons in accordance with the agreement on the reduction of conventional weapons in Europe.
Also in the USSR in the 1980s, another system was developed - "Arena". The Arena system was designed to protect against HEAT shells. A feature of this complex was that it practically did not impose any restrictions on the formation of tank crews under the terms of electromagnetic compatibility.
"Arena" does not react to targets that do not pose an immediate threat to the tank, located at a distance of more than 50 m, to small targets (small-caliber shells, fragments, bullets). Equipping the T-80 tank with the Arena complex made it possible to almost double the vehicle's survivability during offensive operations. For the first time, the T-80 tank with KAZT "Arena" was demonstrated to the public in 1997 in Omsk.
T-80 with KAZ "Arena" on the tower.
Note that when developing and creating the KAZ "Zaslon", which is designed to protect the tank from anti-tank guided missiles and anti-tank grenade launchers, all the shortcomings of the previous two systems were taken into account.
