As you name the ship, so it will float. There is a saying. But she's wrong. It's not about the name. "Call at least a pot, but don't put it in the stove!" - says another folk wisdom and it is much more rational. Well, as applied to equipment and, especially, to combat equipment, everything is related to the terms of reference. Engineers, in principle, do not care what to design, there would be a base. So it's all about wanting what to create for them. And the more detailed the terms of reference, the vision of the topic by the military themselves, the better the result. So the British military wished in the 30s of the last century to have a tank with a circular fire and received … "Independent"! And it turned out that the engineers did not deviate one iota from the terms of reference, but in the end they got a tank worthy of a museum - expensive and useless!
The British tank "Independent" at one time seemed like a miracle of technology. With five turrets, it was armed with a 47mm cannon that fired an armor-piercing projectile, and four machine guns in separate turrets, one of which could even fire at planes!
However, even a task for a new machine, even the most detailed one, cannot lead to the successful completion of a machine in metal, if it is not based on a theory, which should be based on experience. And it is precisely the experience of the local military over the past decades that made it possible to develop a theory according to which a modern tank, in order to dominate the battlefield, must meet a number of very important requirements, and be created on the basis of the "six zones" principle.
The far right turret of the Independent tank could fire even at planes!
What is this principle and what are these "zones"? Imagine a tank in the center of several circles and call it as such an object is called in PR - "source of information." And the very first and farthest zone will be called "collision avoidance". In it, the tank must avoid collisions with the enemy's anti-tank weapons and superior tank forces. The tank itself cannot work in it, so everything depends on the means of satellite communication and the UAVs attached to modern tanks. That is, it is necessary to avoid a collision with a stronger enemy and try to destroy a weaker one. Not chivalrous behavior at all, is it? But that's the only way to fight. Therefore, satellite communication on a modern tank must be mandatory!
This British TOG-II tank from the Royal Museum in Bovington had an excellent weapon, but as for everything else …
For example, our Russian tank "Armata", which, in principle, can not be mentioned, but will have to: it has a radar with a range of 100 km. This allows you to lock the enemy's approaching weapons and destroy them automatically with the help of submunitions placed on it. The idea, although not new, but here, in this case, it is implemented to the maximum.
The second zone is called “avoid detection”. Here, the work of the designers and the designers of the tank itself is already necessary, because they must make the tank inconspicuous, and yet - all signatures coming from it must be reduced to safe limits. That is, the tank should be low, with an air-cooled exhaust, with a stealth anti-radar coating. Take, for example, the American "Abrams", which has three crew members in the tower, and which looks like … a house. After all, how difficult it is to disguise it, isn't it ?! And his gas turbine exhaust?
Here, by the way, completely unusual solutions can be applied. Well, let's say, put on a tank inflatable rubber containers of various shapes with a radio-reflecting coating and even with "green grass" and "branches with leaves." By inflating them, the tank can turn into a rock overgrown with bushes or into a green hill! That is, distort its signature and appearance beyond recognition!
The third zone is located even closer to the tank and is called “avoid capture for escort”. After all, it is not far from escort to defeat, which is why all tanks in the future should be equipped with automatic means of active and passive jamming, that is, they, like aircraft, should today have their own radar countermeasures and systems for "blinding" enemy surveillance equipment. It's funny, but it could be the same UAV equipped with a can of quick-drying paint: it flew up to the enemy's tank, filled all observation devices with paint, and then, when the crew climbed to wipe them down, shot it from the onboard weapon!
“Avoid disappearing” is zone number four and it deals with the means of destroying ammunition flying up to the tank, that is, about the “umbrella”, which must be covered from absolutely all sides. And again … After all, it is possible to destroy the same rocket projectile flying up to the tank even from a cannon, by firing a charge at it … buckshot. But first it will be necessary to detect it, quickly aim the gun at the target, and then also fire a shot ahead of time. People can't do that! This means that the tank must have "artificial intelligence" with a speed of "inhuman order", which in emergency cases will make decisions for the crew!
The zone of direct contact of the enemy's ammunition with its own armor is the “avoid penetration” zone. And if the enemy's ammunition did hit the tank, then … under no circumstances should he penetrate behind its armor protection! Protection can be the thickness of the armor, and dynamo-reactive armor, and all kinds of ingenious devices. Let's remind that the same idea of such armor was born in Russia, in the USSR, in 1929, and its author is from Odessa D. Paleichuk! At first, however, he offered armor for ships. From hexagonal prisms filled with hot gases from … furnaces! But then I thought about it and suggested that the gas be noticed by explosives, which, when struck by a projectile, produced a "gas-dynamic effect" of reflection. His project, located in the Samara archive of abandoned inventions, remained a project. But a tankette with a dynamo-reactive cannon of Kurchevsky was even built and tested. But … the first project seemed just fantastic, but the second one was simply not thought out, and as a result everything turned out the way it turned out, although it could be completely different, all the technical solutions necessary for this were there, but no one then saw and appreciated them !
T-27 tankette with "Kurchevsky cannon"
And also it was with us that the proposal “A. Novoselov's automatic shield” was born, which offered, in the same 29th, a movable armored shield driven by two solenoids and contact wires. The essence of the invention is that the tankers observe "directly" and see everything around them very well. But when a bullet approaches them, it passes between two wires (the distance between them is less than the diameter of the bullet!), Closes them, the solenoids give current and the "window" is closed by an armored shutter.
Finally, the very last zone - "avoid defeat", implies that even if the tank's armor is still broken, the tank's crew must stay alive! For this, on the T-14, all three crew members are housed inside an armored capsule. It’s impossible to say what kind of booking she has, but, obviously, quite sufficient! There is another way to avoid defeat, again by turning on artificial intelligence! Well, you can connect it to the engine and chassis. For example, the power of a tank engine is 1500 hp.with., despite the weight of the tank in 60 tons, provides it with a specific power of 25 liters. with. per ton of weight, which is an excellent indicator! Now let's imagine that a tank with an artificial intelligence inside is shot from a tank gun from a distance of three kilometers. Projectile speed 1000 m / s. and, therefore, in three seconds there will be a hit. But already in one second the on-board computer calculated the trajectory of the projectile, determined the place of impact and … sharply increased the speed! At a speed of 60 km / h in one second, the tank will cover 16.67 m, and in two seconds it will be so far away that it will be possible not to think about a projectile flying "somewhere there"! And even if he moves only the length of his body, then this will be enough to avoid hit and defeat. Suppose that the tank has a controlled suspension and a controlled projectile is launched from a distance of five kilometers, aimed under the turret. The computer calculates the impact location and then disengages the harness. The enemy at such a distance simply cannot physically react to it, and the projectile will fly over the tank as a result!
Tank "six zones"
A container with anti-aircraft missiles, guided by the same "artificial intelligence", can also be attributed to the means of active protection in the near-field zone. Having received data from the UAV on the use of aviation weapons on the tank, he aims missiles at them with a high degree of speed and destroys them when approaching the tank, where his own on-board radar exercises "air control". Thus, a tank created on the principle of "six zones" will be able to dominate all other tanks, and it will be very, very difficult to defeat it. Moreover, outwardly, such a tank may not look spectacular at all, unless it be rather short, because it will have the main filling inside!
Drawings by A. Sheps
