Cate's Research-Investigation Bureau

The goal of implementing sound-dampening panels on the T-80 MBT was to determine the possibility of mounting them in crewed compartments of the AFV, select materials that meet acoustic and operational requirements and evaluate their effectiveness in road conditions. A suitable design was to be developed by SPETSMASH (St. Petersburg) under the direction of V. M. Kirdey.   Image 1: Sound-dampening panels installed in the turret fighting compartment Image 2: Unfolded sound-dampening panel for driver's position  The dampening panels were placed in the following areas of the AFV and were composed of the following layers: The screens are comprised of various layers and materials in a certain order to achieve sound-dampening properties (the numeration of layers is counted outwards from the interior layer): Bottom of the hull between torsion bars: Povinol fabric, basalt fibre cardboard, knitting-stitching material, perforated fabric 500 (Cordura 500), PVC fabric, 2x knitted-needled materia

In the 1980s, the Soviet Union determined that the widespread use of thermal imaging devices for reconnaissance majorly outperformed the maximum detection ranges of devices based on electro-optical image converters. It was rated that these new thermal imaging systems had ranges of 3km compared to electro-optical image converters with ranges of 1,5k-2km. To mask AFVs from thermal reconnaissance means, it was determined to create algorithms that would compute a thermal imaging result based on variables like thermal emission and background (ambient temperature). The simulated detection process went as follows; search for targets in a specific area, find a target with higher display contrast than the surrounding area and identify the target through a poorly detailed silhouette.  To avoid complexity, the article will not cover the entire computing algorithm.  Algorithm used to form thermal imaging result Thermal imaging result based on the computed algorithm  It is stated that the distance