Soviet/Russian APS



This is a comprehensive list of Soviet/Russian Active Protection Systems. This list includes production APS and limited production variants.


Note, this list will be expanded and reworked over time, depending on newly discovered information, in addition, this list will be expanded with more vehicles in the future.)

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Materials used: 
  • Arena-E APS demonstration
  • "Tank Protection" V.A. Grigoryan - 'Защита Танков' В.А. Григоряна
  • "Equipment and weapons 2013 03" - 'Техника и вооружение № 03, 2013' 

  • "Armored Vehicles The XXI Century Encyclopedia Russia's Arms and Technology"

  • "Military Parade 1996 June - May" - "Военный Парад 1996 Май - Июнь".

  • "Drozd" APS history video

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Active Protection System "Drozd" - "Drozd-2"

The "Drozd" APS developed by (KBP Instrument Design Bureau under TsKIB SOO 'Central Design and Research Bureau of Sporting and Hunting Arms'. Tula) was adopted into the Armed forces in 1983 and was firstly mounted on the T-55A, which later received its new Index; T-55AD Object 155AD.

The following cooperations of Industrial Plants that took part in the production of "Drozd" APS.

  • 61st repair plant Petrodvorets in charge of assembling and mounting of the system on the T-55 tank.
  • Electromechanical plant Izhevsk in charge of the radar system.
  • Omsk Transport Engineering Plant in charge of weapon systems and armoured system housing. 
  • Chelyabinsk "Electromashina" plant in charge of consoles and control units for the APS. 

The main purpose of the "Drozd" APS was to protect a tank from anti-tank guided missiles and anti-tank grenades. 
The system is composed out of: 
  • Electro-Computing System
  • Control panel and counter mechanism
  • 107mm high explosive fragmentation projectile
  • Two transceiver modules 
  • 4 paired launch tubes
  • Armoured housing blocks 

"Drozd" countermeasure charge


T-55AD "Drozd" mounting diagram



T-55AD Object 155AD with "Drozd" APS.

"Drozd-2"

The second-generation "Drozd-2" active protection system was created taking into account the experience in the development and operation of the world's first mass-produced "Drozd" APS for tanks, put into service in 1983, provides a qualitatively new level of protection. APS "Drozd-2" is designed to protect objects of armoured vehicles, motor vehicles and other special-purpose vehicles, stationary objects from rocket-propelled grenades and ATGM with a flight speed of up to 1200 m/s. The equipment of vehicles with "Drozd-2" APS increases the level of their protection several times. 
"Drozd-2" APS is a modular system. A very basic hinge scheme is used for mounting it on almost any vehicle with minor or close to no modifications required. 

The system is composed out of: 

  • Radar module 
  • Control unit
  • Control panel
  • Defensive charge


Top to bottom: Radar module, control panel, defensive charge




T-80U Object 219AS with "Drozd" APS
 

Optical-Electronic Active Protection System "Shtora-1"

Designed to disrupt the operation of laser guidance systems and laser rangefinders of incoming anti-tank shells such as ATGMs. The system protects against:

  • Anti-Tank guided missiles (ATGM) that use laser target illumination
  • Artillery weapons, which use FCS with integrated laser rangefinders
  • Anti-Tank guided missiles (ATGM) with semi-automatic command guidance systems

The entire OEAPS consists of:
  • 4 laser radiation sensors with a spectral range: 0.65μm-1.6μm
  • Sensor for laser radiation detection for ATGM laser control channel
  • Two Infrared OTShU-1-7 searchlights
  • Weather station sensor
  • 12 Smoke Grenade launchers
  • MTShU-1-7 modulator
  • FTShU-1-7 filter
  • Countermeasures Control System PTShU-1-7


When the system is turned on, the searchlights installed on the turret of the tank emit modulated radiation in the optical and infrared range, and at a distance of 2-2.5 km, the optoelectronic coordinators of the ATGM guidance systems are suppressed. The coordinators receive false signals from these searchlights and the missile receives the wrong commands, causing it to either crash into the ground or fly by.

At the moment the radiation from the enemy's laser emitter hits the vehicle, precise indicators determine the direction to the laser emitter and transmit a signal to the countermeasures control system unit. The control system provides notification of the crew about irradiation (sound - through the intercom equipment and light - through the light indicators on the control panel and the panel also displays the direction of irradiation), selects the launcher, the barrel axis of which is closest to the direction to the emitter, and issues a command to shoot the ammunition from the selected smoke launcher.

Infrared OTShU-1-7 searchlight on T-80UK

Aсtive Protection System "Arena"

The lead developer is the Kolomna Machine-Building Design Bureau. Chief Designer, Nikolai Ivanovich Gushchin. 


"Arena-" has been in development since the 1970s within the framework of the R&D program "Shater" (Complex 158) in parallel with work on the "Drozd" APS, within the  "Dikobraz" R&D framework. The work was carried out in terms of research and development in 1975-1977 (R&D "Shater") and in terms of research and development in 1978-1982. (R&D "Shater-1").

In 1982, at the KBM test site, preliminary tests of the "Shater-1" complex began, which were stopped in April 1982. The results obtained in the course of the work were subsequently used by KBM when carrying out work on the "Arena" APS complex. The installation was supposed to be installed on Leningrad's "Object 219A" and Kharkiv’s Object 478.


The scheme implemented in APS "Arena" (theme "Shater") was proposed in the 1970s' at Kolomenskiy Design Engineering Office named C . P. Invincible. In 1976, a preliminary design was signed for the installation of the complex and the further schedule of joint work with the KMDB, but the complex never went into mass production. Later, Nikolai Ivanovich Gushchin became the chief designer of the "Arena" complex

APS "Arena" operates as follows:

After turning on the complex, the radar station radar continuously radiates electromagnetic waves into the nearby space. At a distance of several tens of meters, the radar detects incoming anti-tank threats. 



If the ammunition flies into the contour of the tank, the complex accurately determines the parameters of the incoming projectile, determines the sector into which the incoming projectile flies, selects the correct protective ammunition launch shaft, calculates the meeting point of the project with the striking elements of the protective ammunition, at the right time fires the protective ammunition and then at the right moment detonates the explosive filler of the protective ammunition.

Variants of APS "Arena" with variable inclination angles to defeat incoming ammunition with (anti-projectile) at an angle of 25-40 degrees to the vertical axis of the protected object. It allows for creating a cone-shaped affected area. The variant of the APS implementation assumes that the anti-projectile can be equipped with a pulse correction motor (Arena-E) to turn it around the centre of mass.

In the 1980s, the active protection system “Arena” passed preliminary testing and was later presented at state testing. The complex has been actively offered to foreign buyers since the mid-1990s, but no orders have been received yet. After the collapse of the USSR, work on the complex continued within the framework of the “Motobol” R&D project - a comprehensive modernization of the 219RV (T-80BV) with “Arena” APS. 


Object 219M (T-80BV-RM) with Arena-E


"Arena" general performance



The “Arena” complex consists of:

  • Radar station 

  • Trajectory calculator

  • Control panel

  • Two Conversion blocks 

  • Junction box 

  • Cables for the entire complex

  • Protective ammunition placed in launch shafts.


The side section of the bullet-forming lining of the protective charge (Arena-E)


“Arena-E” Active Protection System was designed to protect armoured vehicles from a wide range of anti-tank guided missiles, anti-tank grenades and chemical shells. 



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