GarryB Thu May 02, 2024 2:19 am
All the new-gen vehicle platforms have to be impervious to small cheap suicide drones whether through one means or another (APS, spaced armour, EW jamming, etc...) - otherwise there is no sense in introducing them
I understand what you are trying to say but there is no such thing as anything proof.... a small cheap suicide drone can carry an RPG-7 warhead designed to detonate vertically downward... no level of cage or chain or ERA is going to stop most of those.
If you want to delay the introduction of a system until you are sure it is perfectly safe then it will never enter production.
Equally as we have seen it is in service stuff that gets modifications in the field that test new defensive and attacking ideas so that properly designed and made improved versions can be started if they work out to be effective on the battlefield... so putting new things into service is the best way to test them once their obvious bugs have been sorted out. It is a shame for whatever reason they have not been using APS systems operationally even in limited numbers just get get real experience and upgrades and improvements that come with both operational but also production experience.
In addition - unmanned turrets are a vital feature too; they help save space and keep the crew in one spot where they can be protected better.
Unmanned turrets that don't penetrate into the hull also create more room inside the vehicle and reduce the chance of an ammo fire getting to the crew or troop compliment.
Obviously with the bigger guns or the missile armed vehicles the troop compartment becomes the ammo storage area so escape options for the driver and commander and gunner become important.
So the Kurganets-25 is basically ready for this new type of warfare already. It just needs some EW systems.
It is always going to need upgrades and improvements as they become available... the electronics and systems on an aircraft are called avionics... the concept behind the new vehicle family was to create a set of electronics and systems for ground vehicles that can be transferred between vehicle chassis using different engines and different hulls and different transmissions and arrangements regarding wheels or tracks, so as new EW systems and laser jammers and smoke systems and coatings and cages and ERA and skirts and APS systems are developed they should be able to be applied to all the vehicle families to upgrade them all... they have built in growth potential in terms of engine power for weight increases, and the armour is supposed to be modular to allow increases and improvements to be applied over the life of the vehicles.