The new Russian tank defence systems make them a formidable opposition. Here is a brief resume of what they do ; ARENA / THRUSH The Thrush system fires air bursting grenades in front of the missile to destroy it. It is mounted on the T-55D. Arena IIRC is in essence an active countermeasure i.e. it fires projectiles at incoming missiles. Assuming it detects the missiles then it has a chance of shooting them down. This is not based on missile guidance, all missiles are vulnerable. However ADATS as it goes at the speed of MACH3 is probably too fast for arena to defeat. SHOTRA The Shotra is a pulsing IR lamp so functions the same way as a Hot Brick Jammer on a chopper. So its only effective Vs ATGW with some sort of IR component in the guidence. Shotra only protects a 180 deg arc and is mounted on the turret. The system effectively cover the front 30-45 degrees to either side of the barrel. Using a form of deception, the beacons (two) tell the missile that it is on target and it ignores the commands from the operator. The second system detects a laser with a guidance capability (it's a beam rather than the pulse of a laser range finder) swings the turret around and fires smoke grenades with a laser dispersing mist. The system can be set to automatic, semiautomatic or manual. The crew once they are lined up on the designating point if they can see it would probable bang a few rounds of HESH/HEAT back to distract the designator. MORE PROBLEMS FOR NATO Most 2nd Generation ATGW are tracked by the guidance systems by an IR flare in the launcher, so all these are vulnerable. EG Milan, HOT, TOW, AT-4/5/6/7/8. First Generation missiles are immune as they are tracked visually by the operator, E.g. SS11, Sagger. Semi active laser missiles (SAL) are immune as tracking the missile isn't required in those systems E.G. Hellfire. HOT3 and Milan3 have ECCM built in to the tracker to defeat the likes of Shotra. The Bill tracks a laser on the back of the missile instead of an IR flare so thats immune too. Back to Frontline Vol. 1 Iss. 3 Table of Contents Back to Frontline List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1999 by Rolfe Hedges This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com