Системы активной защиты танков: типы и принципы работы

Type of military anti projectile defense system
An active protection system (APS) is a system designed to actively prevent certain anti tank weapons from destroying a vehicle. Countermeasures that either conceal the vehicle from, or disrupt the guidance of an incoming guided missile threat are designated soft kill active protection measures. Countermeasures that physically strike an incoming threat to damage or destroy it and thereby limit its ability to penetrate armor are designated hard kill active protection measures.

Soft kill measures are designed to defeat guided weapons either by concealing the protected vehicle from them (for example, with a smoke screen) or by disrupting their guidance with radiation (for example, with a dazzler). Some systems use laser dazzlers to blind the operator or sensors of semi automatic command to line of sight (SACLOS) anti tank guided missiles (ATGMs), such as the JD 3 of the Type 99 tank. Others use powerful infrared emitters to mask the IR tracking flare present on many SACLOS ATGMs, such as the Shtora 1. Soft kill measures can be divided into on board countermeasures, such as dazzlers, which are fixed to the platform and expendable countermeasures, such as smoke grenades, which are ejected upon use. Soft kill measures may be used preemptively, but are more commonly employed in reaction to detected threats.

Mountains and neighboring vehicles reflect radio waves, thus creating radar clutter, which adversely affects radar detection and radar lock performance.

The trajectories of top attack ATGMs like the FGM 148 Javelin (US) and Trigat (Germany) plunge down onto their targets. Not all active protection systems are designed to fire at the extreme elevations necessary to protect against such munitions. RPGs fired at a steep downward angle from elevated positions can pose a similar threat.