T-72B3 Obr.2016 🇷🇺
The video shows driver seat view, credit to Wolfpam for the video.
The video shows driver seat view, credit to Wolfpam for the video.
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T-72B3 Obr.2016 🇷🇺 The video shows driver seat view, credit to Wolfpam for the video.
The T-72B3 Obr.2016 introduces the new Relikt explosive reactive armor (ERA), addressing the main weakness of the T-72B3 Obr.2011, whose protection remained essentially geared toward threats of the 1990s. Relikt armor is integrated into the frontal hull, along the sides (the rectangular plates running the full height of the hull flank), on the front of the turret (the wedge-shaped modules), and on the turret sides in the large vertical armor packages. These side packages contain up to four Relikt modules arranged at angles covering multiple directions, ensuring that a side impact does not strike at a perfect 90-degree angle. Such angling preserves the lateral component of plate movement against the projectile, which is crucial to the effectiveness of ERA since it works best when the interaction occurs obliquely.
Conceptually, Relikt can be considered a "double Kontakt-5."
Whereas Kontakt-5 consisted of one thick front plate and a very thin supporting plate behind it, a Relikt module is essentially composed of two heavy plates. Several Relikt modules are housed within each armor package in the configuration described above. The key innovation lies in the scissor-like motion of the two heavy plates, which move in opposite directions while the penetrator passes through them, breaking it into multiple fragments. Rather than simply launching a single plate obliquely into the penetrator, Relikt adds a second plate moving rearward, further disrupting and fracturing the projectile. In addition, all the other modules within the package can detonate, combining their effects on the penetrator and severely degrading it, even in the case of tandem-charge ATGMs or APFSDS rounds with sacrificial precursor tips, although the system remains vulnerable to penetrators equipped with particularly long initiator tips.
Turret protection is estimated at approximately 800-850 mm RHAe against APFSDS and 1,100-1,300 mm RHAe against HEAT warheads, representing an increase over the previous model's roughly 720 mm and 1,100-1,200 mm respectively.
The complete armor package adds approximately 3 tonnes to the vehicle's weight.
To compensate for the increased combat weight of 46.5 tonnes, the tank is equipped with a new 1,130 hp engine, resulting in a power-to-weight ratio of 24.3 hp/t, compared to the previous 18 hp/t. This engine enables the new T-72 to accelerate much more aggressively and overcome more challenging obstacles. The vehicle also finally receives an exhaust cooling system, reducing its thermal signature and making it more difficult to detect and lock onto with thermal guidance systems.
Furthermore, it introduces an automated transmission control system through the installation of a hydraulic actuator that replaces the driver's physical effort without fundamentally altering the transmission itself, significantly modernizing the vehicle's propulsion system without requiring a complete redesign of the powerpack.
The tank also finally receives an independent thermal sight for the commander, the PK PAN, allowing the commander to search for targets independently rather than leaving this task exclusively to the gunner. This gives the commander the ability to designate targets to the gunner while the latter is already engaging another target, thus providing a true hunter-killer capability.
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Conceptually, Relikt can be considered a "double Kontakt-5."
Whereas Kontakt-5 consisted of one thick front plate and a very thin supporting plate behind it, a Relikt module is essentially composed of two heavy plates. Several Relikt modules are housed within each armor package in the configuration described above. The key innovation lies in the scissor-like motion of the two heavy plates, which move in opposite directions while the penetrator passes through them, breaking it into multiple fragments. Rather than simply launching a single plate obliquely into the penetrator, Relikt adds a second plate moving rearward, further disrupting and fracturing the projectile. In addition, all the other modules within the package can detonate, combining their effects on the penetrator and severely degrading it, even in the case of tandem-charge ATGMs or APFSDS rounds with sacrificial precursor tips, although the system remains vulnerable to penetrators equipped with particularly long initiator tips.
Turret protection is estimated at approximately 800-850 mm RHAe against APFSDS and 1,100-1,300 mm RHAe against HEAT warheads, representing an increase over the previous model's roughly 720 mm and 1,100-1,200 mm respectively.
The complete armor package adds approximately 3 tonnes to the vehicle's weight.
To compensate for the increased combat weight of 46.5 tonnes, the tank is equipped with a new 1,130 hp engine, resulting in a power-to-weight ratio of 24.3 hp/t, compared to the previous 18 hp/t. This engine enables the new T-72 to accelerate much more aggressively and overcome more challenging obstacles. The vehicle also finally receives an exhaust cooling system, reducing its thermal signature and making it more difficult to detect and lock onto with thermal guidance systems.
Furthermore, it introduces an automated transmission control system through the installation of a hydraulic actuator that replaces the driver's physical effort without fundamentally altering the transmission itself, significantly modernizing the vehicle's propulsion system without requiring a complete redesign of the powerpack.
The tank also finally receives an independent thermal sight for the commander, the PK PAN, allowing the commander to search for targets independently rather than leaving this task exclusively to the gunner. This gives the commander the ability to designate targets to the gunner while the latter is already engaging another target, thus providing a true hunter-killer capability.
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🇮🇹Il T-72B3 Obr.2016 introduce la nuova corazza reattiva Relikt che va a colmare il principale difetto del T-72B3 Obr.2011 che era la corazza rimasta alle minacce degli anni '90, la corazza Relikt è integrata nello scafo frontale, sui lati (quelle piastre rettangolari lungo tutta l'altezza del fianco), sulla torretta frontale (cunei) e sui lati della torretta in quei grossi pacchetti verticali, che contengono fino a quattro moduli relikt posizionati angolati verso tutte le direzioni, così che un colpo sul lato non impatti a 90° poiché con questa angolazione si perde la componente laterale del movimento della piastra contro il proiettile (che appunto funziona se è obliquo proprio perché composto di una componente laterale rispetto al moto).
Relikt è concettualmente una doppia Kontakt-5, poichè si tratta in sostanza di un modulo composto da 2 piastre molto spesse (mentre Kontakt-5 era una spessa frontale e una finissima di supporto dietro), dunque dentro un pacchetto si trovano diversi moduli Relikt nella configurazione appena indicata, l'inovazione consiste nel movimento a forbice delle due piastre pesanti, che si muovono in direzioni opposte mentre il dardo lo penetra spezzandolo in più parti, non è più semplicemente una piastra sparata obliquamente verso il dardo, perché aggiunge una seconda piastra sparata all'indietro, spaccandolo, inoltre tutti gli altri moduli nel pacchetto esplodono sommando gli effetti sul penetratore, devastandolo anche se si tratta di un ATGM Tandem o di APFSDS a punte sacrificabili (essendo vulnerabile a dardi con punte d'innesco lunghe).
La protezione della torretta è di circa 800-850m contro APFSDS e 1100-1300 contro HEAT un aumento rispetto a circa i 720 e 1100-1200mm del vecchio modello.
Il pacchetto pesa ben 3 tonnellate.
Di fronte all'aumento di peso (46,5 tonnellate) il carro monta un nuovo motore da 1130cv che porta il rapporto a 24,3 cv\ton, contro i vecchi 18cv\ton questo motore permette al nuovo T-72 di compiere forti accelerazioni e superare gli ostacoli più ostici, inoltre viene finalmente montato un raffreddatore dei gas di scarico che riduce la firma termica rendendo più difficile il carro da agganciare, monta finalmente un cambio automatizzato installando un attuatore idraulico automatizzato che sostituisce la forza del pilota ma non cambia le trasmissioni, così da rivoluzionare la propulsione del carro senza cambiare il powerpack.
Il carro finalmente monta un mirino termico indipendente per il comandante, il PAK PAN, permettendo al comandante di cercare i bersagli da solo senza lasciare questo compito esclusivamente all'artigliere, dando la possibilità al comandante di inviare i bersagli all'artigliere mentre lui sta già ingaggiando un altro (capacità hunter killer).
guys, i'm starting a series about Mirage III i hope you will like it
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Mirage III PART 1 Cyrano I Bis radar in photo.
I will try not to dwell too much on the history of the Mirage III's pre-production variants, but it is important to place the aircraft in its historical context.
The aircraft was developed in response to the French requirement for a lightweight interceptor following the end of the Korean War, which had been the first conflict in which jet aircraft played a dominant role.
The MD-550 was the first aircraft to meet this set of requirements (affordability, light weight, and high speed). It was a small twin-engine delta-wing jet that first flew in 1955. During that year it was modified, and the resulting variants became the Mirage I and Mirage II. This initial aircraft served as a flying laboratory for the delta-wing concept.
It was in November 1956 that the first Mirage III "001" flew. This prototype featured adjustable air intakes equipped with devices known as "Souris" ("mice"). These were the semi-conical bodies located inside the two side-mounted air intakes. They served a very specific function: at certain speeds they would slide forward along guide rails, generating a shockwave that slowed the supersonic airflow entering the engine. This was necessary because earlier fixed-geometry intakes posed a serious risk to flight safety, as the engine could not structurally handle such high-velocity airflow and was therefore prone to compressor stalls. This innovation revolutionized the aircraft's capabilities, allowing it to increase its maximum speed from Mach 1.8 to Mach 2.2 with the Mirage IIIA (from approximately 2,200 km/h to 2,700 km/h), making it the first European aircraft to exceed Mach 2 in 1958 and placing it on par, in terms of speed, with the more famous F-104 and MiG-21.
Following the Mirage 001, ten Mirage IIIA pre-production aircraft were built for flight testing and experimental purposes. Unlike the 001 prototype, these aircraft were finally equipped with radar.
The Mirage IIIC was the first operational variant of the aircraft (excluding the two-seat Mirage IIIB used for pilot conversion training). It was therefore a single-seat, single-engine fighter equipped with an afterburner and radar.
The aircraft was fitted with the Cyrano I Bis radar, which is the system we will focus on today. This was the first radar produced in large numbers by France (223 units) for a supersonic aircraft. It consisted of a steerable 36 cm diameter antenna housed within the aircraft's nose and generated approximately 300 kW of peak power. In short, it was a radar with a very small antenna, which therefore required extremely high transmitting power in order to generate a detectable radar return on the display.
The radar could detect a target at roughly 30 km. For comparison, at the time the MiG-21 could not independently detect targets beyond approximately 12 km, which is why Soviet doctrine relied heavily on guidance from ground-based air defense controllers. American aircraft such as the F-4 Phantom, on the other hand, carried much larger radar antennas capable of detecting targets at ranges of 60 to 80 km. Furthermore, the Mirage IIIC lacked the ability to detect and engage aircraft flying below it, because its radar could not distinguish a target's radar signature from ground clutter. At the time, however, no fighter radar could reliably perform this task.
To better understand the situation, imagine that the radar antenna transmitting the pulse is so small that the reflected radar echo is inherently difficult to receive. Because of the radar's physical design, the receiver struggled to pick up weak returns. French engineers therefore decided that the transmitter would have to be extraordinarily powerful, around 300 kW, so that even such a small antenna could still receive a sufficiently strong return signal.
The aircraft was developed in response to the French requirement for a lightweight interceptor following the end of the Korean War, which had been the first conflict in which jet aircraft played a dominant role.
The MD-550 was the first aircraft to meet this set of requirements (affordability, light weight, and high speed). It was a small twin-engine delta-wing jet that first flew in 1955. During that year it was modified, and the resulting variants became the Mirage I and Mirage II. This initial aircraft served as a flying laboratory for the delta-wing concept.
It was in November 1956 that the first Mirage III "001" flew. This prototype featured adjustable air intakes equipped with devices known as "Souris" ("mice"). These were the semi-conical bodies located inside the two side-mounted air intakes. They served a very specific function: at certain speeds they would slide forward along guide rails, generating a shockwave that slowed the supersonic airflow entering the engine. This was necessary because earlier fixed-geometry intakes posed a serious risk to flight safety, as the engine could not structurally handle such high-velocity airflow and was therefore prone to compressor stalls. This innovation revolutionized the aircraft's capabilities, allowing it to increase its maximum speed from Mach 1.8 to Mach 2.2 with the Mirage IIIA (from approximately 2,200 km/h to 2,700 km/h), making it the first European aircraft to exceed Mach 2 in 1958 and placing it on par, in terms of speed, with the more famous F-104 and MiG-21.
Following the Mirage 001, ten Mirage IIIA pre-production aircraft were built for flight testing and experimental purposes. Unlike the 001 prototype, these aircraft were finally equipped with radar.
The Mirage IIIC was the first operational variant of the aircraft (excluding the two-seat Mirage IIIB used for pilot conversion training). It was therefore a single-seat, single-engine fighter equipped with an afterburner and radar.
The aircraft was fitted with the Cyrano I Bis radar, which is the system we will focus on today. This was the first radar produced in large numbers by France (223 units) for a supersonic aircraft. It consisted of a steerable 36 cm diameter antenna housed within the aircraft's nose and generated approximately 300 kW of peak power. In short, it was a radar with a very small antenna, which therefore required extremely high transmitting power in order to generate a detectable radar return on the display.
The radar could detect a target at roughly 30 km. For comparison, at the time the MiG-21 could not independently detect targets beyond approximately 12 km, which is why Soviet doctrine relied heavily on guidance from ground-based air defense controllers. American aircraft such as the F-4 Phantom, on the other hand, carried much larger radar antennas capable of detecting targets at ranges of 60 to 80 km. Furthermore, the Mirage IIIC lacked the ability to detect and engage aircraft flying below it, because its radar could not distinguish a target's radar signature from ground clutter. At the time, however, no fighter radar could reliably perform this task.
To better understand the situation, imagine that the radar antenna transmitting the pulse is so small that the reflected radar echo is inherently difficult to receive. Because of the radar's physical design, the receiver struggled to pick up weak returns. French engineers therefore decided that the transmitter would have to be extraordinarily powerful, around 300 kW, so that even such a small antenna could still receive a sufficiently strong return signal.
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Mirage III PART 1 Cyrano I Bis radar in photo.
A radar with this level of power was extremely difficult to jam effectively, because an enemy jammer would have to exceed its output power in order to mask the reflected echo, a challenging task in the case of the Cyrano I Bis. This made the Mirage IIIC an excellent high-altitude interceptor. Its main drawback was that such a powerful radar was prone to very frequent electrical failures.
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Mirage III PART 1 Cyrano I Bis radar in photo.
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Cercherò di non soffermarmi molto sulla storia delle varianti pre-produzione del Mirage III, ma è bene contestualizzarlo nel suo periodo storico.
L'aereo nasce in risposta alla necessità Francese di un intercettore leggero in seguito alla fine della Guerra di Corea che fu il primo conflitto dove i jet furono assoluti protagonisti.
L'MD-550 fu il primo velivolo a rispondere a questo insieme di requisiti (economicità, leggerezza, rapidità) si trattava di un piccolo jet con ala a delta e configurazione bimotore che decollò la prima volta nel 1955, nel corso dell'anno fu modificato e le due varianti divennero il Mirage I e il Mirage II, questo primo aereo fu il laboratorio volante per l'ala a delta.
Fu nel Novembre del 1956 che volò il primo Mirage III "001", un prototipo con delle prese d'aria regolabili chiamate Souris, sono quei semiconi all'interno delle due prese d'aria sui fianchi dell'aereo, questi semiconi avevano una funzione precisa, a determinate velocità sarebbero scivolati in avanti lungo delle guide per generare un'onda d'urto che avrebbe rallentato l'aria supersonica in entrata nel motore, questo perché le vecchie prese d'aria non regolabili mettevano a rischio la sicurezza dell'aereo poiché il motore non poteva strutturalmente gestire flussi d'aria così veloci, rischiando continuamente di stallare, questa invenzione rivoluzionò le capacità dell'aereo, che passò da una velocità massima di Mach 1.8 a Mach 2.2 con il Mirage IIIA ( ovvero da 2200km/h a 2700km/h), diventando il primo aereo Europeo a superare la soglia Mach 2 nel 1958, e allineandosi in termini di velocità con i più famosi F-104 e MiG-21.
Dunque dopo il Mirage 001, furono prodotti 10 Mirage IIIA di preserie per prove di volo e banchi sperimentali, rispetto al prototipo 001 questi erano finalmente dotati di radar.
Il Mirage IIIC fu la prima variante operativa dell'aereo (esclusa la variante B biposto per la conversione dei piloti al nuovo jet), si trattava quindi di un monoposto, monomotore con postbruciatore e radar.
L'aereo era equipaggiato con il radar Cyrano I Bis, ed è su questo che ci soffermeremo oggi, questo fu il primo radar prodotto in massa (223 esemplari) dalla Francia per un aereo supersonico, era un'antenna di 36cm di diametro orientabile all'interno del muso dell'aereo e circa 300KW di potenza massima, insomma un radar con un'antenna molto piccola che aveva bisogno quindi di una potenza estremamente alta per avere un ritorno radar sul quadrante, poteva rilevare un bersaglio a circa 30km, per fare dei paragoni all'epoca il MiG-21 non rilevava autonomamente un bersaglio oltre i 12km (infatti la dottrina Sovietica prevedeva la guida attraverso i controllori della difesa aerea) ma gli aerei Americani come il Phantom avevano antenne enormi per rilevare anche a 60-80km, in più il Mirage IIIC non aveva la capacità di rilevare ed ingaggiare un aereo sotto di se poiché il radar non distingueva la sagoma del bersaglio da quella del terreno, ma all'epoca nessuno poteva farlo.
Insomma immaginate questa situazione, l'antenna che trasmette l'impulso radar è così piccola che il ritorno dell'eco radar difficilmente viene rilevato, proprio a causa della struttura del radar, che non riceve facilmente il ritorno perché è piccolo, così gli ingegneri Francesi hanno deciso che il trasmettitore dovesse essere talmente potente (300kw) che persino un'antenna così piccola avrebbe poi ricevuto adeguatamente l'eco del radar.
Un radar così potente era estremamente difficile da ingannare perché un jammer avrebbe dovuto superarlo in potenza per oscurare il ritorno dell'eco, un'impresa ardua nel caso del Cyrano I Bis, rendendo il Mirage IIIC un ottimo cacciatore d'alta quota, il difetto principale era che un radar così potente era soggetto a frequentissimi guasti elettrici.
Videos showing Mirage IIIC downing Mig-17 (top) and Egyptian MiG-21s, on the bottom right there is a photo showing downed IAF Mirage.
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