| Shtora-1 | |
|---|---|
.jpg) AT-90main battle tank fitted with the Shtora system; note the two dazzler "boxes" to each side of the main gun | |
| Type | Active protection system |
| Place of origin | Soviet Union |
| Service history | |
| In service | 1988–present |
| Production history | |
| Designer | NII Transmash in St.Petersburg in cooperation with Elers-Elektron in Moscow[1] |
| Designed | 1980[2] |
| Specifications | |
| Mass | 350 kg (770 lb)[3] |
Shtora-1 (Russian:Штора, "curtain") is an electro-opticalactive protection system or suite for tanks, designed to disrupt thelaser designator andlaser rangefinders of incominganti-tank guided missiles (ATGMs). The system is mounted on the RussianT-80 andT-90 seriestanks and the UkrainianT-84. The existence ofShtora was revealed in 1980 by spyAdolf Tolkachev.[2]
Shtora-1[4] is anelectro-opticaljammer that disrupts semiautomatic command to line of sight (SACLOS) ATGMs,laser rangefinders andtarget designators. Shtora-1 is a soft kill countermeasure system. The system was shown fitted to a Russianmain battle tank during the International Defense Exposition, held inAbu Dhabi in 1995. The first known application of the system is the Russian T-90 main battle tank, which entered service in the Russian Army in 1993.[a] It is also available on theBMP-3M infantry fighting vehicle.
The Shtora-1 has four key components: two electro-optical/infrared (EO/IR) "dazzlers" mounted on both turret cheeks, aninfrared jammer, amodulator, and acontrol panel in the fighting compartment.
Shtora-1 has twelve smoke grenade launchers and weighs 400 kg. It can lay a 15 meter high and 20 meter wide smoke screen in three seconds that lasts about twenty seconds at ranges from 50 to 70 meters.[5] The Shtora-1 can also automatically slew the main gun towards a detected threat, so that the tank crew can return fire and so that the stronger frontal turret armour is facing it.[4]
Shtora-1 can operate in fully automatic or semi-automatic modes, continuously for six hours against ATGM attack.[6]
The Shtora-1 is claimed to be effective at jamming obsolete SACLOS missiles such as theTOW,HOT,MILAN,Dragon, andMalyutka and laser guided weapons such as theCopperhead and some variants of theMaverick andHellfire.[3] Newer missiles such as the TOW 2 (which encodes the tracking beacon signals to reject interference) andimaging infrared guided missiles such as theJavelin are unaffected by it. This has resulted in a number of Shtora-1 protected T-90s being lost to such weapons in Syria and Ukraine.[7][8] The jammers have been removed from many currently serving T-90s and the more modern S and M variants did not include them.[9]