Plexiglas and adhesive tape: How Russians protect tanks when there are no "contact" modules

To spread: In the Russian army, an acute shortage of staffing elements of dynamic protection has been identified, forcing military engineers to develop temporary alternatives, including protective modules based on Nera elements. The Defense Express observers write about it. The material states that despite the statements about the power of the domestic military-industrial complex, in Russia there is a lack of staff elements of dynamic protection "contact-1", developed in Soviet times.

These modules, equipped with 4C20 or 4C22 elements, were actively used since 2022 even on light armored vehicles, including the Tiger armored vehicles. In this regard, the main autobronetian department of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation initiated the development of alternative protective decisions.

According to the published scientific work of the Main Autobronetian Management at the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, in the face of deficiency of blocks of dynamic protection it was proposed to use non -raising jet armor (NERA). Ukrainian specialist Andriy Tarasenko drew attention to a document, which refers to a design consisting of two 2 mm steel plates with an intermediate layer of 6 mm organic glass. All elements are fixed with each other with the usual adhesive tape.

The principle of operation is to deform the plates under the influence of a cumulative jet, which partially dissipates its energy to punch layers and loses efficiency when exposed to the main armor. Nera elements were performed using grenades from RPG-7 and LNG-9. Compared to the basic dynamic protection "contact-1", the effectiveness of the new solution was 29% lower.

The stability of containers filled with sand and concrete was also checked, which showed only 14% of the level of staffing, which probably reflects a common practice in the troops. The observers noted that despite the low performance, military experts suggested using Nera elements in combination with the available blocks of "contact-1".

According to the recommendations, the Soviet dynamic protection is planned to be left in the frontal prose, and the sides and feed of the tower are strengthened by Nera panels. This decision, according to the calculations, provides 86% of stability compared to full staff protection and is recognized as "acceptable" in a limited resource. Recall that Ukrainian engineers have equipped the Abrams M1A1 SA-UKR blocks of dynamic protection "contact-1".