Actually, that pic was on Wikipedia page of this tank, look, it's not a matter of Iraqi T-72 performance in GW2, we (Fans of Russian tanks) used to have big arguments with a very respectable and knowledgeable tank specialist in Arab military forums, he proved that Eastern tanks have serious shortcomings in their designation, flaws in storage of fuel and ammunition, short life of their main guns (series of main guns came before 2A46M), weakness of armor protection, light weight, the advantages and disadvantages of the auto loading system, and superiority of of Western sight equipment. So, I believe Western tanks are superior.
From one of his topics:
As a result of the Russian Army's mauling at the hands ofthe Chechen rebels-particularly the disastrous assault on Grozny on 31 December 1994, t
he Kremlin made a shocking admission ofshortcomings at a televised scientific-technical conference at Kubinka on 20 February 1995.
Defense Minister Pavel Grachev admitted that unnecessary casualties were sustained due to the T-80Y's vulnerabilities: short range, flammable fuel and ammunition stowage, thin upper surface armor.
Bitten by their own RPGs, the Russians have developed a defensive countermeasure that solves some of the technological problems addressed at Kubinka.
The Arena Active Protection System, developed at the Kolomna-based Engineering Design Bureau, is designed to provide protection from antitank grenades and ATGMs, including those with top-attack £^ warheads.
Arena is foreseen as useful, both on battlefields where the latest generation of 3-8 km ATGMs
vj prevail and during peacekeeping operations and LICs, where the greatest threats are from light antitank weapons.
Arena includes three major subassemblies. Inside the turret, and taking up about 30m
3 , is the target detection and tracking equipment (computer, TC's control panel, command signals converter unit).
J— The radar itself is fitted to a 'Kladivo'-style folding radar mast, mounted on the centerline at the rear of ~^ the turret roof. The octagonal radar panel assembly is fairly large, approximately 1.5m
3 .
^^ Launchers, which the makers call 'silos,' are mounted around the turret, reminiscent ofthe BDD 'Horse *^ Shoe' armor. They provide a 110-degree arc of protection, centered on the gun tube (Russian reactive ** armor kits weigh the same as an active kit, but only cover a 35-40 degree arc). The system has 22 to 26 rounds, depending upon the type of tank, which are mounted so that they provide overlapping 'fields of fire.' Unlike reactive armor, an expended round will not leave a hole in the defensive curtain.
1- short range, 2- flammable fuel and 3- ammunition stowage, 4- thin upper surface armor. Bitten by their own RPGs The silos are armored against splinters and bullets to prevent accidental detonation ofthe rounds. The whole 27 V system weighs 1,000-1,100 kg and consumes 1 kW of power.
The description ofthe system in use sounds fairly simple. Prior to entering a hostile area, the TC turns the system on. Arena automatically tracks incoming rounds, ignoring incoming rounds until they're within 50m,
then engaging anything approaching at speeds of 70-700 m/s. False targets, such as outgoing rounds, near misses, birds, small projectiles (like bullets or splinters) would be ignored.
When fired, the round detonates the warhead at a stand-off distance of a few meters, so that the
double-charge ATGM warheads designed to defeat reactive armor are rendered impotent. Time to detect and destroy a threat is .07 sec, with .2 to .4 sec for the system to reset. The danger zone for accompanying infantry is 20-3Om.
If necessary, the TC can manually override and fire the system. The number ofremaining rounds are
displayed on the TC's control panel. The rounds are rectangular and reloadable by the crew.
The Arena system, which can be fitted to new production tanks as well as existing ones scheduled for rebuilds, is expected to double the tanks' survivability during assaults and reduce losses from 1.5 to 1.7 Arena-fitted tanks are not supposed to create electromagnetic interference while working with other tanks. The manufacturers also claim that the system is extremely immune to ECM.
Support for the system has also been addressed by the manufacturer. Subsystems are modular and can be pulled for fast replacement. Test and control equipment is mounted on a cross-country capable truck, for forward maintenance.
Like the T-90, this system may not be fielded in substantial numbers with Russian forces for some time, due to budgetary constraints.
