20. Armour has been constantly finding ways to increase mobility, protection and fire power to enhance survivability. The proliferation of number of hand held weapons, top attack munitions, land mines, Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) as well as involvement of armour in urban and 4th Generation Warfare has necessitated a new look at these issues and enhance the vital ingredients of survivability of tanks.
Mobility
21. Automotive System : Diesels and Turbines. Developers of Armed Fighting Vehicles (AFV) are expected to continue to desire more power, light weight, a smaller package, and reasonably long life of propulsion system. In order to achieve ‘extraordinary’ acceleration, it is necessary to couple conventional diesel engine to a turbine. The ‘Hyberbar’ engine will be able to accelerate from zero to full power at 1,500 hp in 2.8 seconds, while conventional diesel engine requires 8-12 seconds. The quest for more compact power pack has led to renewed interest in gas turbines, which needs to be explored.
22. All Electric Armoured Fighting Vehicles (AFVs). A fundamental step in designing a diesel-electric drive involves coupling a high-power-density motor with a magneto-electro dynamic generation and replacing the variable mechanised transmission with a similar electromechanical model.
23. Tracks and Suspension. Continuous-band tracks are a design alternate that reduces track weight, maintenance, and acoustic signal of light AFVs. Active suspension system with sensors, control units, and a hydraulic power source in combination, is needed to automatically alter the suspension characteristics to more closely match the speed of the vehicle and the terrain profile, especially in Indian terrain conditions.
Protection
24. Survivability. The survivability of armoured vehicles on the battlefield involves basic principles of remaining undetected; if detected, avoid being hit; if hit, stop the penetration; and if penetrated, survive. The most obvious way to prevent being hit is to minimise the possibility of detection by making the armoured vehicle small and compact and as difficult to detect by a variety of battlefield sensors including radar, acoustic and electro-optical system, as possible.
25. Signature Management. Current and expected future threat scenarios require signature management measures of a multi spectral type, and they require an extremely short reaction time. Indian Army (IA) requires signature management in design measures, basic camouflage, additional camouflage and temporary camouflage.
26. Armour Protection. The main battlefield threats against tanks are Anti Tank Guided Missile (ATGMs), unguided anti tank rockets and grenades; shaped charge High Explosive Anti Tank (HEAT) gun rounds; Kinetic Energy (KE) gun rounds; and top-attack weapons like intelligent sub-munitions, terminally guided artillery rounds, etc. There is a need for developing Explosive Reactive Armour (ERA). Given optimised designs, integrated ERA offers tanks highly effective protection against both the penetrators of Armoured Piercing Fin Stabilised Discarding Sabot (APFSDS) projectiles and the jets of shaped charge weapons, including those with tandem warheads.
27. Material. Increasing the level of protection of a vehicle involves considerations of cost and weight. We require high-performance armour system with advance materials including:-
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(a) Reduced penetration by most lethal weapons.
(b) Elimination of parasitic mass leading to a weight reduction.
(c) Excellent corrosion resistance.
(d) Inherent thermal and acoustic insulation properties.
28. Soft Kill Sensors. Our tanks need Infra Red (IR) detectors, target identification systems, laser warning systems, radar warning receivers and devices to coordinate their signal and instantaneously control a countermeasures suite. These countermeasures fall into two categories: soft-kill system and hard-kill system. The soft kill sensors must discriminate true and false targets and they must discriminate between missiles or other rounds that threaten the vehicle being protected and those that will miss or are aimed at other targets.
29. Hard-Kill System. We need Automatic Protection Systems (APS) for tanks. The radar should determine threat levels adequately, and the self-defence rockets should not cause high levels of collateral damage, particularly to accompanying dismounted infantry.
Firepower
30. Electronic Weapons. Conventional tube weapons are the product of a mature technology, and have now reached a high level of performance. However, on account of the gas-dynamic processes of thermally transformed powder, the muzzle velocity of projectiles is theoretically limited to approximately 2,300 m/s. Contemporary tank guns still offer a considerable growth potential, and electronic guns will be able to exceed this and become an attractive proposition.
31. Tank-fired Missiles. Such missiles, which carry shaped-charge warheads, were susceptible to various countermeasures, especially reactive armour. Now, it seems reasonable to expect development of high velocity KE missiles with heavy-metal, long-rod penetrators to defeat current and future tanks both within and beyond line of sight. Such extended-range missiles would enable armoured vehicles to engage targets beyond the direct fire zone.
32. Fire Control System (FCS). Ground sensors, non-line-of-sight launch system and the network capability will enhance soldiers’ understanding of their situation in dynamic battlefield conditions by promoting a common perspective of enemy and friendly locations on digital maps and provide timely actionable intelligence.
33. Simulators for Training. Need to manufacture modern simulators using lasers, micro-processors and magnetic tapes, thereby creating near actual combat conditions during training.
34. Future Main Battle Tank (FMBT). A futuristic design for an MBT to meet our long term requirements should be pursued. Futuristic tanks could incorporate the following technology:-
(a) Develop an Identification Friend or Foe (IFF) system for our tanks, to obviate chances of own tanks firing at each other in battle.
(b) Reliable and secure mobile communication system capable of data transmission, audio and video conference.
(c) Stealth technology including paints/materials to provide limited invisibility in IR/visible spectrum and for scrambling and avoidance of detection.
(d) Development of driving, gunnery and tactical simulators.
(e) The high/medium-energy level (100 kJ) vehicle-mounted laser is expected to be a lethality option against rockets, air vehicles, light ground vehicles, antennas of armoured vehicles and electro-optical sensors.
(f) Protection in the form of soft-kill system requires IR detectors, laser warning, radar warning and devices to instantaneously integrate these signals and control a countermeasure suite. Such systems are threat specific so all would have to be carried on a vehicle to gain protection against more than one part of the EM threat spectrum.
(g) Hard-kill system to provide full-spectrum defence against top attack weapons, ATGMs, guided missiles and gun-launched KE and HEAT rounds.
(h) Hybrid electric vehicle technology.
(j) Digital vehicle electronics (vetronics) will provide intra-vehicle and inter-vehicle communication capability that will greatly improve sit awareness and enhance operational effectiveness.
...Now tell me how on this earth they can reject a tank for some super duper High Powered Laser based weapons which they cannot get from anywhere else????
