Russia’s state-owned TASS news agency has confirmed that specialists of Russia’s Central Research Institute for Precision Machine-Building (TsNIItochmash) are developing a new protective system to shield the armor from smart precision-guided munitions.
The news agency quoted a TsNIItochmash press office on 8 February as saying that he latest Lotos self-propelled artillery guns will be the first to get the new protection system enables the effective concealing from enemy reconnaissance and fire.
“Engineers of the artillery section at TsNIItochmash are developing a new system of protecting the armor from precision weapons. The technology is based on the optoelectronic suppression of the systems of guiding attacking smart munitions towards the target,” the press office said.
The new protection system will be organically mounted on the 2S42 Lotos air-droppable self-propelled 120mm mortar gun that is being prepared for preliminary trials, the press office specified.
The system comprises the equipment that registers a shot and the fire sector and the technology of optoelectronic jamming with the help of aerosol munitions that disrupt an attacking missile’s control.
Upon detecting an attack, the protective system launches aerosol munitions in the required direction, taking into account the wind. After that, the munition fires a block of cartridges with the aerosol filling.
“During the flight, cartridges sequentially come into action and form an aerosol cloud of interferences in the visible, infrared and radio-frequency wavelength bands providing protection for an armored vehicle,” the TsNIItochmash press office explained.
The aerosol munitions’ preliminary trials have proven their high efficiency, TsNIItochmash said.
The system’s munition generates optoelectronic interference in an expanded wavelength band compered to its analogues, it added.
Today anti-tank missile systems are viewed among the most effective precision weapons to strike the armor.
As to Lotos artilerry system, the image of the new self-propelled artillery system is placed on the pages of the calendar of the TsNIITochMash enterprise for 2019, have been ‘leaked’ on Instagram.
The 2S42 Lotos is equipped with a highly automated turret fighting compartment with a 120-mm mortar. It is compatible with rifled rounds, specially developed for this artillery system, and any 120-mm mortar mines.