Moscow-based NII Stali [Steel scientific research institute] has fitted the T-90 tank with the Relikt universal system of modular dynamic protection.
“The modernized Russian tank with unique protection will be unveiled at the international arms and military equipment exhibition in Nizhniy Tagil on 8-12 September,” the company says in a report Interfax received on Tuesday [26 July].
The system is based on a new element of dynamic protection, EDZ 4S23, which is the latest in the line of dynamic protection elements developed by NII Stali – 4S20, 4S22, 4S24. The new dynamic protection element utilizes a completely new composition of explosives that works effectively against modern and future-generation shaped-charge munitions, including tandem munitions, as well as armour-piercing sub-calibre missiles. Unlike the serially-produced Kontakt-5 system, Relikt works equally reliably against both low-velocity and high-velocity missiles, the press service reports.
It says that the Relikt system “has no analogues either abroad or in Russia”. “It can be fitted on any tank, both new ones and those in service, increasing their shaped-charge protection by at least 100 per cent and their missile protection by 50 per cent.
The mass of the system of 2.5 tonnes,” the report says. For the protection of light armour and tanks’ side armour, NII Stali has developed the EDZ 4S24 add-on armour dynamic protection system. The 4S24 element contains half the amount of explosives of the first-generation 4S20 dynamic protection element, which minimizes the impact of an explosion on the protected armour and its surroundings.
Meanwhile, the president of OAO [open joint-stock company] NII Stali, Valeriy Grigoryan, says: “For us, Relikt is something in the past.” “Completely new systems that do not utilize explosives are arriving. We are using completely new energy substances that are much more effective and much safer than explosives,” Grigoryan said, as quoted by the company press service.
[Passage omitted: OAO NII Stali is Russia’s major developer and manufacturer of protection systems] Source: Interfax-AVN military news agency, Moscow, in Russian 1356 gmt 26 Jul 11
