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The picture shows an empty cage with thin bars, far apart. You would want sandbags or steel plating on the cage, so that it works properly. The idea is that i
by tyingq 5y ago
The picture shows an empty cage with thin bars, far apart. You would want sandbags or steel plating on the cage, so that it works properly.
The idea is that it reduces the effectiveness of two stage anti-tank weapons. Where the weapon first has a sacrificial payload that gets any reactive armor to explode...then the real payload to penetrate the normal armor. The cage is supposed to get the first, sacrificial, payload to explode without setting off the reactive armor.
They do supposedly work (at least some reduced effectiveness of the weapon, in some way) if they are done right. That is, that they are wide enough to cover the incoming attack angle of the anti-tank weapon...and dense enough to keep the reactive armor from going off on the first payload.
- arethuza 5y agoDo they have reactive armour on the top of the turrets?
- tyingq 5y agoThe picture appears to be a T-90, and yes, it does have reactive armor on the top.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- arethuza 5y agoFrom a search of top views of T-90s it looks like they do have some panels of reactive armour on top of the turret - but there are a lot of areas (sensors, hatches) that don't seem to be covered.
- tyingq 5y agoThere's lots of different types, even two distinctly different turrets, etc.
- NelsonMinar 5y agoDid you read the part of the article about weight concerns?
- tyingq 5y agoIt's paywalled for me, but the picture seems to show the cage is made from pretty thin stock, so I'm not sure how useful it is in it's current state. Zoom in on it: https://www.economist.com/img/b/1280/720/90/sites/default/files/images/2022/03/articles/main/20220319_stp501.jpg https://www.economist.com/img/b/1280/720/90/sites/default/fi...
- _kbh_ 5y agoThe reactive armour and cope cages cannot be helping too much, the Russians have lost 214 tanks so far in barely 3 weeks, of which 16 where T-90's, and this is only visually so the actual number is likely much higher. https://www.oryxspioenkop.com/2022/02/attack-on-europe-documenting-equipment.html https://www.oryxspioenkop.com/2022/02/attack-on-europe-docum...
- tyingq 5y agoWell, yes, but a cage with thin bars spaced far apart is perhaps part of the problem. And the cages seem to be appearing now.
- pedroma 5y agoI also expect the purpose is to act as spaced armor. Though I don't know how much spaced armor helps against things like Javelin missiles, but anything to slightly change the angle of the projectile should help increase effective armor thickness.
- RobertMiller 5y agoIt's not really the same thing as spaced armor. The hope with statistical slat armor is that the tip of an RPG, where the detonator is, passes between the slats but the rest of the wider warhead behind that detonator is destroyed by the slats, which are too narrow for the warhead to thread through. The aim is to destroy the shaped charge warhead before the detonator has a chance to set it off; it only works some of the time, hence 'statistical'. It doesn't do much good against javelins, TOWs, improvised EFPs, etc. These sort of weapons aren't impact fused, the slat armor never has a chance to disable these warheads before they go off and the slats themselves won't do much to stop or deflect the penetrating jet created by the detonation of such warheads.