When people mention the Active Protection System (APS), they will immediately think of the "Thrush", "Curtain" and "Arena" developed by the Soviet Union/Russia. However, in recent years, Western countries have also caught up in this field and launched a series of active protection systems with advanced performance. Now, the "Iron Fist" active protection system developed by Israel Military Industries (IM1) has also reached the final testing stage and will add a new member to the Western active protection system.
R&D Overview
Most countries, including Israel, did not pay much attention to active protection systems at first. , I always feel that as long as tanks and armored vehicles have thick armor, they can effectively resist the attacks of anti-tank weapons. But the street fighting in Russia's first Chechen War shocked Western armies - surrounded by narrow streets and dense buildings, tanks and armored vehicles with limited vision and maneuverability could only rely on armor to parry anti-tank weapons fired from all directions. Stretched. Therefore, while the West deliberately belittles the weak protection capabilities of Russian tanks and armored vehicles, it secretly takes a serious look at the active protection system developed by Russia. Although it did not play a big role in the first Chechen War, it has made great progress. The potential is unquestionable. Because the emergence of active protection systems allows tank and armored vehicles to bid farewell to the passive situation of relying on rough skin and thick flesh to resist beatings, they can actively resist attacks from anti-tank weapons. The poor performance of Russia's active protection system in the 1990s was due to immature technology rather than any errors in development thinking. As long as the technical problems are solved, the active protection system will definitely shine.
In fact, countries such as Israel, France, and Germany are not much behind the former Soviet Union in developing active protection systems. They have been developing active protection systems since the mid-to-late 1980s. However, in the past 10 years, the development speed of these countries has not been fast because they do not have much sense of urgency. After the first Chechen War, especially after the 2003 Iraq War, after seeing the U.S. tanks, armored vehicles, high-mobility vehicles, etc. being tormented by anti-American armed RPG rocket launchers and roadside bombs in Iraq, Israel and France Countries such as China and Germany have rapidly increased the speed of developing active protection systems. Not only that, even the United States, which has long been disdainful of this, has hastily launched multiple active protection system research and development projects. It can be said that after the Iraq War, the development of active protection systems in Western countries really entered a good situation. And this once again verified a truth - war is always the best catalyst for the development of weapons and equipment.
There are two types of active protection systems developed by Israel: Rafael's "Trophy" and Israel Military Industries' "Iron Fist". But their design focuses are different - "Trophy" is mainly equipped with tanks (especially the Israeli army's own "Merkava" tanks), supplemented by light armored vehicles; "Iron Fist" is exactly the same as "Trophy" "on the contrary. As for the "Iron Fist" active protection system discussed in this article, the main technical and tactical requirements put forward by the Israeli military are: the system adopts a modular design to facilitate installation on different platforms; it must be small in size and light in weight; it must be capable of 360 It has a high degree of all-round defense against short-range anti-tank weapons and can defend against attacks from top-attack ammunition. It can be equipped with two detection sensors when necessary to increase the reliability of detection. It can adapt to various combat environments such as open terrain in the wild and urban streets and alleys. The interception accuracy must be high and the interception cost must be low.
In terms of development time, the "Iron Fist" and "Trophy" active protection systems started almost at the same time, but the latter developed slightly faster than the former - when "Trophy" When it entered combat testing in 2005, the "Iron Fist" had just entered engineering interception testing. During the testing process that year, the Israeli army installed two experimental "Iron Fist" systems on an M113 armored vehicle and a "Sabra" MK3 main battle tank upgraded from an M60 tank and conducted more than 150 tests. It intercepted various anti-tank weapons such as anti-tank rockets, anti-tank missiles, shaped charge anti-tank side armor mines and armor-piercing projectiles. According to IMI President Avi Felder: "In most tests, anti-tank weapons failed to harm the test vehicles. Only in rare cases did the test vehicles suffer minor damage, mainly due to the interception distance being too close. , caused by the tail impact of the intercepted anti-tank missile when it deflected. "In 2006, IMI sent the "Iron Fist" active protection system to the Sartori Defense Exhibition in France, where it was officially unveiled for the first time, causing a great sensation. Beginning in mid-2007, the "Iron Fist" system entered the Israel Defense Forces for combat testing.
Today, the "Iron Fist" system has completed final testing and is ready to enter military service at any time. However, the Israel Defense Forces does not seem to be very interested in purchasing the "Iron Fist" system, so IMI focuses its main energy on external marketing.
System composition
Since the "Iron Fist" active protection system adopts a modular structure, it can be flexibly adapted to different tactical needs. Match the individual components. The most basic "Iron Fist" system is installed on a light armored vehicle. The system consists of four components: a main control unit, a detection radar, a launcher and an interceptor.
The main control unit was developed by IMI. Its function is to calculate the predetermined missile exposure of the threat and decide whether and when to launch the interceptor missile.
The detection radar was developed by Elta, a subsidiary of Israel Aircraft Industries (IAI). It is a small staring radar with a pulse Doppler system. Its function is to detect and track incoming movements. Target. This radar has advanced technology and very high detection and tracking accuracy. It can provide the main control unit with the distance and trajectory of incoming ammunition. In order to ensure 360-degree all-round coverage, a square radar antenna is arranged on the right front, left rear and both sides of the vehicle. .
The launcher is a rotatable double-mounted device, which is placed on the left front and right rear of the light armored vehicle. Each launcher can cover a 270-degree range, and the interceptors are manually reloaded after they are launched.
The interceptor missile is designed by IMI and has a similar shape to a small mortar shell. Different from the mechanism of general active protection systems that rely on direct impact or fragmentation to intercept incoming anti-armor weapons, the "Iron Fist" uses the shock wave effect generated by the explosion of the warhead of the interceptor, by destroying the softer parts of the shaped charge or causing the The core deflection and instability of anti-tank missiles and kinetic energy armor-piercing projectiles in flight achieve the interception effect. Specifically, when dealing with rockets or anti-tank missiles using shaped charges, the interceptor will detonate in its middle position after passing over the warhead of the incoming ammunition, using the shock wave to blow up the body of the incoming ammunition and destroy it. Shake the warhead of the incoming ammunition downward; when dealing with tail-stabilized long rod-type discarding sabots, the interceptor will detonate in front of the long rod bullet core flying at high speed, causing it to deflect downward, greatly reducing its armor-piercing ability. . Since the interception effect is achieved by the shock wave effect, the interceptor projectile of the "Iron Fist" system does not use a metal projectile like ordinary interceptor projectiles, but is made of flammable materials, which can be completely burned out when it explodes without producing any Explosion fragments, thus greatly reducing collateral damage, which is extremely beneficial for tanks and armored vehicles operating in urban environments. In order to prevent the interceptor from being hit by small arms or shell fragments and detonating, the Israelis specially designed the warhead charge of the interceptor to be an insensitive explosive. The radio proximity fuze equipped with the interceptor missile has advanced technology, a high degree of redundancy, and an automatic fail-safe device, which can fully ensure the reliability of the ignition.
If you want to further enhance the detection and tracking capabilities, the "Iron Fist" system can also add an infrared detection device developed by Elisra, a subsidiary of Elbit. According to reports, this infrared detection device is mainly used for day and night omnidirectional detection and tracking. It not only has the characteristics of responsiveness, high reliability, and strong detection capabilities, but also can provide images of incoming ammunition.
In addition to the basic "Iron Fist" system, IMI has also developed an improved "Iron Fist" system for high-mobility vehicles, trucks and other unarmored protected vehicles. Compared with the basic type, the improved "Iron Fist" system further reduces the size and weight. For example, the main control unit is smaller, only 2 detection radars are installed, and only 1 launcher is installed (the stable rotation device also weighs a lot degree decreases) etc. At present, the United States, the United Kingdom, etc. have expressed strong interest in this improved "Iron Fist" system and hope to purchase or jointly develop it to equip the "Hummer" and various types of trucks to greatly improve the protection capabilities of these vehicles.
Combat use
The combat process of the "Iron Fist" active protection system is relatively simple: the radar will detect the target information through The data transmission system passes it to the main control unit, and then the main control unit calculates the shooting elements and automatically selects and operates the launching device to launch the interceptor missile. It should be pointed out that the "Iron Fist" active protection system does not intercept anti-armor ammunition as soon as it detects it, but only intercepts it after the "soft kill" system of the tank and armored vehicle engages, that is, it serves as the last line of defense for the tank and armored vehicle. , carry out terminal interception on those "fish that slipped through the net" that were intercepted by the "soft kill" system at a relatively long distance (the interception distance in the test was about 2 meters), and this is also the interceptor missile launcher that only uses dual installations. Important reasons.
According to IMI, the "Iron Fist" active protection system is not only a self-contained system, but can also be integrated with the tank and armored vehicle's own sensors, fire control computers, C4I systems, interception attack systems (such as weapon stations), etc. Combined together, they form a seamless offensive and defensive combat system.
Another unique feature of the "Iron Fist" system is that each component can be equipped separately and independently undertake different tasks. For example, only the radar and main control unit of the "Iron Fist" system are equipped for ground surveillance, reconnaissance, early warning, and detection and classification of mobile targets; or flares) to perform different combat missions; it is only equipped with infrared detection devices to perform day and night observation, surveillance and other tasks.
Future development
IMI is now lobbying the Israel Defense Forces to purchase the "Iron Fist", and on the other hand, it is actively promoting it externally. Since most countries around the world have a favorable impression of Israeli weapons and equipment (mainly because they believe that Israeli military weapons and equipment are designed based on actual combat experience and are relatively practical to use), the prospects for export sales are still good.
In addition to the United States, Britain and other countries, many third world countries (such as India) have also expressed their intention to purchase the "Iron Fist" system. It can be said that even if the Israeli military does not purchase the "Iron Fist" system, IMI's efforts will not be in vain. In order to further attract the attention of foreign customers, IMI also proposed that it will continue to improve the "Iron Fist" system in the future so that its scope of application can be extended to surface ships and air combat platforms (the main equipment is helicopters).