[Israeli "Tekken" active protection system] Tekken active protection system

When APS is mentioned, people will immediately think of thrush, curtain and arena developed by the Soviet Union/Russia. However, in recent years, western countries have also caught up in this field and introduced a series of advanced active protection systems. Now, the "Tiequan" active protection system developed by israel military industries (IM 1) has reached the final testing stage, which will add a new member to the western active protection system.

Overview of research and development

Most countries, including Israel, paid little attention to the active protection system at first, and always thought that tanks and armored vehicles could effectively resist the attack of anti-tank weapons as long as they had solid armor. However, the street fighting in the first Chechen war in Russia shocked the western army-surrounded by narrow streets and dense buildings, tanks and armored vehicles with limited vision and mobility were obviously stretched, and they had to rely on armor to parry anti-tank weapons from all directions. As a result, while deliberately belittling the weak protection ability of Russian tanks and armored vehicles, the west is also secretly examining the active protection system developed by Russia. Although it did not play much role in the first Chechen war, its huge development potential is beyond doubt. Because of the emergence of active protection system, tank armored vehicles bid farewell to the passive situation of relying on rough skin to fight, and can actively resist the attack of anti-tank weapons. The ineffective use of active protection system in Russia in 1990s is due to the immature technology, not the mistake of development ideas. As long as the technical problems are solved, the active protection system will shine brilliantly.

In fact, Israel, France, Germany and other countries did not lag far behind the former Soviet Union in the development of active protection systems, and began to develop one after another in the middle and late 1980s. However, in the past 10 years, the development speed of these countries was not fast, because they did not have much sense of urgency. However, after the first Chechen war, especially after the Iraq war in 2003, American tanks, armored vehicles, high-powered vehicles and other vehicles were tossed around by anti-American RPG rocket launchers and roadside bombs in Iraq, and Israel, France, Germany and other countries quickly increased the speed of developing active protection systems. Not only that, but even the United States, which has long been dismissive of this, has hastily launched a number of active protection system research and development projects. It can be said that after the Iraq war, the development of active protection system in western countries has really entered a good situation. This proves once again that war is always the best catalyst for the development of weapons and equipment.

There are two kinds of active protection systems developed by Israel: Raphael's "trophy" and israel military industries's "iron fist". However, their design focuses are different ―― "trophies" are mainly equipped with tanks (especially the Army's own "Merkava" tanks), supplemented by light armored vehicles; "Iron fist" is just the antonym of "trophy". As far as the "Tiequan" active protection system mentioned in this paper is concerned, the main technical and tactical requirements put forward by the Israeli army are: the system adopts modular design, which is convenient to install on different platforms; Small size and light weight; It can defend 360-degree short-range anti-tank weapons in all directions and can defend against the attack of top-attack ammunition; If necessary, two kinds of detection sensors can be configured to increase the reliability of detection; Can adapt to various operational environments such as open terrain in the wild and urban streets; The interception accuracy should be high and the interception cost should be low.

In terms of development time, the "Tiequan" and "booty" active protection systems started almost at the same time, but the latter developed slightly faster than the former-when the "booty" entered the combat test in 2005, "Tiequan" had just entered the engineering interception test. In that year's test, the Israeli army installed two sets of experimental "Iron Fist" systems 1 m13 armored vehicle and1Sabra MK3 main battle tank upgraded from M60 tank for more than 50 times, and intercepted anti-tank rockets, anti-tank missiles and shaped charges respectively. According to avi, president of IMI? Feld said: "In most tests, anti-tank weapons failed to harm the participating vehicles. Only in rare cases, the test vehicle was slightly damaged, mainly because the interception distance was too close and the intercepted anti-tank missile deviated from the tail impact. " In 2006, IMI sent the "Tiequan" active protection system to the French Satolli Defense Exhibition, which made its first official appearance and caused a great sensation. Since mid-2007, the "Tekken" system has entered the Israel Defense Forces for operational testing.

Today, the "Tiequan" system has completed the finalization test and can enter the army at any time. However, it seems that the IDF is not very interested in purchasing the Tekken system, so IMI focuses on external sales.

system composition

Because the "Tiequan" active protection system adopts modular structure, it can flexibly match all components according to different tactical requirements. The most basic "Tiequan" system is installed on light armored vehicles. The system consists of four parts, including main control unit, detection radar, transmitter and interceptor.

The main control unit developed by IMI is used to calculate the expected damage of the threat and decide whether and when to launch the interceptor.

The detection radar, developed by Elta Company, a subsidiary of Israel Aircraft Industry Corporation (IAI), is a small staring radar with pulse Doppler system, which is used to detect and track incoming moving targets. The radar technology is advanced, the detection and tracking accuracy is high, and it can provide the main control unit with the distance and trajectory of incoming ammunition. In order to ensure 360-degree omni-directional coverage, 1 square radar antennas are respectively arranged on the right front, left rear and both sides of the vehicle.

The launching devices are in the form of rotatable duplex, which are respectively arranged at the left front and right rear of the light armored vehicle. Each launcher can cover a range of 270 degrees, and the interceptor will be reloaded manually after launch.

The interceptor was designed by IMI, and its shape is similar to a small mortar shell. Different from the general active protection system, which intercepts the incoming anti-armor weapons by direct impact or fragments, the "iron fist" intercepts the shock wave generated by the explosion of the projectile warhead, and achieves the interception effect by destroying the soft part of the shaped charge or making the anti-tank missiles and kinetic energy armor-piercing projectiles in flight deflect and destabilize. Specifically, when the shaped charge is used to deal with rockets or anti-tank missiles, the interceptor will detonate in the middle position after passing through the warhead of the incoming ammunition, and the body of the incoming ammunition will be blasted by the shock wave, shaking the warhead of the incoming ammunition downward; The interceptor will detonate in front of the core of the long-rod projectile flying at high speed when dealing with the long-rod armor-piercing projectile with stable tail, which will make it deviate downward and greatly reduce its armor-piercing ability. Because the interception effect is realized by the shock wave effect, the interceptor body of "Tiequan" system is made of flammable materials, instead of metal like ordinary interceptor, which can be completely burned out and will not produce explosive fragments, thus greatly reducing collateral damage, which is extremely beneficial for tanks and armored vehicles to fight in urban environment. In order to prevent the interceptor from being hit by light weapons or shell fragments, the Israelis specially designed the warhead charge of the interceptor as insensitive explosives. The radio proximity fuze equipped with interceptor has advanced technology, high redundancy and automatic fail-safe device, which can fully ensure the reliability of ignition.

If we want to further enhance the detection and tracking capabilities, the "Tiequan" system can also add an infrared detection device developed by Ellsla Company of Elbit Company. According to reports, this infrared detection device is mainly used for all-round detection and day and night tracking. It not only has the characteristics of sensitive response, high reliability and strong detection ability, but also can provide images of incoming ammunition.

In addition to the basic "Tiequan" system, IMI has also developed an improved "Tiequan" system for armored vehicles such as high-power vehicles and trucks. Compared with the basic model, the improved "Tiequan" system further reduces the volume and weight, such as the main control unit is smaller, only two detection radars are installed, and only the 1 launcher is installed (the weight of the stable rotating device is also greatly reduced). At present, the United States, Britain and other countries have expressed strong interest in this improved "Tiequan" system, hoping to purchase or jointly develop it to equip Hummers and various trucks, greatly improving the protection ability of these vehicles.

Operation and use

The operation flow of "Tiequan" active protection system is relatively simple: the radar transmits the detected target information to the main control unit through the data transmission system, and then the main control unit calculates the shooting data, and automatically selects and operates the transmitter to launch the interceptor. It should be pointed out that the "Tiequan" active protection system does not intercept anti-armor ammunition as soon as it is found, but only after the "soft kill" system of tank armored vehicles is activated, that is, as the last line of defense of tank armored vehicles, it intercepts those "fish that have escaped the net" after being intercepted by the "soft kill" system at a long distance (the interception distance in the test is about 2 meters), and this is also because the interceptor launcher only adopts double loading.

According to IMI, the "Tiequan" active protection system is not only self-contained, but also integrated with sensors of tanks and armored vehicles, fire control computers, C4I systems, interception and attack systems (such as weapon stations) to form a seamless offensive and defensive combat system.

Another unique feature of "Tiequan" system in use is that each component can be equipped separately and undertake different tasks independently. For example, only the radar and main control unit equipped with "Tiequan" system are used for ground monitoring, reconnaissance, early warning and detection classification of maneuvering targets; Only equipped with launchers, they perform different combat tasks by filling different kinds of bombs (non-lethal bombs, grenades, smoke bombs or flares); Only equipped with infrared detection equipment to perform tasks such as day and night observation and monitoring.

Future development

On the one hand, IMI is lobbying the IDF to buy "Iron Fist", on the other hand, it is actively promoting it. Because most countries in the world have a good impression on Israel's weapons and equipment (mainly because Israel's weapons and equipment are designed according to actual combat experience and are more practical to use), the export prospects are still good. In addition to the United States, Britain and other countries, many third world countries (such as India) also expressed their intention to buy the "Tekken" system. It can be said that even if the Israeli army does not buy the "Tiequan" system, IMI's efforts will not be in vain. In order to further attract the attention of foreign customers, IMI also proposes to continue to improve the "Tiequan" system in the future, so that its application scope can be extended to surface ships and air combat platforms (mainly equipped with helicopters).