Shtora
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Shtora is a Russian electro-optical countermeasures suite for tanks, designed to disrupt the laser target designation and rangefinders of incoming anti-tank guided missiles (ATGMs).
The system is mounted on the Russian T-80 and T-90 series tanks, the Ukrainian T-84, and the Serbian M-84AB1.
Shtora-1 is an electro-optical jammer that jams the enemy's semiautomatic command to line of sight (SACLOS) antitank guided missiles, laser rangefinders and target designators. Shtora-1 is actually a soft-kill, or passive-countermeasure system. It is most effective when used together with a hard-kill system such as the Arena active countermeasures system. The system was shown fitted to a Russian main battle tank during the International Defense Exposition, held in Abu Dhabi in 1995. The first known application of the system is the Russian T-90 main battle tank, which entered service in the Russian Army in 1993.
The Shtora-1 system comprises four key components, the electro-optical interface station, which includes a jammer, modulator, and control panel, a bank of forward-firing grenade dischargers mounted on either side of the turret, which are capable of firing grenades dispensing an aerosol screen, a laser warning system with precision and coarse heads, and a control system comprising control panel, microprocessor, and manual screen-laying panel. This processes the information from the sensors and activates the aerosol screen-laying system. Two infrared lights, one on each side of the main gun, continuously emit coded pulsed-infrared jamming when an incoming ATGM has been detected. Shtora-1 has a field of view of 360 degrees horizontally and –5 to +25 degrees in elevation. It contains twelve aerosol screen launchers and weighs 400 kg. The screening aerosol takes less than three seconds to form and lasts about twenty seconds. The screen-laying range is from 50 to 70 meters. It is also believed that the Shtora system can also locate the point where the threat originated from and plot a firing solution for the main gun, so that the tank crew can return fire.
