Russian tank-fired IR & visual blocking smoke grenades: a tactical vulnerability?

[John Kettler]

When it comes to hiding quickly from imminent threat, my limited experience to date appears to show that the broad screen deployed by Shtora  does a great job not only of screening, but of creating lots of places in which the tank might be. The price paid for doing this is the delay in getting the grenades out there and emitting effective blocking smoke. I've gotten kills, both as American and as Russian, precisely because of that delay. By the time, at ranges upwards of 1 kilometer, the screen is up, it's too late vs tank main guns. Can't speak to ATGMs, having launched exactly one to date, and from very close range. Obviously, this is an anecdotal report, but time and again, my tank has fired before the screen, even if launched in time, has deployed long enough to barely resemble the most feeble of ground fog, as in barely over the top of the bottom portion of the treads or, best case, come up to the track guards. 

 

Contrast that with what happens when an Abrams pops smoke. There, with the distance the grenades must travel being considerably shorter than for the Shtora equipped tanks, the Abrams seem to vanish in practically an instant. You might get one shot at it, but you likely won't get two from the same tank. And ATGMs, save for those fired from very close range, are most likely a lost cause.  LBR is  almost certainly defeated by the sudden disappearance of the target to the ATGM "gunner" and the loss of the beam to the missile's guidance receiver as well. The same applies to SACLOS guidance a la TOW or SALH a la Hellfire.

 

If, note conditional, CMBS is correctly depicting the combat dynamics and the way the grenades function (ground impact as opposed to detonating in midair), and these are applicable to the real world tank defense problem, then were I the Russian MoD, I'd be looking to truncate the distance those Shtora grenades get fired, since it appears to strongly affect tank survivability. Thoughts?

 

Regards,

 

John Kettler

Edited July 24, 2015 by John Kettler

[agusto]

I can confirm your Observations regarding the ineffectivness of shtora vs. M1 mbt guns. By the Time shtora has deployed ist smoke Screen, the t90 is already a Smoking Wreck Itself.