T-72M (early) bugged?

[ZPB II]

I ran across a battle with T-72M (early) models and all of them had bugged side skirts...all pieces of the skirt were aligned vertically instead of horizontally and looked really stupid...Can anyone else check this with the editor and confirm whether my installation is corrupted somehow or if it's a real bug

[Pandur]

you mean like this? if yes, its the way it should be...

[ZPB II]

Boy, do I feel dumb now

What was the purpose behind that arrangement?

[hoolaman]

Well you are correct in that they do look stupid.

I believe it is a standoff skirt armour type thing to detonate shaped charges early. Obviously it didn't catch on.

[c3k]

The early brakes were woefully underpowered. The designers implemented a mod. These are aerodynamic brakes. Notice the large one under the glacis? The -2 version incorporated variable aerodynamic brakes based on steering inputs from the driver. Later, it was discovered these were not as effective at speeds normally encountered.

[Lanzfeld]

No....

In an early attempt to make these beasts amphibious the Russians experimented with synthetic "gills" to allow the tank to breath under water.

[MikeyD]

MOST tanks concentrate their armor protection across the forward 30 degree arc. That's why a Bradley can (accidentally) knock out an Abrams from the rear. I'd bet money that that skirt arrangement did an excellent job of reducing the effectiveness of small/mid HEAT like Karl Gustav/AT4 rounds along the forward 30 degrees, prabably even Milan, TOW rounds, and especially 105mm HESH (HEP).

They'd probably be a real PITA to keep attached to the vehicle while maneuvering in the field, though. Then ERA blocks showed up, making the design redundant anyway. The design's no sillier than surrounding the vehicle with a birdcage!

[MeatEtr]

No....

In an early attempt to make these beasts amphibious the Russians experimented with synthetic "gills" to allow the tank to breath under water.

Ok that was a good one!

[jjhouston]

I'd bet money that that skirt arrangement did an excellent job of reducing the effectiveness of small/mid HEAT

Scan from Main Battle Tanks: Developments in Design since 1945, Rolf Himes, Richard Simpkin translator, Brassey's Defence Publishers, 1987.

Prior to the T-72, the arrangement first appeared on early T-64 versions. Here's a picture of a SKIF 1:35 model of a T-64A

[ZPB II]

Alright, inspired by the fancy diagram I took my company of these souped up T-72s to the fields of battle, only to see them brew up summarily before me, defeated by the very HEAT munitions that forced them to wear skirts. One even ended up in a crater the size of an Olympic swimming pool.

This loss of life and material makes me sad. Anyone care to explain why this high-tech solution failed to protect my men?

[George MC]

Alright, inspired by the fancy diagram I took my company of these souped up T-72s to the fields of battle, only to see them brew up summarily before me, defeated by the very HEAT munitions that forced them to wear skirts. One even ended up in a crater the size of an Olympic swimming pool.

This loss of life and material makes me sad. Anyone care to explain why this high-tech solution failed to protect my men?

Bacause your tanks were facing 21st Century munitions rather than 20th Century?

[Lt Belenko]

Solar Panels:

Soviet Russia was planning world conquest at the time (Jimmy Carter Era). When the T72s were rolling down Pennsylvania Ave in Washington, the solar panels would fit right in with the solar panels on the White House (Jimmy Carter era).

[Damian90]

This is so called Gill armor skirts, they were designed to add protection within safe manouver angles 30-35 degrees from center line of hull. It was good idea when confronted with early HEAT warheads, but against bigger, more powerfull warheads such armor is useless.

Besides this side hull armor already provides significant protection at such hit angles (this is why they are called safe manouver angles), especially when they are additionally covered by heavy ballistic skirts (like on western tanks where on forward 1/2 or 1/3 of side hull lenght there are thick, layered heavy ballistic skirts) + additonall protection like ERA or something else. Actually Russians and Ukrainians never deployed heavy ballistic skirts, only light steel sheet rubber reinforced light ballistic skirts and from 1985 onwards with ERA on them.

Surely Gill armor can provide some protection from... M136 or something similiar, but hit must be exactly in 30-35 degrees or less from the center line of hull within frontal arc of hull.

[MikeyD]

defeated by the very HEAT munitions that forced them to wear skirts

Actually, that's an intriguing idea. The only weapon generation in the game that the gill armor was designed for would be of the Red side AT-3, AT-4 class. Everything else is either top attack, tandem warhead design, or monster overmatching warhead (Hellfire). So playing Red vs Red might give an indication of gill's effectiveness. That is, if the stand-off capability was designed-in to the model and its not mere eye candy.

[Erwin]

Sorry only one other noticed your good joke, c3k. That's grognards for you...