Shtora-1

Shtora-1 (Russian: Штора, "curtain") is an electro-optical active protection system or suite for tanks, designed to disrupt the laser designator and laser rangefinders of incoming anti-tank guided missiles (ATGMs). The system is mounted on the Russian T-80 and T-90 series tanks and the Ukrainian T-84. The existence of Shtora was revealed in 1980 by spy Adolf Tolkachev.^[2]

Shtora-1
A T-90 main battle tank fitted with the Shtora system; note the two dazzler "boxes" to each side of the main gun
Type	Active protection system
Place of origin	Soviet Union
Service history
In service	1988–present
Production history
Designer	NII Transmash in St.Petersburg in cooperation with Elers-Elektron in Moscow[1]
Designed	1980[2]
Specifications
Mass	350 kg (770 lb)[3]

Description

Shtora-1^[4] is an electro-optical jammer that disrupts semiautomatic command to line of sight (SACLOS) ATGMs, laser rangefinders and target designators. Shtora-1 is a soft kill countermeasure 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.^[a] It is also available on the BMP-3M infantry fighting vehicle.

Components

Infrared light emitter, with its opening protected by a round cover

The Shtora-1 has four key components: two electro-optical/infrared (EO/IR) "dazzlers" mounted on both turret cheeks, an infrared jammer, a modulator, and a control panel in the fighting compartment.

• Banks of forward firing grenade launchers on each side of the turret that lay an aerosol smoke screen opaque to IR light.
• A laser warning system consisting of four angle sensors with two higher precision sensors covering the frontal 90° arc and two lower precision sensors covering the sides and rear.^[5]
• 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 IR lights, one on each side of the main gun, continuously emit coded pulsed-IR jamming when an incoming ATGM has been detected.

Shtora-1 has twelve smoke grenade launchers and weighs 400 kg. It can lay a 15 meter high and 20 meter wide smoke screen in three seconds that lasts about twenty seconds at ranges from 50 to 70 meters.^[5] The Shtora-1 can also automatically slew the main gun towards a detected threat, so that the tank crew can return fire and so that the stronger frontal turret armour is facing it.^[4]

Shtora-1 can operate in fully automatic or semi-automatic modes, continuously for six hours against ATGM attack.^[6]

Operational history

A number of Shtora-1 protected T-90s have been lost to anti-tank guided weapons in Syria and Ukraine.^[7][8] The jammers have been removed from many currently serving T-90s and the more modern S and M variants did not include them.^{[citation needed]}

Specifications

• Laser illumination sensors:^[3][9]
  • 2x TShU-1-1 coarse precision sensors and 2x TShU-1-11 fine sensors
  • Field of view (each): 138° azimuth (coarse) 45° (fine) and −5 to +25° elevation
  • Field of view (total): 360° azimuth
  • Angular resolution: 7.5° (coarse) 3.75° (fine)
• EO interference emitters:
  • 2x OTShU-1-7
  • Operating band: 0.7-2.7 μm
  • Protected sector: 4° elevation and 20° azimuth
  • Energy consumption: 1 kW
  • Light intensity: 20 mcd
• IR smoke grenades:
  • 12x 81 mm 3D17
  • Obscured band: 0.4-14 μm
  • Bloom time: 3 s
  • Cloud persistence: 20 s

Notes

1. Though an early version of the system was apparently fitted to the pre-production T-80 model.