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Russian Black Eagle Surpasses America's Abrams
05/07/2003 12:41
The 21st century has brought fifth
generation weapons to the planet. Are
we ready to meet the challenge?
This is not a fantasy or a Hollywood movie
where space aliens take out their
super-powerful guns and wipe entire cities
and villages off the face of the earth
without establishing direct contact with the poor aborigines. This
pseudo-aesthetic horror has become our everyday reality.
Even in the early 1990s, when, during the Desert Storm operation, the
Americans made attempts to test new military tactics and use new high-tech
weapons, many analytical centers just shrugged their shoulders: they still
considered the Kalashnikov gun to be superior to computers and
laser-guided weapons. However, already during the US aggression against
Yugoslavia, when the Americans used optically guidance missiles and bombs
with carbonic threads to deactivate power lines without destroying the
nuclear power plants, analysts realized that a new era of non-contact wars
had begun. And this fact was proven by the Americans in Iraq once again
when it took three weeks to dissolve Saddam's army of 400,000 soldiers in
the Mesopotamian desert. The US's cold silicon chips and noiseless laser
beams were fighting against Iraq's hot hearts and Kalashnikov guns. The
21st century has brought fifth generation weapons to the planet. Are we
ready to meet the challenge?
When, in the 1980s, the Soviet military opened another large-scale
construction site near the city of Nurek in the Soviet republic of Tadjikistan,
US authorities became seriously alarmed and made a protest against the
USSR. They thought our country had started construction of a
military-purpose laser complex. Soviet diplomats had to reassure the scared
Americans and explained that the complex was meant for optoelectronic
surveillance, analogous to US's GBEODSS (Ground-Based Electro-Optical
Deep Space Surveillance).
The creators of the new complex called it a "window." The complex could
survey objects in space at a height of 40,000 kilometers, define their
trajectories precisely and find out to what country the objects belonged and
for what purpose they were meant.
This "window to space" was developed at a design bureau of a plant in
Krasnogorks in the Moscow region under the direction of chief designer
Chernov. First, an experimental model of the complex was built right on the
premises of the enterprise. But when construction was started not far from
the hydroelectric power station in Nurek, a civil war broke out in Tadjikistan.
Specialists could recommence construction work only after 1996. In
November 1999, the complex was finally put into operation.
In addition to surveillance over military objects, the complex can perform
civilian service as well. It can survey not only objects of terrestrial, but also
of extraterrestrial, origin, such as asteroids, comets, meteors, meteorites,
etc.
In October 1984, the USA launched its Challenger shuttle for the 13th time.
When the shuttle flew over Lake Balkhash (in Soviet territory at that time),
it suddenly lost contact with the Earth, devices on board the shuttle were
lost and the astronauts themselves felt ill. The Americans held a thorough
investigation of the incident and learned that the crew and the space vessel
had suffered from something arising from the USSR. An official protest
followed. After that, American space objects never suffered such faults over
Soviet territory.
Our prospective friends calmed down, but it was only in 1989 that a US
delegation was shown a part of the laser complex meant for aiming at
remote objects. The apparatus was called Terra-3, and it had been aimed at
the space shuttle.
Development of a space gun started in the 1970s; Nobel Prize laureates
Prokhorov and Basov and Academicians Khariton and Velikhov worked on
the problem. The whole of the world was on the threshold of Star Wars at
that time, and the Soviet complex was (and is still now) the most advanced
example of such a thing at that time. The fact was proved by the "innocent
trick" played when Soviet Marshall Dmitry Ustinov issued an order to direct a
laser beam at the US space shuttle, which was flying at a height of 365
kilometers.
The Russian tank Black Eagle (object 640) can be seen at military exhibitions
from a distance only; its shape is disguised under camouflage net. The tank
is very powerful: it weighs 50 tons and the turbine engine is of 1,500
horse-powers. The Black Eagle is 80 centimeters lower than the new T-80
tank.
The tank's main 125-caliber gun can fire regular shells and guided anti-tank
missiles. They are developed by skilled specialists in the Russian city of Tula
and can break through armor 1,000 millimeters thick. This means that even
the most powerful tank in the West, the Abrams, with front armor of 800
millimeters, won't stand up to Russia's Black Eagle.
The turret of the Russian tank resembles turrets of Western last-generation
tanks in size and configuration. It is equipped with built-in dynamic
protection covering a sector of 120 degrees, approximately. Dynamic
protection units are installed in the front of the roof as well. There are 12
tube-guided arms on each side of the turret (which means the Black Eagle is
equipped with a Drozd active protection system). Laser emission receivers
are placed on the top of the turret, which shows that the tank may be
equipped with a radio countermeasures system.
The tank has a combined sight with a built-in laser ranger that can operate
in the daytime, as well as at night. The commander of the tank is provided
with a thermal imaging surveillance device. It is not ruled out that
information obtained by both devices can further appear on the displays of a
commander or a gunner. The on-board information complex of the Black
Eagle tank controls all the basic systems of the machine. It can also perform
automated information exchange with other tanks and higher commanders.
This is the first time that a Russian tank has been turned into a powerful
analytical computerized center. The designers also focused on better safety
for the tank crew. Tank ammunition was traditionally placed under the floor
in a battle compartment; when it blew up or was hit with a missile, the whole
of the crew was consequently killed. In the new tank, ammunition is
transferred to the after-part of the turret and separated from the battle
compartment with an armored partition. This measure makes the tank crew
feel safer.
This smart machine, which aims not only at liquidation of enemies but also
cares about the safety of its crew, was developed by Russian designers.
What the Russian government has to do now is buy the machine for the
army. It promises to do so regularly.
Igor Savin
The Rossia online newspaper
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