It is ironic that anti-tank guided missiles have proved so effective, since Russia—and the Soviet Union before it—was a pioneer of so-called “active protection systems” designed specifically to defeat them
s to German-made Panzerfaust-3s. The war has been a powerful demonstration of the threat they pose to modern armour, says Jon Hawkes, a land-warfare guru at Jane’s, a British military intelligence firm. Some Russian tank drivers have resorted to weldings have proved so effective, since Russia—and the Soviet Union before it—was a pioneer of so-called “active protection systems” designed specifically to defeat them.
The war in Ukraine shows the limitations of the soft-kill approach, says Jack Watling of the Royal United Services Institute, a think-tank in London. “You need a good technical understanding of the system you’re trying to defeat.” The potpourri ofs fielded by Ukrainian soldiers comes with many different guidance systems. Jamming all of them is impossible.
But hard-kill systems have problems, too. You need sophisticated radar to detect incoming missiles, and precise aim to hit them. Anti-tank missiles travel at hundreds of metres a second, so quick reaction times are vital.s, was initially deployed in the 1980s, in the wake of the’s invasion of Afghanistan. It fired shells full of shotgun-like pellets at incoming missiles. Afghanit, Drozd’s most recent successor, is built into Russia’s brand-new-14 tanks.
But a defence does not have to be perfect to be useful. Mr Hawkes talks of multilayered, “onion-style” defences, in which screening infantry spot threats, smoke can obscure a tank’s location, and armour then protects the target if all else fails. Russia’s experience in Ukraine suggests adding another layer to that onion could prove useful indeed.
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