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 | |
|---|---|
AT-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] |
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.
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.
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]
The Shtora-1 can effectively jam obsolete SACLOS missiles such as the TOW, HOT, MILAN, Dragon, and Malyutka and laser guided weapons such as the Copperhead and some variants of the Maverick and Hellfire.[3] Newer missiles such as the TOW 2 (which encodes the tracking beacon signals to reject interference) and imaging infrared guided missiles such as the Javelin are unaffected by it. This has resulted in a number of Shtora-1 protected T-90s being lost to such 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.[9]