What is interesting is that the Russians have pushed so far ahead with a weapon to tackle a threat which doesn't even exist yet. One of the big selling points of the new multi-billion-dollar Future Combat System family of vehicles is that active technology will give 30-ton vehicles the same level of protection as 60-ton heavy armor like the Abrams. But if active protection can really be faked out by the RPG-30 and its successors, then the designers might have to do some re-thinking. Given the amount of pressure already being brought to bear on the FCS in these cash-strapped times, this might be significant.
Which tracks well with what I argued in this post about our theory about active protection systems (APS) planned to protect our new light armored vehicles to replace our massive and heavy Abrams tanks:
Nice theory. I don't buy it. No more than I buy that electric armor can't be beaten with simple kinetic penetrators. No, with all these expensive defensive systems, I suspect the enemy can keep it simple and make our high-tech devices look stupid.
So what if the enemy just volley fires cannon shells, missiles, or rockets at single vehicles? The old Soviet army trained their units to volley fire rather than engage individually. Can APS handle multiple, nearly simultaneous rounds coming in?
Heck, what if the enemy sprays our lightly-armored, APS-equipped vehicles with 25mm or 30mm armor piercing rounds? Rounds big enough to penetrate thin armor and numerous enough to swamp the capabilities of an APS? Even infantry could carry around these with ease. Heck, large tank rounds might dispense sub-munitions like a high velocity shot gun, giving a single tank round effective volley capacity.
I'm still skeptical that we can build the wonder tank.
I'm not saying that APS can't be useful to protect our armored vehicles. Mounting it on an Abrams, for example, would be a nice addition to countering the expanding anti-tank weapon capabilities that our enemies might have.
Wouldn't it be nice if our APS could have the luxury of letting a 30mm round impact the passive armor protection of a tank knowing that the hit won't harm the vehicle, saving the APS round for a real threat?
