According to the Military expert Sebastien Roblin, T-14 Armata will be defeated by TOW and Abrams tank in confrontation.
The Russian Army has officially put into service the first batch of Armata tanks. This is a tank possessing breakthrough technologies not only for Russia but also for the West.
So how will this tank fight when facing directly with TOW anti-tank missiles and Abrams main battle tanks? The question was posed by the American expert when talking about the chances of survival of Russian tanks on the battlefield.
To deal with strong tanks like T-14, the US has upgraded TOW with 2 versions TOW-2A and TOW-2B. The TOW-2A version uses missiles with two warheads – the main warhead and the secondary warhead.
When hitting the target, the TOW-2A missile will activate the auxiliary warhead, creating a cumulative jet and will activate the dynamic protection system of the tank, then the following bullet is in charge of the main task. penetrate the protective layer and penetrate the steel shell of the tank.
The attack is similar to the Russian RPG-30 system. TOW-2A can destroy targets at a distance of 3750 m, missile speed is about 180 m/s. On the TOW-2A is installed a navigation system along with the transmission of commands through wires.
This makes the anti-tank missile (ATGM) relatively stable against various electronic warfare vehicles, but it forces the operator to constantly monitor it until it reaches its target.
Meanwhile, the TOW-2B missile targets its prey from above, where the armour is thinnest. The combat portion of the TOW-2B detonates in a collision pattern.
With a blow-out attack, the US believes that the TOW-2B is capable of defeating any of the most powerful tanks today, even if it is the T-14 Armata, despite Russia equipping this tank with the Afghanit active protection system.
“Both new versions of TOW have completed a series of tests, some of which have proven their strength in real combat. Meanwhile, the reliability of Afghanit has only been announced by Russia on paper. Because. So, in theory, TOW-2B is completely capable of defeating T-14,” the American expert wrote.
Sebastien Roblin added that it is difficult to escape TOW’s blows, confronting the Abrams tank makes the survival of the Russian T-14 more tricky.
“The Russian Armata tank is designed to be lighter in weight than the Abrams. The crew on the Russian tank consists of 3 people. The vehicle is equipped with an automatic control turret, the range and accuracy are all significantly increased compared to other tanks previous tanks.
All these features on the Armata show that they are roughly equivalent to the Abrams main battle tank in the US military and some of its allies today.
Therefore, Armata can pose a serious threat to US and NATO forces. But that threat comes only when these tanks function properly with the power as announced by Russia.
Meanwhile, Abrams has proven power and reliability in almost every recent war involving American forces. Therefore, defeating the T-14 is possible within Abrams’ capabilities,” said Sebastien Roblin.
The US statement was quite clear, but Defense experts admitted that to overcome the Armata tank, the US would first have to overcome the weaknesses of the existing Abrams tank line.
The majority of future US tanks will be built on existing Abrams platforms, including the M1A2 SEP V3. Currently, the Abrams M1A2 and M1A3 tanks are being equipped with TOW-2A and TOW-2B anti-tank missile systems, with two warheads – the main warhead and the auxiliary warhead.
According to the mechanism of the missile, when the missile hits the target, it will first activate the auxiliary warhead, creating a cumulative jet and will activate the dynamic protection system of the tank, then the bullet behind is in charge of breaking through the protective layer and penetrating the steel shell of the tank.
TOW-2A can destroy targets at a distance of 3,750 meters, missile speed is about 180 m / s. At the same time, the TOW-2B missile strikes the vehicle from above, where the armour is thinnest.
But when confronted with the T-14 Armata tank equipped with the Afghanit active protection system, likely, the TOW-2A will not damage the tank, while the TOW-2B can damage it.
In the confrontations on the battlefield, the combat ability of the Abrams M1A2 and M1A3 tanks depends heavily on the ability to detect the enemy first. The new guided missiles of the Abrams tank are capable of hitting targets at a distance of 12,000 meters.
But the Armata tank is equipped with a state-of-the-art radar system (also used on modern Russian fighters) that can detect targets at a distance of 100 km. Not only that but it is also equipped with a guided anti-tank missile system.
The problem now is that, if the T-14 Armata tank detects the enemy first, the survivability of the US main tank lines will be a big question mark,
Not to mention the 4-layer defence system (main armour, explosive reactive armour, active defence system and special design to reduce detection) of the Armata tank that is assessed to provide vehicle protection.
Defence experts also said that this is not possible to mention the un-impressive combat reality of Abrams of the US military and some of its allies in the war in the Middle East. In the period 2013 – 2014, the US delivered a total of 146 M1A1 Abrams tanks to the 9th Division, the Iraqi army.
However, after going into combat, these tanks almost did not show combat power in urban conditions, a large number were destroyed by rebel ATGMs & Rockets and were taken as trophies.
The fate of the Abrams in the US military is not any better either , because according to statistics made by US forces, during the operation in Iraq and Afghanistan at-least 30 Abrams tanks were destroyed by the rebels. And most of them were destroyed with weapons from the Soviet era.
Just this information is enough to show that, for the US to turn Abrams into a more powerful tank than the Armata, it is not possible to do any improvements and it any news emerges regarding the upgrades of abrams that would turn it into a better tank than armata , those news will remain only statements,