Those watching National Defense News 11 May night were treated to 'red eyes' - a demonstration of the Shtora-1 active protection system on the PAVN's T-90S/SK MBTs, VietDefense reports. Among its MBTs, the Vietnamese army is equipped with 64 T-94S delivered by Russia in December 2018.
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Vietnamese T-90S with Shtora-1 APS (Picture source: VietDefense on Facebook)
This demonstration took place in front of a visiting delegation to the 201st Tank Brigade. The Shtora-1 was designed to disrupt SACLOS ATGMs along with laser rangefinders/target designators, though it should be noted that some newer modern generation of ATGMS have been designed to bypass the system's IR dazzlers.
It would be interesting to see how well the Vietnamese Shtora-1 APS performs against the threat of enemy anti-tank weaponry, specifically the Chinese "Red Arrow" series of anti-tank missiles.
According to the 2016 annual report of Rostec`s Uralvagonzavod corporation, the manufacturer of the MBTs, a contract with the Socialist Republic of Vietnam for 64 T-90S and T-90SK (K for Command, Komandniy) MBTs was signed in 2016. The Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV) is reported to have received the first batch of 32 MBTs in late December. The PAVN now operates T-90S, Type 59, T-54/55, T-62, PT-76B, and even WW2-era T-34/85 tanks.
According to the UVZ, the T-90S MBT has a combat weight of 46.5 (+ 2%) t, a crew of three servicemen, an average unsurfaced road speed of 35-40 km/h, a top speed of 60 km/h, a power-to-weight ratio of 21.5 h.p./t, and a range of 550 km. The MBT is armed with a 2A46M 125 mm smoothbore dual-axis stabilized gun (an ammunition load of 42 rounds), a 7.62 mm coaxial machinegun (an ammunition load of 2,000 cartridges), and an anti-aircraft 12.7 mm heavy machinegun (an ammunition load of 300 cartridges). The tank`s guided missile system has a firing range of 100-5,000 m. The MBT can cross a ditch of 2.6-2.8 m, a wall of 0.85 m, and a water obstacle with a depth of up to 1.20 m.
