"Umbrella" - military protection of a Soviet tank from enemy attacks

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

The appearance of tanks on the battlefield created a furor. Fully revealed their potential and demonstrated themselves in all their glory, these are combat vehicles in World War II. At the same time, the process of the rapid evolution of anti-tank weapons was launched. In response to this, the tank designers began to think about how else it would be possible to protect the combat vehicle so as not to "drop" its characteristics.

Who would have thought that the "umbrella" would be quite a means to protect the tank from enemy shots. It all began at the end of World War II, when a huge number of tanks began to be knocked out with the help of means with a shaped charge. Already in the post-war years, the effectiveness of such ammunition was almost doubled. All this prompted the designers to create new means of protection.

In the USSR, they quickly realized that even the most modern tanks (at that time) T-54, T-55 and T-62 were not capable of surviving the hit of a cumulative projectile with their armor. The thickness of the armor ranged from 100 mm to 170 mm (this was only on the front of the turret). And in order to withstand the hit of a cumulative projectile, armor would be required at least 215 mm minimum. Of course, the designers could not make such "sacrifices", and therefore they had to look for alternative solutions.

This is how the ZET-1 protective screen was invented. Created an "umbrella" for HEAT shells in 1964. The entire system consisted of mesh side screens and one large screen per tank gun. The essence of the system was that the shaped charge was supposed to detonate when it meets the grid. As a result, part of his energy was wasted, which means that it could not penetrate the existing armor. Installing the screen on the tank took 15 minutes, and bringing it to combat readiness for 2-3 minutes. Protective equipment was made of duralumin. The total weight of the protective equipment was 200 kg.

Mesh screens were successfully tested and worked well, but they never caught on in the military. The command decided that it was necessary to install the ZET-1 on the vehicles only in the event of an immediate military threat. After the adoption of the more advanced T-72, the need for such nets disappeared altogether, and therefore they were forgotten.