Illustrative Image
On April 16, Russian sources shared photos showing a T-72B3 obr.2016 battle tank of the Russian Armed Forces that survived at least three hits with anti-tank guided missiles while operating against Ukrainian forces in the Donbass region.
The battle tank was reportedly targeted with US-made FGM-148 Javelin and British-made NLAW anti-tank missiles while operating to the south of the city of Izyum. The missiles failed to kill the tank, which remained in an operational condition. The tank crew were not harmed.
#TANK vs #ATGM—In a nighttime battle, this #Russian force’ T-72B3 tank sustained three hits from an ATGM (either #Javelin, #NLAW, or both) and still returned to base under its own power. #Russia #Ukraine #UkraineRussianWar #RussiaUkraineWar pic.twitter.com/Ya42t7ZKMK
— Slavyangrad (@NuestraIraSLG) April 16, 2022
The Javelin, which is guided by infrared homing, has a maximum range of 2,500 meters and can penetrate up to 600 mm of rolled homogeneous armour behind reactive armour. The missile has top-attack as well as fire-and-forget capabilities.
The NLAW [Next generation Light Anti-tank Weapon] is guided by PLOS [predicted line of sight] with a fire-and-forget capability. The missile has a range of 1,000 meters only and can penetrate more than 500 mm of rolled homogeneous armour.
Click to see full-size image.
The T-72B3 obr.2016 is equipped with the Relikt 3rd generation reactive armour, which was apparently able to protect in this case. The Russian reactive armour is claimed to be twice as effective as the Soviet-era Kontakt-5
Developed by NII Stali, Relikt uses a completely new composition of explosives to achieve dynamics protection. Unlike older reactive amours, it works equally reliably against both low-velocity and high-velocity missiles, doubling protection against shaped charges and increasing anti-tank guided missile protection by 50 percent.
It’s worth noting that Kiev forces have received thousands of Javelin and NLAW missiles from the US, the UK and several other NATO states since the beginning of the Russian special military operation in Ukraine.
