Specialists of Russia’s Central Research Institute for Precision Machine-Building (TsNIItochmash) are developing a new protective system to shield the armor from smart precision-guided munitions. The latest Lotos self-propelled artillery guns will be the first to get the new system, the TsNIItochmash press office told TASS.

“Engineers of the artillery section at TsNIItochmash are developing a new system of protecting the armor from precision weapons. The technology is based on the optoelectronic suppression of the systems of guiding attacking smart munitions towards the target,” the press office said.

The new protection system “will be organically mounted on the 120mm Lotos self-propelled artillery gun that is being prepared for preliminary trials,” the press office specified.

The system comprises the equipment that registers a shot and the fire sector and the technology of optoelectronic jamming with the help of aerosol munitions that disrupt an attacking missile’s control.

Upon detecting an attack, the protective system launches aerosol munitions in the required direction, taking into account the wind. After that, the munition fires a block of cartridges with the aerosol filling.

“During the flight, cartridges sequentially come into action and form an aerosol cloud of interferences in the visible, infrared and radio-frequency wavelength bands providing protection for an armored vehicle,” the TsNIItochmash press office explained.

The aerosol munitions’ preliminary trials have proven their high efficiency, TsNIItochmash said.

The system’s munition generates optoelectronic interference in an expanded wavelength band compared to its analogues, it added.

Today anti-tank missile systems are viewed among the most effective precision weapons to strike the armor.

Missiles of these systems have various guidance options: their flight can be directly controlled by the system’s operator through a radio channel or they can feature an infrared homing head or fly to the target under the control system’s commands as long as the target is illuminated by a laser beam.

The disruption of radio command communications with the missile, the loss of the target’s laser illumination or the missile’s blinding in the infrared range will make it miss the target.