Editing Tank (section)

===Protection and countermeasures===
[[File:T-90 tank during the Victory Day parade in 2009.jpg|thumb|right|The Russian [[T-90]] is fitted with a "three-tiered" protection systems:<br />1: [[Composite armour]] in the turret<br /> 2: Third generation [[Kontakt-5]] [[explosive reactive armour|ERA]]<br /> 3: [[Shtora]]-1 countermeasures suite.]]

{{See also|Anti-tank warfare}}
The measure of a tank's protection is the combination of its ability to avoid detection (due to having a low profile and through the use of camouflage), to avoid being hit by enemy fire, its resistance to the effects of enemy fire, and its capacity to sustain damage whilst still completing its objective, or at least protecting its crew. This is done by a variety of countermeasures, such as armour plating and reactive defenses, as well as more complex ones such as heat-emissions reduction.

In common with most unit types, tanks are subject to additional hazards in dense wooded and urban combat environments which largely negate the advantages of the tank's long-range firepower and mobility, limit the crew's detection capabilities and can restrict turret traverse. Despite these disadvantages, tanks retain high [[survivability]] against previous-generation [[rocket-propelled grenade]]s aimed at the most-armoured sections.

However, as effective and advanced as armour plating has become, tank survivability against newer-generation [[tandem-warhead]] anti-tank missiles is a concern for military planners.<ref>[[#BBCNews2006|BBC News (2006)]] ''Tough lessons for Israeli armour''</ref> Tandem-warhead RPGs use two warheads to fool active protection systems; a first dummy warhead is fired first, to trigger the active defenses, with the real warhead following it. For example, the [[RPG-29]] from the 1980s is able to penetrate the frontal hull armour of the Challenger II<ref>{{cite news|title=MoD kept failure of best tank quiet|author=Sean Rayment|work=[[Sunday Telegraph]]|date=12 May 2007|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1551418/MoD-kept-failure-of-best-tank-quiet.html|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150704200640/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1551418/MoD-kept-failure-of-best-tank-quiet.html|archive-date=4 July 2015}}</ref> and also managed to damage a M1 Abrams.<ref>{{cite news |title=Operation in Sadr City Is an Iraqi Success, So Far |author=Michael R. Gordon |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=21 May 2008 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/21/world/middleeast/21sadr.html?_r=2&hp&oref=slogin&oref=slogin |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170623214243/http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/21/world/middleeast/21sadr.html?_r=2&hp&oref=slogin&oref=slogin |archive-date=23 June 2017 }}</ref> As well, even tanks with advanced armour plating can have their tracks or gear cogs damaged by RPGs, which may render them immobile or hinder their mobility. Despite all of the advances in armour plating, a tank with its hatches open remains vulnerable to [[Molotov cocktail]] (gasoline bombs) and grenades. Even a "buttoned up" tank may have components which are vulnerable to Molotov cocktails, such as optics, extra gas cans and extra ammunition stored on the outside of the tank.

====Avoiding detection====
{{Further|Military deception}}
[[File:Type 99 MBT front right.jpg|thumb|left|[[People's Liberation Army|PLA]]'s [[Type 99a tank]] with [[disruptive coloration|disruptive]] camouflage painting]]
A tank avoids detection using the doctrine of [[countermeasure]]s known as CCD: [[military camouflage|camouflage]] (looks the same as the surroundings), concealment (cannot be seen) and deception (looks like something else).

=====Camouflage=====
{{further|Military camouflage}}
[[File:Challenger 2-Megatron MOD 45161486.jpg|alt=|thumb|A British [[Challenger 2]] Theatre Entry Standard fitted with a mobile camouflage system.]]
Camouflage can include disruptive painted shapes on the tank to break up the distinctive appearance and silhouette of a tank. Netting or actual branches from the surrounding landscape are also used. Prior to development of infrared technology, tanks were often given a coating of camouflage paint that, depending on environmental region or season, would allow it to blend in with the rest of its environment. A tank operating in wooded areas would typically get a green and brown paintjob; a tank in a winter environment would get white paint (often mixed with some darker colors); tanks in the desert often get khaki paintjobs.

The Russian [[Nakidka]] camouflage kit was designed to reduce the [[optical]], [[Thermal radiation|thermal]], [[infrared]], and [[radar]] signatures of a tank, so that acquisition of the tank would be difficult. According to Nii Stali, the designers of Nakidka, Nakidka would reduce the probabilities of detection via "visual and near-IR bands by 30%, the thermal band by 2–3-fold, radar band by 6-fold, and radar-thermal band to near-background levels.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20090707002753/http://www.niistali.ru/pr_secure/nobron_en.htm#7 "Nakidka" kit for protection against surveillance and precision-guided systems](archive)</ref>

=====Concealment=====
{{unreferenced section|date=November 2018}}

Concealment can include hiding the tank among trees or digging in the tank by having a combat bulldozer dig out part of a hill, so that much of the tank will be hidden. A tank commander can conceal the tank by using "hull down" approaches to going over upward-sloping hills, so that she or he can look out the commander's cupola without the distinctive-looking main cannon cresting over the hill. Adopting a turret-down or [[hull-down]] position reduces the visible silhouette of a tank as well as providing the added protection of a position in [[Enfilade and defilade#Defilade|defilade]].

Working against efforts to avoid detection is the fact that a tank is a large metallic object with a distinctive, angular [[silhouette]] that emits copious [[thermal imaging|heat]] and engine noise. A tank that is operating in cold weather or which needs to use its radio or other communications or target-detecting electronics will need to start its engine regularly to maintain its battery power, which will create engine noise. Consequently, it is difficult to effectively camouflage a tank in the absence of some form of cover or concealment (e.g., woods) it can [[hull-down|hide]] its hull behind. The tank becomes easier to detect when moving (typically, whenever it is in use) due to the large, distinctive auditory, vibration and thermal signature of its engine and power plant. Tank tracks and dust clouds also betray past or present tank movement.

Switched-off tanks are vulnerable to infra-red [[thermal imaging|detection]] due to differences between the [[thermal conductivity]] and therefore [[heat#Heat dissipation|heat dissipation]] of the metallic tank and its surroundings. At close range the tank can be detected even when powered down and fully concealed due to the [[heat haze|column of warmer air]] above the tank and the smell of diesel or gasoline. Thermal blankets slow the rate of heat emission and some thermal camouflage nets use a mix of materials with differing thermal properties to operate in the infra-red as well as the [[visible spectrum]].

[[Grenade launcher]]s can rapidly deploy a [[smoke screen]] that is opaque to [[infrared]] light, to hide it from the thermal viewer of another tank. In addition to using its own grenade launchers, a tank commander could call in an artillery unit to provide smoke cover. Some tanks can produce a smoke screen.

Sometimes camouflage and concealment are used at the same time. For example, a camouflage-painted and branch-covered tank (camouflage) may be hidden in a behind a hill or in a dug-in-emplacement (concealment).

=====Deception=====
[[File:E04934.jpg|thumb|right|upright=0.9|Troops carry a lightweight wood-framed "dummy" tank into position.]]
Some [[armoured recovery vehicle]]s (often tracked, tank chassis-based "tow trucks" for tanks) have dummy turrets and cannons. This makes it less likely that enemy tanks will fire on these vehicles. Some armies have fake "dummy" tanks made of wood which troops can carry into position and hide behind obstacles. These "dummy" tanks may cause the enemy to think that there are more tanks than are actually possessed.

====Armour====
{{unreferenced section|date=January 2013}}
{{Main|Vehicle armour}}
{{multiple image|perrow = 2|total_width=300
| image1 = M1 Abrams Hull Front Special Armor.jpg
| image2 = M1 Abrams Turret Bustle Side Special Armor.png
| image3 = M1 Abrams Hull Side Special Armor.jpg
| image4 = M1 Abrams Gun Shield Special Armor.jpg
| footer = Configuration of M1 Abrams [[Chobham armor|Chobham]] Special Armor. Clockwise from upper left: Hull front, turret bustle, hull side, gun shield.
}}
[[File:Challenger2-Bergen-Hohne-Training-Area-2.jpg|thumb|right|The British [[Challenger 2|Challenger II]] is protected by second-generation [[Chobham armour]]]]

To effectively protect the tank and its crew, tank armour must counter a wide variety of antitank threats. Protection against [[kinetic energy penetrator]]s and [[high-explosive anti-tank]] (HEAT) shells fired by other tanks is of primary importance, but tank armour also aims to protect against infantry [[Mortar (weapon)|mortars]], [[grenades]], [[rocket-propelled grenade]]s, [[anti-tank guided missile]]s, [[land mine|anti-tank mines]], [[anti-tank rifles]], [[bomb]]s, direct [[artillery]] hits, and (less often) [[Weapon of mass destruction|nuclear, biological and chemical]] threats, any of which could disable or destroy a tank or its crew.

[[rolled homogeneous armour|Steel armour plate]] was the earliest type of armour. The Germans pioneered the use of [[carbon steel#Case hardening|face hardened]] steel during World War II and the Soviets also achieved improved protection with [[sloped armour]] technology. World War II developments led to the obsolescence of homogeneous steel armour with the development of [[shaped-charge]] warheads, exemplified by the [[Panzerfaust]] and [[bazooka]] infantry-carried weapons which were effective, despite some early success with [[spaced armour]]. Magnetic mines led to the development of [[diamagnetism|anti-magnetic]] paste and paint. From WWII to the modern era, troops have added improvised armour to tanks while in combat settings, such as sandbags or pieces of old armour plating.

British tank researchers took the next step with the development of [[Chobham armour]], or more generally [[composite armour]], incorporating [[ceramic]]s and plastics in a [[resin]] matrix between steel plates, which provided good protection against HEAT weapons. [[High-explosive squash head]] warheads led to [[spall|anti-spall]] armour linings, and kinetic energy penetrators led to the inclusion of exotic materials like a matrix of [[depleted uranium]] into a composite armour configuration.

[[File:M60A1-Patton-Blazer-latrun-2.jpg|thumb|Blazer [[explosive reactive armour]] (ERA) blocks on an Israeli M-60]]
[[Reactive armour]] consists of small explosive-filled metal boxes that detonate when hit by the metallic jet projected by an exploding HEAT warhead, causing their metal plates to disrupt it. [[Tandem warhead]]s defeat reactive armour by causing the armour to detonate prematurely. Modern reactive armour protects itself from Tandem warheads by having a thicker front metal plate to prevent the precursor charge from detonating the explosive in the reactive armour. Reactive armours can also reduce the penetrative abilities of [[kinetic energy penetrator]]s by deforming the penetrator with the metal plates on the Reactive armour, thereby reducing its effectiveness against the main armour of the tank.

====Active protection system====
[[File:Flickr - Israel Defense Forces - Storming Ahead.jpg|thumb|right|[[Israel Defense Forces|IDF]] [[Merkava]] Mk4 tank with [[Trophy (countermeasure)|Trophy]] [[active protection system|APS]] ("מעיל רוח") during training]]

The latest generation of protective measures for tanks are [[active protection system]]s. The term "active" is used to contrast these approaches with the armour used as the primary protective approach in earlier tanks.
* [[Soft kill]] measures, such as the Russian [[Shtora]] countermeasure system, provide protection by interfering with enemy targeting and fire-control systems, thus making it harder for the enemy threats to lock onto the targeted tank.
* Hard kill systems intercept incoming threats with a projectile(s) of its own, destroying the threat. For example, the Israeli [[Trophy (countermeasure)|Trophy]] destroys an incoming rocket or missile with shotgun-like projectiles. The Soviet [[Drozd]], the Russian [[Arena active protection system|Arena]], the Israeli [[Trophy (countermeasure)|Trophy]] and [[Iron Fist (countermeasure)|Iron Fist]], Polish [[ERAWA]], and the American [[Quick Kill]] systems show the potential to dramatically improve protection for tanks against [[anti-tank missile|missiles]], [[rocket-propelled grenade|RPGs]] and potentially kinetic energy penetrator attacks, but concerns regarding a [[Friendly fire|danger zone for nearby troops]] remain.{{citation needed|date=June 2015}}