In the upcoming Wind of Change update, we will introduce hard-kill active protection systems for War Thunder armored vehicles! The hard-kill active protection is a system that hits against incoming projectiles fired at your vehicle, thus eliminating or significantly reducing the damaging effect. Usually, such a system includes sensors to detect approaching threats, a computing unit that analyzes the data received from sensors and permits threat neutralization, as well as a set of counter-munitions that intercept the incoming projectile. As soon as the sensors detect a projectile aimed at the vehicle, counter-ammunition is fired in its direction to destroy the enemy projectile by a directed pattern of shrapnel. The first serial hard-kill APS was the Soviet "Drozd", which began to be used on tanks of the T-55 series. It was also planned to be used with the T-62 tanks, as well as T-80U and T-84 tanks for testing purposes of the modified APS units. Later, the hard-kill active protection was used by the Israeli armed forces on their Merkava Mk.4M main battle tanks. At present, various models of such systems are widely used on other models of vehicles worldwide.
The first tanks equipped with hard-kill active protection systems in the War Thunder Wind of Change update will be the Soviet T-55AMD-1 with the Drozd APS, the British Challenger Black Night with Iron Fist, and the Israeli Merkava Mk.4M and its advanced Trophy APS. Depending on the model, the characteristics of the hard-kill APS differ in the sector of radar and counter-munitions, the threat response time, and the ability to intercept anti-tank rounds at high speeds. For example, the earlier APS units are able to effectively counteract the relatively slow anti-tank guided missiles and shape-charged rounds in the end of their trajectory. Up-to-date hard-kill units are capable of counteracting even high-velocity kinetic ammunition, including APFSDS rounds fired from long distances. In the game interface, the effective sector of the APS locator and the remaining number of counter-munitions are displayed in the lower left corner of the vehicle's combat interface, on the indicator of the current position and received damage. Counter-ammunition, as well as regular ammunition, can be replenished at captured points during battle. To train out combat scenarios for using hard-kill APS, a marked zone appears in the test drive that is fired by an AI tank. Try the new protection options, learn your equipment and master it in battles!