Dr. Spontaneous
M-241 Sud
The addition of guided anti-tank munitions on the contemporary battlefield has been a blessing for infantrymen but a blight for armored units seeking a monopoly on terrestrial strength. The ability for a foot soldier to engage and neutralize AFVs from afar is a vehicle commander's worst nightmare as there is a distinct asymmetric advantage of stealth and mobility favoring the grunt. In order to combat this rather obnoxious threat, the JNA began experimenting with dazzlers and energy weapons meant to destroy or otherwise confuse ATGMs being employed against allied armor. Although Yugoslavia followed the Russians in their pursuit of energy weapons in the latter '70s and '80s, it wasn't until the early '00s that enough interest and money was pumped into the project for tangible results to appear. The end product was the M-241 Sud, a platform that is still very much classified and indeed controversial.
Granted much of the Sud's development data has been sealed away to keep prying Western eyes at bay, little is actually known about the capabilities of the vehicle. It's been postulated that the system is either a mobile chemical laser meant to track and detonate ATGMs before they near Yugoslav vehicles or it is a prism meant to send out various IR signatures to misguide those same missiles. Given the presence of what appears to be a large radiator behind the turreted lens, the prospect of the Sud being a chemical laser of some sort seems more likely. Unfortunately--for both the Yugoslavs and Western intelligence agencies--very few samples of this vehicle exist; therefore, observing it and its capabilities is an impracticable task. Regardless, it's been rumored that the rate of successful interception/neutralization is around 80%, meaning that if employed in large enough numbers, the M-241 could practically negate all missileborne threats challenging Yugoslav armored vehicles.
Despite such a purportedly impressive record, the vehicle is considered to be too expensive to see mass introduction into the JNA. A single production run of a dozen vehicles is all that's been recorded since the Sud's inception and at least three of the vehicles have been mothballed due to a lack of spare parts and rather expensive maintenance costs. The main concern of the West at this point in time is the prospect of the underlying technology aboard the -241 being exported to the USR, an economy that could actually churn out enough vehicles to negate the EADA and American ATGM advantage in the Far East and elsewhere.
M-241 Sud
The addition of guided anti-tank munitions on the contemporary battlefield has been a blessing for infantrymen but a blight for armored units seeking a monopoly on terrestrial strength. The ability for a foot soldier to engage and neutralize AFVs from afar is a vehicle commander's worst nightmare as there is a distinct asymmetric advantage of stealth and mobility favoring the grunt. In order to combat this rather obnoxious threat, the JNA began experimenting with dazzlers and energy weapons meant to destroy or otherwise confuse ATGMs being employed against allied armor. Although Yugoslavia followed the Russians in their pursuit of energy weapons in the latter '70s and '80s, it wasn't until the early '00s that enough interest and money was pumped into the project for tangible results to appear. The end product was the M-241 Sud, a platform that is still very much classified and indeed controversial.
Granted much of the Sud's development data has been sealed away to keep prying Western eyes at bay, little is actually known about the capabilities of the vehicle. It's been postulated that the system is either a mobile chemical laser meant to track and detonate ATGMs before they near Yugoslav vehicles or it is a prism meant to send out various IR signatures to misguide those same missiles. Given the presence of what appears to be a large radiator behind the turreted lens, the prospect of the Sud being a chemical laser of some sort seems more likely. Unfortunately--for both the Yugoslavs and Western intelligence agencies--very few samples of this vehicle exist; therefore, observing it and its capabilities is an impracticable task. Regardless, it's been rumored that the rate of successful interception/neutralization is around 80%, meaning that if employed in large enough numbers, the M-241 could practically negate all missileborne threats challenging Yugoslav armored vehicles.
Despite such a purportedly impressive record, the vehicle is considered to be too expensive to see mass introduction into the JNA. A single production run of a dozen vehicles is all that's been recorded since the Sud's inception and at least three of the vehicles have been mothballed due to a lack of spare parts and rather expensive maintenance costs. The main concern of the West at this point in time is the prospect of the underlying technology aboard the -241 being exported to the USR, an economy that could actually churn out enough vehicles to negate the EADA and American ATGM advantage in the Far East and elsewhere.