Frag Out! Magazine
Issue link: https://fragout.uberflip.com/i/1281650
The assessment of the fire control system and situational awa- reness is far more challenging. The commander can use a hatch with 8 M17 prism-periscopes providing him with a 360 deg FOV. The M17 lacks stabilization, with the observation of the environ- ment around not being efficient. On the left side of each of the periscopes, one may find a button that can align the turret (gun- ner's sight) with the optical axis of the given periscope. This robust hunter-killer system represents the level of advan- cement equivalent to the technologies of the 1960s. It is inferior when compared to the BMP-2 that features the moving TKN-3B system that is independent of the turret. Both the commander and the gunner have two 10" displays at their disposal, to display imagery from the daytime camera or the thermal imaging one. The gunner has a single M17 periscope at his disposal. The dri- ver, meanwhile, has a wide-angle prismatic periscope or day/ night PNK-72 Radomka instrument at his disposal. Kollsman DNRS-288 stabilized day/night sight is the primary instrument used by the gunner. The optical track with the ocular plays a secondary role, concerning the imagery that is electronically transmitted to the crew-member displays. DNRS-288 features a laser rangefinder, a digital CCD camera that offers imagery that stays in focus at a distance of up to 1,200 m and features a 752x582 pixel sensor, with 12x magnification and FOV ranging from 4 to 10 degrees when the day/visible light channel is used. The night track uses the Galileo Avionica TILDE FC thermal ima- ging camera with two FOVs (wide and narrow). The sight featu- res a fixed set of reticle for any of the 30 mm rounds for the Mk 44 gun. The crosshair can also be used for the coupled GPMG. The range measured by the rangefinder is displayed in the Kol- lsman sight ocular and on the gunner and commander displays. The sight is coupled with the ballistic computer that re- ceives the weather data (tem- perature, pressure, wind direc- tion, and speed) and data from the turret sensors (elevation, turret rotation speed, vehicle movement direction and angle, and so on). The fire control system also makes use of the data on the powder temperature. The adjust- ments are applied with regards to the crosshair, after a few seconds of tracking the target with a proper button being held by the gunner and with a known range to the target. This causes troubles similar to the ones evident in the case of the PT-91 MBT or case of the Austrian Ulan design. The crosshair moves to accommodate for the adjustment and it needs to be VEHICLES