Drozd is best known as an active countermeasure system developed by Russia. An active protection system, or APS, protects a tank or other armoured fighting vehicle from incoming fire before it hits the vehicles armour. ...

It's considered the first operational Active Protective System by the Soviet Union, created between 1977 and 1982. Drozd was installed originally on T-55A tanks around 1983 and was designed for protecting against Anti-Tank Guided Missiles and RPG's.

It used radar sensors to detect incoming rounds, and would then fire fragmentation missiles (oversized ball bearings) to cause the inbound round to destruct. One of Drozd's shortcomings was that it was only able to protect a 60 degree arc around the forward part of the turret. It cost around 30,000 dollars, was 80 pecent successful against incoming RPG's in Afghanistan, but proved to provide too high of a collateral damage issue to surrounding troops that were dismounted from their armored vehicles.

It was subsequently discontinued. The Drozd-2 system was proposed to give a 120 degree protection arc with an increased amount of missile launchers. The Drozd-2 system was intended to be installed on the T-80U series of Armored Vehicles.

BB Rifle of the Same Name

The name "Drozd" also is known as a widely popular BB rifle, imported by European American Armory (EAA) and known as the 'BumbleBee'. It's best known for being one of the only select fire BB rifles that can fire single, three round, and 6 round bursts. It's moniker is due to the yellow lower receiver and black upper receiver and stock.

External links

Drozd APS

• Description (Russian language)
• Image 1
• Image 2
• [1] (Trackpads.com description, English)
• [2] (Defense Update article on the Drozd-2)

Drozd BB Rifle

• [3] (Drozd BB Rifle Enthusiast Site)
• [4] (Makarov.com writeup)