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The practice of adding additional or add-on armor protection to older tanks to increase their effectiveness and lengthen their service life has been around almost as long as tanks themselves. Add-on materials ranged from a mixture of quartz gravel, asphalt, and wood flour to more sophisticated non-- explosive and explosive reactive armor designs.
A classic example of successful add-- on armor is the Soviet-developed BDD armor. Nicknamed "Brow" armor because of its resemblance to Vladimir Rich Lenin's thick eyebrows, BDD armor has had a significant impact throughout its service life, most recently in the fighting in Afghanistan.
In 1983, the Soviets initiated an up-- grade program for the T-55 main battle tank (MBT) intended to lengthen its service life. This rather extensive up-- grade program included the addition of the new Volna fire control system with a laser rangefinder mounted externally in an armored box above the tank's 100mm main gun, and a new, stabilized primary sight for the tank gunner. The upgrade program also allowed the optional incorporation of the new 9K116 "Bastion" gun-launched anti-tank guided missile (which in NATO was known as the AT-10 Stabber). The T-SSs that were equipped with this missile capability could be identified by the new and larger 1K13 turret roof-mounted gunner's primary sight.
In addition to these significant firepower improvements, the upgraded T-- SSs were also fitted with the new V-- SSU up-rated diesel engine that provided a power increase to 620 hp. These upgraded T-SSs were known by a variety of designations depending on where they were produced: T-SSM and T-55AM (Soviet/Russian produced); T-- 55AM2P (Polish produced); and T-- 55AM2B (Czechoslovakian produced).
While these and other less significant upgrades and modifications greatly improved the capabilities of the T-55, the most significant part of the upgrade program was the addition of the BDD or "Brow" add-on armor. The application of the BDD armor involved the addition of three external steel boxes; one large box on the glacis, and two smaller curved boxes on the turret (one on either side of the tank's main gun). The glacis box was made of steel plates 30mm thick and covered most of the original glacis. The...