Quick and dirty on the Armata MBT...

I've started to do a little work on what we can see from the pics released on the Armata MBT.  Its turning into a bigger project than I imagined so in the mean time here's a quick and dirty with MUCH more to come.

First has anyone noticed how low the barrel is?  I find its placement interesting.  It will suffer from lack of gun elevation but the Russians use dedicated vehicles for city fighting and in mountainous terrain I imagine they'll find a way to work around the deficiency.  My question is does this lower placement yield any benefits?

The next thing that catches attention is the overhang off the back of the turret.  I immediately thought of the T57 line of US tanks that were experimented with (and my T69 that I play in WOT).  Many thought it simply redundant because previous Russian autoloaders didn't use this arrangement.  I believe that they're simply using a discarded US idea and expanding on it.

This is perhaps the most thrilling, and chilling part of the tank.  Remember the T57 had three men in the turret.  The unmanned Armata turret is still large so does that mean that its going to have a revolver of 120mm shells that number more than 4-6?  Could we be looking at a vehicle that is able to pop out from a herd of T72's, fire 8-10 rounds in rapid fire manner and then sneak back in to reload?

A few more things have me wondering.

Notice those...smoke dischargers that might not be at the base of the turret?  That's an extremely weird place for them.  They're also larger than standard.  What if they're not and they're something else?  What could they be?

Lars Gyllenhaal informed me that those are a protective system called AFGANIT...so yeah, I wasn't even close!  Thanks dude!  Now I have to try and find out exactly how capable a system it is!

Like I said.  There is alot more to pull apart when it comes to this vehicle, but its not even the most interesting of the herd.

That heavy APC has me intrigued beyond belief.  Is it the Russian version of the US Army's Ground Combat Vehicle?  How will it be employed when they have a standard tracked APC that looks quite capable.  Who will be getting the VBCI wheeled APC look alike?

Yeah folks.  Alot more to come.