Virss

[Wdll]

What exactly are they? I see many nations have them, but not all. They seem to be very very helpful, so it doesn't make much sense for a non third world country to not have them.
What do they look like?

I admit the reason I am asking is trying to figure out if the greek tanks have them or not. They don't have them in the game, the problem is, I don't know what they look like in real life.

Any chance they are on these Leo's?
http://www.militaryphotos.net/forums...postcount=3047

[Marek_Tucan]

AFAIK it is an integrated system of enemy fire sensors and multispectral smoke, passive and active electronic countermeasures and stuff like that. Dunno if your Leos have it or not though.

[Marcello]

Originally Posted by Wdll

What exactly are they?

It is a game abstraction which covers real world systems like this: http://fofanov.armor.kiev.ua/Tanks/EQP/shtora.html

Actual usefulness in real life may vary; I would suspect that for example the one in the link would work well against older TOWs, but will do very little against a Javelin. So you can see why not everyone would bother with them in real life.
The russians in particular pioneered jammers and active defenses, probably as a part of an effort to contain tanks weights and reducing the strain on the logistical system.

[Zipuli]

With so many units and nations having VIRSS (and from quite early on) I presume they also cover IR-smoke, which are fired manually...? VIRSS/etc. are not THAT common anyways. The effect against ATGMs is quite correct anyways, even if the launcher has TIS - tank spotts the puff of ATGM being fired in distance, fires screen of hot smoke that blocks vision in few seconds and tank changes position?