The RPG-30 is a new twist on counter-counter-measures. Back in the 1980’s, a new type of armor was introduced to defeat shaped-charge warheads. Reactive armor consists of explosive tiles; when struck by a projectile, they detonate - disrupting the armor-piercing jet produced by a shaped charge. The response to this was the tandem warhead, with a precursor charge that sets off the reactive armor tile followed by a main charge that does the damage.

The RPG, or rocket-propelled grenade, has long been popular among insurgents, giving them a cheap anti-armor weapon that requires little training. The latest version is the RPG-30. And it allegedly can take out today’s toughest tanks. Recently shown on Russian television, the RPG-30 has already been described as an “Abrams Killer”.

TASS quotes an un-named expert (in Russian - I used Babelfish to translate) as saying that existing active protection systems can only engage a second target after a minimum of 0.2 seconds.

Armor designers are now moving a step ahead to from reactive armor to active defenses, with systems like the Russian Arena, the much-hyped Israeli Trophy, and the forthcoming U.S. FCLAS. These detect an incoming round and launch a projectile to meet it, destroying or disrupting the threat by impact or blast. (Dense inert metal explosives, which spray out micro-shrapnel, are particularly suitable for this; they have a very limited radius of destruction and will not harm friendly troops nearby.)

The RPG-30 has 105mm tandem warhead reckoned to be capable of penetrating over 650mm of steel armor behind reactive armor. But its special feature is a second tube, firing a smaller-caliber decoy rocket a fraction of a second ahead of the real one. The idea is that active protection systems will engage the decoy, but will not be able to engage a second threat immediately afterwards.