NIZHNY TAGIL, September 10. /TASS/. Protection offered by Russia’s advanced Armata tank is way ahead of all foreign rivals, Mikhail Alexeyev, research director and chief designer of the Steel Research Institute, told TASS on Thursday.

"Armata is far better than its best foreign analogs due to integrated protection systems," said the expert at the Tractor Plants subsidiary. "No foreign tank fully embodies layered protection principles. Russia's does."

Armata also uses systems to disrupt guidance of incoming projectiles and active protection systems to detect and destroy closing munitions before they strike the main armour, Alexeyev told reporters.

Steel Research Institute is Russia’s major expert institution in army hardware protection materials and structures. It develops explosive reactive armour, electromagnetic and radiation protection and systems of "reduced observability" to protect from precision-guided weapons.

Institute specialists are developing protection technology for virtually all future combat systems such as the T-14 Armata, Kurganets-25, Boomerang, Platform, Typhoon, Ural-VV, Tornado and Dragoon.