A much more worrisome ambush

Jerusalem Post (Israel) ^ | March 15, 2002 | Arieh O'Sullivan

[The Shrew]

The term "Plinking tanks" use by AF and Navy fliers to describe taking them out with laser guided bombs and other PGMs during the Gulf War, drove the Army Track Toads a little crazy.

When I was at BAOC at Ft. Knox there was a Captain who was a cartoonist who was a whiz at drawing military hardware and then captioning the comics.

He had one that was the image of a smoking battlefield from the back seat of a Cobra(Sorry, long time ago!) The Front seat gunner had a silouette view of tanks in each hand; one an M-60A1 and two a Soviet T-62. The battlefield below is filled with smoking vehicles and the caption simply reads:

"Oops!"

Regards,

TS

[The Shrew]

The merkava is one of the best mbts in the world if not the best,

IMHO, that's a little bit of an exageration! I would pit a Company of M-1's against any tanks in the world. IMHO, the Merkava is a great vehicle and no tanker shrugs at the design influences that protect crewmen. The innovative additions of Mortars, M-2 Telfare devices for boresighting in extended combat situations and 3 - 7.62mm Machine guns and 10,000 rounds of 7.62 ammo show extensive combat experience in designing the vehicle.

But, for out and out tank vs. tank I'll take an M-1 and all that speed any day.

Regards,

TS

[Leisler]

Germans in WWII started putting a second skin on their light armor to pre detinate various devices. They also smeard mortar mix upon them so that magnetic mines would not stick. Today, various countries use HE packs on the outside of their vehicles to counteract weapon effects. Lastly, the thinest place on a armored vehicle is it's underneath.

[alfa6]

Actually 80 kilograms of TNT would be over 175 lbs of explosives. Considering that the armor on the bottom of any tank is non existent, yea 175+ lbds of TNT would ruin any tanks day.

Regards

alfa6 ;>}

[11B3]

Plus, I'm betting that they put the explosives inside that water heater in a way that made it into a shaped charge. (No, I'm not saying how.) 175 lbs of shaped charge would produce these results.

[American in Israel]

You would not need to try to shape charge the explosive, the only way the explosive can vent is up. It is a directed charge, if not shaped. That much explosive make one heck of a mine. This will force the tanks to drive on the streets, the IDF has been risking this to keep from damaging the Palestinian streets. They drive down both sides of the road in the dirt to try to keep the collateral damage to a minimum. I saw a clip on TV yesterday showing the damage a lightweight APC does to the pavement. A 50 ton MBT with steel treads is a real road ripper.

The newspaper version of this article mentioned that the explosion was so large it blew the front off of the Palestinian buildings around the tank. I wonder why the armchair terrorists are not on this thread complaining about the destruction of Palestinian houses...

[glorgau]

A 50 ton MBT with steel treads is a real road ripper.

Every unit in Germany had a damage assessment officer. We used to go through towns handing out checks for curbs, cars, houses etc. Remember, its not a road march if you don't take some of the road with you. :-)

[Bill Rice]

Patton's explanation of them being stand-off protection for heat rounds makes sense. Are you saying they are explosive as well, or part of what triggers the reactive armor?

I always thought of reactive armor just being the panels and plates on the outside, but I never really gave much thought as to what actually TELLS it to blow.

[patton]

Don't overcomplicate the design - HEAT rounds are typically triggered by a piezo-electric crystal in the nose of the missile. When the missile hits the chain, the cystal sparks, and the incoming round detonates, about a foot shy of the target, causing the plasma jet to splash off of the tank, instead of putting a nasty hole in it.

This has nothing to do with reactive armor, it is just stand-off armor. Notice how the Israelis carry all of their duffel bags on the outside of their tanks - same effect.

[Leisler]

The incoming round itself sets off the reactive armor. I don't know if a high kenitic penetrating rod would. Lot of energy, heat and pressure. Ya, maybe.