Doug Beman Posted July 10, 1999 Share Posted July 10, 1999 Rhet said, "As a result the concentrated force of the jet is broken up and forced to take irregular pathways and/or split into numerous weaker jets. This splitting of the jet is the real key. The law of conservation of energy dictates that the energy of the original jet is equal to the combined total of the smaller jets minus the energy expended to the displace the armor. Basically this means that you now have more jets but they lack the indivdual concentrated force of the original jet (loose any one yet? ). As a result, these weaker jets do not penitrate as far as the original jet." So the sum of the parts is less than the whole. Is that right? DjB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fionn Posted July 10, 1999 Share Posted July 10, 1999 Doug, its more like there will be 5 20mm penetrations instead of one 100mm penetration. Despite what TOAW says 5 x 20mm penetrations are NOT as big a deal as one 100mm penetration (especially if your armour is only 80mm thick) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rhet Posted July 20, 1999 Share Posted July 20, 1999 Sorry for the delay in getting back to this topic plus being absent from this board for a while. The reason is long and involves extended travel, presentations and even fractured phalanges. But enough about me... Reactive Armor... The military acronym for this armor is ERA which stands for Explosive Reactive Armor. It is comprised of many brick shaped blocks that cover the tanks armored hull and turret. Each of these blocks is a explosive sandwich. There is a steel plate fitted to both the front side and back side of the explosive brick. When the HEAT shell hits one of these blocks the explosive detonates instantly. This blows the outer plate outwards into the pressure jet. The jet pushes its way through the first plate and it is then presented with a free atmosphere to allow some bleed off of the pressure jet. The plate on the back side of the sandwich rebounds off the tanks armor and meets the oncomming pressure jet. The jet penetrates this second plate and again meets another free atmosphere before it gets to the tanks armor. After the HEAT round has gone through this ERA system it is highly disrupted and does not retain enough energy to penetrate the tanks main armor. ERA works better when it is applied to well sloped surfaces. The slope angle of the explosion helps to throw off and disrupt the pressure jet to a greater degree. My friend said that ERA armor sloped at 60 degrees dissapates about 70% of the jet while the same ERA armor sloped at zero degrees dissipates only about 20%. BTW, I recently found out that the Russian tanks that were examined after the Gulf War did not have the Ceramic layer of their composite armor installed. In its place the Army inspectors found WOOD! It appears that the old bait and switch tactic was used here. ------------------ Rhet Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CRourke Posted July 20, 1999 Share Posted July 20, 1999 Wood?? Thats amazing. Imaging having to worry about your tank getting termites. Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rick Posted July 20, 1999 Share Posted July 20, 1999 Sounds like Iraq was in a real bad situation there. I've also heard that reactive armor can be murder on any nearby infantry. What's your take on this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rhet Posted July 20, 1999 Share Posted July 20, 1999 Rick, I have not heard anything about ERA taking out any near by infantry. The steel plates remain intact following their explosive departure from the tank. If they were to fragment, they would not be very useful in dissapating the energy of the HEAT round. So I would not think that shrapnel would be a problem. Still your question makes good sense though, I know that I would not want to be anywhere near by when one of those ERA blocks pops off. ------------------ Rhet Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fionn Posted July 20, 1999 Share Posted July 20, 1999 I think you are referring to the anti-personnel effect of blazer reactive armour. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rick Posted July 20, 1999 Share Posted July 20, 1999 Fionn, So what is this blazer reactive armor? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harold Jones Posted July 21, 1999 Share Posted July 21, 1999 Blazer is the name given to the reactive armor developed by Israel. ------------------ If something cannot be fixed by hitting it or by swearing at it, it wasn't worth saving anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bfamily33 Posted January 8, 2001 Share Posted January 8, 2001 I thought I'd resurrect this old post to raise a question. I've seen numerous photos of Shermans, and even some Stuarts, with sandbags. Does anyone know whether Chaffee's employed sangbags? I've modded this and I'm wondering if it is totally unhistorical: http://albums.photopoint.com/j/View?u=1437394&a=10778010&p=37350787 Note the effect of the sangbags is too flat for my liking but I needed a change from the original dark paint job. At least until Bergman and Moleck mod us a real nice one. I was also wondering why the Chaffee doesn't have the .50 cal on it. Seems every picture I've come across shows it. Lastly, does anyone know what year the "short" skirt was added? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tontoman Posted January 8, 2001 Share Posted January 8, 2001 Some talk of spaced armour came up. As far as I know it was used against HESH rounds (high explosive squash head) which were designed to hit, flatten out on impact and explode sending a large shockwave through the hull to flake off metal on the inside of the tank thus causing damage and death but never actually penetrated. A space built into the armour would mostly stop this shockwave. T. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tontoman Posted January 8, 2001 Share Posted January 8, 2001 There was a mention of spaced armour. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tontoman Posted January 8, 2001 Share Posted January 8, 2001 There was a mention of spaced armour. As far as I know it was used against HESH (High Explosive Squash Head) rounds. These guys would flatten out on impact and then explode sending a large shockwave through the armour to flake off metal on the inside of the tank causing damage and death but never actually penetrating the armour. The space in the armour would disrupt the shockwave. T. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grobdeutschland Posted January 8, 2001 Share Posted January 8, 2001 Great Info, thanks. I would add some of my own highly respected advice but I HAVE TO GET SOME SLEEP!!!! Almost 4am & CM is on my mind! Damn it, were are those sheep when you need them. I'm gonna be a dead man walking the mail tomorrow. ------------------ "Far better it is To dare mighty things... Then to take rank with Those poor, timid spirits Who know neither Victory nor defeat." Theodore Roosevelt 1899 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grobdeutschland Posted January 8, 2001 Share Posted January 8, 2001 Great Info, thanks. I would add some of my own highly respected advice but I HAVE TO GET SOME SLEEP!!!! Almost 4am & CM is on my mind! Damn it, were are those sheep when you need them. I'm gonna be a dead man walking the mail tomorrow. ------------------ "Far better it is To dare mighty things... Then to take rank with Those poor, timid spirits Who know neither Victory nor defeat." Theodore Roosevelt 1899 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grobdeutschland Posted January 8, 2001 Share Posted January 8, 2001 Great Info, thanks. I would add some of my own highly respected advice but I HAVE TO GET SOME SLEEP!!!! Almost 4am & CM is on my mind! Damn it, were are those sheep when you need them. I'm gonna be a dead man walking the mail tomorrow. ------------------ "Far better it is To dare mighty things... Then to take rank with Those poor, timid spirits Who know neither Victory nor defeat." Theodore Roosevelt 1899 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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