Range of Panzerfaust

[:USERNAME:]

Originally posted by Paul Lakowski:

A similar problem was encountered with HEAT rounds fired from the 75L24 , the answer may be very simple.

HEAT rounds in order to penetrate properly have to hit the target straight on and who knows how many fail to detonate due to a realistic impact....do you know that the ricochet chance of a RPG type warhead is 50% @ 30-40° impact angle?If nothing else these HEAT jets are probably cutting a swath across the armor unless they hit dead on with out YAW.

I would agree about the HEAT fired from rifled weapons. Since the front part of the shell is hollow, it would have a tendency to fall into procession and nutation. This would of course make it inaccurate but it would also have the efffect you are describing where its jet is not in line with its translational motion.

These HC shells werent very good beyond 500 meters or so. They therefore gave up one of the advantages of heat warheads, That is, heat is range independant.

The ricochet chance you describe with the rpg is because the piezo electric fuze does not hit first but the body of the shell does.

[Paul Lakowski]

Originally posted by :USERNAME::

I would agree about the HEAT fired from rifled weapons. Since the front part of the shell is hollow, it would have a tendency to fall into procession and nutation. This would of course make it inaccurate but it would also have the efffect you are describing where its jet is not in line with its translational motion.

These HC shells werent very good beyond 500 meters or so. They therefore gave up one of the advantages of heat warheads, That is, heat is range independant.

The ricochet chance you describe with the rpg is because the piezo electric fuze does not hit first but the body of the shell does.

Yes I agree , but its more than this. Its a physical fact that the penetration time of a shaped charge is any where from 250-400 microseconds while the 'ricochet' even takes only 50 micro seconds. Assuming these warheads detonate on impact they will undergo the ricochet while the shaped charge liner is still driving through the armor.If the detonation is delayed in any way it risks detonating after the shell has ricochet.

Its also a fact that all projectiles including HEAT ricochet ricochet its just a question of if this is before or after jet detonation .Slow shells ,100-300m/s velocity light short projectiles, will ricochet at very low angles. With modern projectiles theres a good chance that with a very long probe/tip the jet is detonated early enough that the jetting event is over before the main body of the missile/rocket strikes.Its a question of how much time ?

[This message has been edited by Paul Lakowski (edited 03-22-2001).]