neil@progress.COM (Neil Galarneau) (02/12/91)
From: neil@progress.COM (Neil Galarneau) >From: cbl@uihepa.hep.uiuc.edu (Chris Luchini) >Also, how thick is the front armor on an m1? Someone told me 2 meters, that >seems a little high. >-c The _Desert Shield Fact Book_ from GDW has this information (and a lot more - a nice publication by the way). Armor thickness is given in terms of equivalence to hard steel. Sloping of the armor and other things make it more effective than its actual thickness. The Chobham armor is apparently very effective against HEAT rounds. Tank Equivalent vs. HEAT ---- ---------- -------- M1 350 mm 750 mm (~2400 produced) M1A1 and 400 mm 1000 mm (~2400 produced) IPM1 M1 with 600 mm 1300 mm (~2700 produced) DU T-72M 400 mm 400 mm (< 10% of Iraqi tanks) T-62 and 200 mm 200 mm (Iraq has about 5000) T-55 Weapon Can penetrate ------ ------------- M1 APFSDS 650 mm T72 HEAT 500 mm AT-4 500 mm (HEAT) Spigot TOW-II 900 mm (HEAT) Hellfire 1050 mm (HEAT?) The IPM1 (Improved Performance M1) thickened the turret front armor. The M1 with Depleted Uranium added a mesh of depleted Uranium to the Chobham armor (also raising the weight of the tank from 55 to almost 65 tons).