[sci.military] Reactive Armor and Missiles

muller@gn.ecn.purdue.edu (Mark B. Muller) (04/12/90)

From: muller@gn.ecn.purdue.edu (Mark B. Muller)
>
>From: Michael_Edelman%Wayne-MTS@um.cc.umich.edu
>With regard to an inquiry on the effectiveness of reactive armor against
>DU/KE projectiles, I have been informed that reactive armor is effective
>in disrupting such projectiles *unless* they strike armor surface-normal,
>i.e., exactly perpendicular to the surface. Reactive armor is mainly of
>use in disrupting the flame from a shaped-chage type of warhead. I have
>read that there are some new developments in HEAT projectiles involving
>two chages: One to expend the reactive armor charge and the second to actually
>burn through the armor. Perhaps the next step is a hybrid HEAT/KE round?
>The battle between armorers and projectile maker continues...
>
         The two charge concept has actually been implememted in the 
    Army's TOW-IIA missile, which has been in porduction for about a year
    now, if memory serves (it defenitely is in production now, at least
    according to the iventory issue of AvLeak).  It features a small
    charge in front of the main warhead, which serves to set off the reactive
    armor, leaving no reactive armor to stop the main warhead.  This feature
    is also planned for missiles currently being designed now.
	 Not one's to be left behind in the armor / anti-armor race, the
    Soviets have countered this by giving their T64 tanks TWO layers of
    reactive armor to insure that the missile is defeated.
	 In the US, the dual charge warhead is considered only part of the
    solution; the TOW-IIB is to fly over the target and impact on the
    top armor of the tank, where the armor is thinner and there is no 
    reactive armor. It is suppossed to start coming off the lines by the
    end of this year, according to AvLeak.  Several more years down the
    road is the hypervelocity missile, which will penetrate via kinectic
    energy, thus solving the problem of reactive armor alltogether.  Of
    course, the basic infantry man will not be able to carry these, so it 
    seems that the era of infantry being able to kill tanks at long range
    is over.


  *-------------------------------------------------------------------------*
  *  Mark Muller                  Undergraduate at Purdue University        *
  *  muller@gn.ecn.purdue.edu     Aeronautics & Astronautics Engineering    *
  *-------------------------------------------------------------------------*