military@cbnews.ATT.COM (William B. Thacker) (07/12/89)
From: brspyr1.brs.com!miket (Mike Trout) In sci.military Digest Monday, 10 July, 1989 Volume 2 : Issue 41 "Nicholas C. Hester" <IA80024%MAINE.BITNET%CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU> writes: > > DU is extremely hard, and denser than tungsten (or lead); these two > > properties make it an excellent choice for kinetic energy armor > > penetrators. [ ... ] An added bonus of DU is that it is somewhat > > pyrophoric; that is, it is easy to ignite (say, by slamming it into a > > metal plate at a few thousand feet per second 8-); this gives it an added > > incendiary >effect, which may or may not be useful against tanks. - Bill ] > This is interesting in that the Army is going to add DU to the armor of the > M1. Will this help protect the tank, or possibly create a greater incendiary > situation? In one installment of "For Your Eyes Only" in the old _Strategy_&_Tactics_, I recall a brief discussion on depleted uranium rounds. One interesting point raised (that I have not heard mentioned since) was _S&T's_ contention that upon encountering massive G forces (such as would occur upon striking armor at high speed), a DU round will emit an intensely lethal but extremely brief burst of radiation. They claimed this could very well be fatal to armor crews, even if the round did no other damage. Does this sound logical? I have the issue and can dig it out with some effort, if anybody wants the specifics. -- NSA food: Iran sells Nicaraguan drugs to White House through CIA, SOD & NRO. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Michael Trout (miket@brspyr1)~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ BRS Information Technologies, 1200 Rt. 7, Latham, N.Y. 12110 (518) 783-1161 "God forbid we should ever be 20 years without...a rebellion." Thomas Jefferson
MJackson.Wbst@Xerox.COM (07/13/89)
From: MJackson.Wbst@Xerox.COM > In one installment of "For Your Eyes Only" in the old _Strategy_&_Tactics_, > I recall a brief discussion on depleted uranium rounds. One interesting > point raised (that I have not heard mentioned since) was _S&T's_ contention > that upon encountering massive G forces (such as would occur upon striking > armor at high speed), a DU round will emit an intensely lethal but > extremely brief burst of radiation. Almost certainly bogus. These are *nuclear* reactions you're talking about, "massive" G forces wouldn't do squat. Why, you might as well try inducing fusion by electrolysis! :-) Mark "To be prepared against surprise is to be /trained/. To be prepared for surprise is to be /educated/." - James Carse
dcn@cbnewsd.ATT.COM (david.c.newkirk) (07/13/89)
From: dcn@cbnewsd.ATT.COM (david.c.newkirk) Assuming the DU round is pure U238, it would occasionally fission spontaneously and in the presence of fast neutrons. A small DU bullet hitting a tank would not do anything special. If there was some U235 left in the bullet, then there is a possibility that a small amount of U235 could be compressed to a near critical density, generating a burst of slow neutrons that could penetrate the tank armor and injure the crew. But without a source of neutrons to start the fission process in U235, even this method is unlikely to do anything. It would depend on a natural source of neutrons (a U238 atom happening to fission at the correct instant, or a stray cosmic ray hitting something and generating a neutron), which would make the weapon unreliable.