M1A2 is a bad example in this matter...
Actually I'm just throwing my own ideas around, I don't have basis for what I just said. So maybe the green vehicle part will take damage (I was hoping it wouldn't)
M1A2 is a bad example in this matter...
I thought when rounds hit a surface that is very very flat, like the Merkava, it would just rub against the surface until it completely passing it. Especially that majority of the RPGs I have seen being fired were fired when the gunner is half kneeling on the ground, this makes the round almost parallel to the armour.
The best example would be that famous movie, U-571. There was a scene when a torpedo hit their submarine, it did not explode, but rather kept sliding against the surface.
It depends on how the rounds are designed. Projectiles are less likely to slide if they are fast and rigid enough. Also the APFSD are usually thin but long. This reduces it's tendency to twist sideways when hitting a surface.
The advantage of a sloped armour is that from head on, it looks thicker than straight plate.
Yes and it also reduces weight compared to having a whole straight block of armour.
I wonder if they can say fill the gap in the type 99 with resin or some high viscosity but relatively low weight/density material, maybe it will stop kinetic rounds better?
It depends on how the rounds are designed. Projectiles are less likely to slide if they are fast and rigid enough. Also the APFSD are usually thin but long. This reduces it's tendency to twist sideways when hitting a surface.
The advantage of a sloped armour is that from head on, it looks thicker than straight plate:
M1A2 is a bad example in this matter, because it dose not have that "slopped, rigid, hollowed" accessory ceramic plate, outside its main armour. LeoIIA6, Merkava IV, all good example. The 锲形装甲 what we are talking about. Type 99 learn from them.
The main purpose for those goodlooking 锲形装甲, as the design of LeoIIA6, Merkava IV alike... is to absorb certain impact energy from APFSDS round, leave the main armour to deal the rest; or, disorientate a huge amount of energy from HEAT round, leave the main armour to deal the rest. The point is THE MAIN ARMOUR ALWAYS NEED TO DEAL WITH "THE REST" OF WARHEAD ENERGY.
I believe M1A2s have been penetrated in both Afghanistan and Iraq early on in their invasions. Both were done by unknown weapons, but definitely not heavy weapons. Only portable weapons were possible at that stage of war.
I thought this before, and proposed simply - sand, to be filled in, and being politly laughed about the idea by some respectble person I know from Chinese fourm.
Simply put, whatever filling inside, have too little consequences to the warhead itself. "A thick barrier of XXX" kind of sandbag filling to better protect agains warhead - that time has long gone. Modern anti-tank round's RHA is too potent to be affected by mere stuffing like that.
"Armour design, complex armour design of modern day, is a hard, cold, science." I was told.
And, pugachev_diver, I have nothing against you personnaly. I just have the urge of telling, that 跳弹 (shoot from another tank gun), has long gone in modern potent anti-tank science - like I was told by others.
I have no idea what and how RPG (esp. OUTDATED RPG used by insurgents) will react toward modern tank front armour, whether it will "slid" or "slip". But as long as the warhead is shooting from a decent tank gun, 锲形装甲 is not able to "deflect" the round alone.
I empahsis on OUTDATED RPG, is because check out the modern russian army's grenadier, their RPG have 700mm+ RHA!
Wrong. Sloped armor will usually have about the same "protection" as it's vertical, thickness equivalent. This is because even though it looks "thicker" it can't offer more protection without actually having more armor than the vertical one.
You are correct. The Type 99 (along with pretty much all "modernized" Russian derived tanks) don't have sufficient "Standard" armor to be protected from modern weapons. They must then, use add-on armors, such as ERA, or in the Type 99's case, Ceramic plates. Western Tanks put our Ceramic plates inside our tanks, in the overall armor array, so that all the materials we have layered together works in tandem to defeat whatever is trying to penetrate the tank, while, the Type 99, only has a comparably small armor array, which they fill with high Mass-efficiency materials, but the small array, even though the materials used are very good pound for pound, is not enough in itself, to stop modern weapons.
... The Leopard 2A6 for example, has a huge turret, 800 mm thick on it's smallest point and over 2m thick in it's largest. There is no AT HEAT round in existence that can penetrate the Leopard 2A6's front turret.
No comments, physics 101.
Too bad your good ally of Germany and Israel has been excluded from your list of "western country".
LeopardIIA4 and earlier version, have fatal inefficiency of its frontal armor, and like Windows Vista's "patch", those good looking slopped ceramic armor, has been "patched" like accessory in later versions. It is "Standard Issue" now, but it is still standard issued accessory. My compliment to M1A2 regarding its "one piece armor array", but if you want to "name calling" a country, mind you include your own beloved ally as well. Israel included.
My compliment to LeopardII A6's engineering achievement, but if a professional people telling me a modern MBT got 2m thick of armour (I take it you are NOT saying "there is hollow within", with proud)... I simply have no further comment.
From wikipedia:
"The mere fact that the LOS-thickness increases by angling the plate is not however the motive for applying sloped armour in armoured vehicle design. The reason for this is that this increase offers no weight benefit. To maintain a given mass of a vehicle, the area density would have to remain equal and this implies that the LOS-thickness would also have to remain constant while the slope increases, which again implies that the normal thickness decreases. In other words: to avoid increasing the weight of the vehicle, plates have to get proportionally thinner while their slope increases, a process equivalent to shearing the mass."