Chapter 924: Ineffective Attack (Updated)
Back then on the battlefield of the island country, the American-made M1 tank used a 105mm tank gun. Even if it fired the latest armor-piercing shells, it was unable to destroy the Soviet T-72 tank. Therefore, the United States knew at the time that the 105mm tank gun could no longer stop the Soviet armored torrent.
If they want to continue to gain an advantage, they can only continue to think of ways to improve the caliber of the tank gun! At the same time, because Germany's Leopard 2 tanks have begun to use 120mm tank guns, the United States introduced Rheinmetall's 120mm tank guns and replaced them on the M1 tank.
However, in the early morning battle, the Challenger's 120mm tank gun did not pose a threat to the T-72 tank at all, which put a lot of psychological pressure on the American tank soldiers. Although the British rifled guns were a bit outdated, their armor-piercing shells had good armor-piercing performance. Since their guns could not penetrate Soviet tanks, their own guns might not be effective either.
Fortunately, in addition to the 120mm tank gun, they have other ways to deal with tanks. For example, there are more than a dozen four-wheeled anti-tank missile launchers in the Hadet military camp, as well as more than 20 individual anti-tank missile equipment.
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In this way, they also have the ability to attack Soviet tanks from a long distance!
TOW anti-tank missile!
This is a second-generation heavy anti-tank missile weapon system developed by Hughes Aircraft Company in the United States in 1962. It is a tube-launched, optically aimed, infrared automatically tracked, and wire-guided missile. It was mass-produced and equipped to the troops in 1970. At the same time, this missile was used in large quantities in the Vietnam War and the Fourth Middle East War, and achieved good results.
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Now, this missile has also been improved and named TOW 1 missile. The launch tube has been shortened to 1067 mm, which is conducive to overcoming the difficulty of operating the launch device under strong crosswind conditions. At the same time, the range has been increased from 3000 meters to 3750 meters. The armor-piercing capability has also been further improved, reaching the level of 800 mm static armor-piercing capability.
This is also the biggest hope of the US military. If these missiles can destroy even 20 T-72 tanks, the tank troops on the other side will suffer a great blow! As long as they pause and stop attacking, they can effectively delay time!
Missiles, trailing tongues of fire, flew out of the launch tube one after another. At the same time, the operator's eyes were fixed on the sight, keeping the crosshairs pressed on his target at all times.
Wires are continuously released from the tail of the missile, and guidance information continuously enters the missile through these wires.
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"No, they launched missiles, damn it!" The West German Bundeswehr soldiers who were running along with the tanks suddenly widened their eyes. They were originally behind the tanks, and they immediately fell to the ground subconsciously.
They were familiar with this weapon, and after improvements, the armor-piercing capability of this weapon reached 800 mm! Even their own Leopard 2 tanks could not withstand the shooting of this anti-tank missile!
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Soon, the tank will be hit and explode. If you are too close to it, you will be affected!
Compared with the armor-piercing shells fired by tank guns, which travel at speeds of 800 to 900 meters per second, the speed of the missile is very slow, only about 300 meters per second. It takes seven or eight seconds to fly the distance of two kilometers.
The West German Bundeswehr soldiers lying on the ground could see the missiles going up and down. In fact, they were constantly adjusting their flight trajectories. Then, a TOW missile accurately hit a tank in front!
The next moment, the tank might explode. Thinking of the turret flying high in the air, the soldiers on the side felt terrified. They hoped that the tank drivers could move quickly and not suffer any pain!
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The TOW anti-tank missile flew up like this! Its front warhead just hit the turret of the T-72 tank!
Unfortunately, the first thing it encountered was explosive reactive armor!
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When the impact was felt, the piezoelectric fuse of the TOW anti-tank missile's warhead was triggered, detonating the 3.6 kg of shaped charge at the rear. The conical cavity at the front end of the warhead, tightly attached to a metal charge cap, focused the energy generated by the explosion on the target, and at the same time made the melted charge cap form a metal jet that shot forward, rushing towards the target armor in front!
Unlike thin-rod armor-piercing projectiles, missiles do not use head-on tactics because of their low speed, but use metal jets to burn through! This is the hollow charge shaped charge warhead! The charge is made into a hollow cylindrical charge with a conical hole, and a metal cover is added to the surface of the conical hole charge. In this way, the melted metal cover will gather into a metal energy jet with high speed, temperature and pressure during the explosion, that is, the "shaped charge effect", which destroys the armor!
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At the same time, after entering the armor, this metal heat flow will continue to decay. If it penetrates the armor before decaying completely, it is called a successful penetration. If the energy of the metal heat flow decays to zero and does not penetrate the armor, it is a failure.
But now, this metal jet encountered a third situation!
Because, at the same time it exploded, the opposite side also exploded!
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The reactive armor was hit hard and detonated at the same time! The wedge-shaped steel plates caused the explosives to produce an asymmetric detonation, which caused the steel plates to move rapidly and produce a shear effect.
Originally, it was planning to wear down the armor-piercing rod that was attacking it, but now, it felt something different, a jet of metal was coming towards it!
Whatever it is, consume it!
As a result, the metal jet that rushed up was also consumed by the steel plates moving against each other! Moreover, more importantly, because of the effect of the steel plates, this metal jet deviated from its direction!
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As a result, this metal jet that could have penetrated the 800mm thick homogeneous armor at rest, after being consumed by the reactive armor, had no strength to attack the main armor! It was even less effective than an armor-piercing projectile!
This is determined by the basic principle. The armor-piercing power of the shaped charge warhead depends on the metal jets that are gathered into a beam. But now, the jets are blocked, consumed, and diffused by the reactive armor, thus losing their ability to attack!
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Reactive armor is more effective against shaped charge warheads! This is also the case in later generations. In order to counter reactive armor, two-stage tandem hollow charges were used, that is, two hollow charge warheads were connected in series. The smaller charge in front was detonated first to blow up the reactive armor, and then the main charge was detonated to penetrate the main armor! The axes of the two charges must be strictly in a straight line to achieve a better armor-piercing effect.
However, this is the TOW 2A missile. Historically, it was not put into service until 1987. Currently, the best anti-tank missile in the United States is still the TOW 1 in their hands!
This type of missile is ineffective against the T-72 equipped with reactive armor!