Thursday, January 21, 2016

"Why Iraqi and Syrian Tanks Are Wearing This Weird MacGyvered Armor."

The plethora of anti-tank weapons force people to dream up all kinds of odd tank mods​.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Obama releases al Qaeda’s most skilled explosives expert

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/jan/21/obama-releases-al-qaedas-most-skilled-explosives-e/

Chiu ChunLing said...

For defeating a shaped charge (as opposed to a kinetic weapon), it's roughly an inverse-squared function counting from the middle of your armor plate thickness. So getting a charge to explode even a few more inches away can substantially increase the odds of your primary armor holding even absent any other energy-absorption by the ablative layer...and the energy absorption of a layer of packed dirt or sand is non-trivial.

Of course such ad-hoc ablative armor can't really compare even with properly designed and fitted ablative armor kits, let along the latest active armor systems which can detonate incoming shaped charges several feet away and even deflect kinetic rounds. But sandbags, rope, and old tires are non-trivially less expensive for third world militaries.

Anonymous said...

Why? That's easy. For the same reason that the ACH is rated for certain pistol calibers and fragments. Something is better than nothing.

See also: the head gear from the Arab Spring. No, seriously, it is a true testement to "inshallah".

Anonymous said...

Looks more like redneck armor;-)

Pericles said...

The other issue here is the lack of proper training and tactics using combined arms. Infantry and armor working together properly, keep enemy infantry at distance to prevent close in shots on the armor vehicles.

Merle Morrison said...

Reminds me of the "bar armour" from Viet Nam days.

Merle