Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!bcm!convex!linac!att!cbnews!cbnews!military From: graper@BRL.MIL (MTSD/FIO) Newsgroups: sci.military Subject: non-penetrating hits on tanks Message-ID: <1991Feb15.073418.12551@cbnews.att.com> Date: 15 Feb 91 07:34:18 GMT Sender: military@cbnews.att.com (William B. Thacker) Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories Lines: 21 Approved: military@att.att.com From: Graper Brad P (MTSD/FIO) Nonpenetrating hits can affect the target in several ways... in some cases, with a kinetic energy penetrator you just bounce off and little or no significant damage is done. In other cases the mass of the penetrator is enough that if it hits at the right angle there is a certain amount of ballistic shock imparted to the target. Ballistic shock can damage electro-optical systems. The same applies to HE projectiles. A big enough HE round will impart some ballistic shock to the target, even if it doesn't do anything else. What the ballistic shock does to the target depends on the target. Some armored vehicles can take the shock better than others. There's a number of things which can vary a vehicle's ability to take shock damage: weight, armor thickness and materials, ruggedness of the various subsystems on board just to name a few. You can probably find some Israeli accounts of shock damage to vehicles from their numerous tank-on-tank encounters. How well our stuff stands up compared to others, we'll see soon. brad graper