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| Iraq |
| Mystery Projectile |
| 2003-11-03 |
| 7 Pics at the site The U.S. Army is not saying much about the "mystery projectile" that went through the side skirts and side armor of an M-1A1 tank last August 28th. Whatever it was just barely missed the tanks gunner (it went through the back of his seat and grazed part of his flak jacket) and put a pencil size hole nearly 50mm deep into the four inch thick armor on the other side of the tank. The damage may have been done by a projectile, not a shaped charge (which uses a jet of super-hot plasma to burn a hole in armor and put a quantity of plasma and molten metal inside the tank.) No known RPG would do that kind of damage. But some Western anti-tank rockets generate a different kind of plasma jet that might create the kind of damage done. A U.S. 25mm armor piercing shell (fired from the gun mounted on the M-2 Bradley armored vehicle) uses a small penetrator, but that penetrator is of depleted uranium, which burns like a flare once it is inside its target. One major unknown is the large number of portable anti-tank weapons (especially Russian and Chinese models) that have not been tested against the M-1 tank. It’s not unusual for new weapons to have unpredictable effects once they are first used in combat. Until the army releases more information, if they have any, the mystery lingers. |
| Posted by:Yosemite Sam |
| #6 Why do I get the feeling the cold war isn't over? |
| Posted by: Anonymous 2003-11-3 11:37:13 PM |
| #5 Maybe the Russians have developed their own 'silver bullet.' I had heard that back in the late 1980s the Russians were working on a 135mm smoothbore weapon, kind of a next generation tank gun, but it never got on any vehicle. Of course it is possible the ATG was a towed version of the 135mm gun. |
| Posted by: badanov 2003-11-3 8:06:20 PM |
| #4 I think the mystery of the projectile is why there are insurgents, Bathist's or AQ's running around with the latest Russian technology. |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2003-11-3 5:23:01 PM |
| #3 Yank, I read the full article a few days ago. It didn't bounce - went thru one side and partway thru the opposite side. |
| Posted by: Mercutio 2003-11-3 5:21:54 PM |
| #2 Maybe they're referring to the Russian-made Kornet missile. They essentially mobility killed a couple or our M-1s. Never heard of that happening before. Again, I think this was the Kornet. |
| Posted by: Jarhead 2003-11-3 4:56:42 PM |
| #1 Seems to me, that if a new missile bounced off a tank without doing any damage you would want to publish an article like this so the bad guys continue using the lame missiles. If a missile actually punctured the armor of the tank you would probabably be less vocal about letting the enemy know they have an effective weapon. |
| Posted by: Yank 2003-11-3 4:31:01 PM |