November 28, 2008 | 8:10:00 AM
Categories: Ammo And Munitions, Armor
Courtesy Of Wired Blog Network
The RPG, or rocket-propelled grenade, has long been popular among insurgents, giving them a cheap anti-armor weapon that requires little training. The latest version is the RPG-30. And it allegedly can take out today's toughest tanks. Recently shown on Russian television, the RPG-30 has already been described as an "Abrams Killer."
The RPG-30 is a new twist on counter-counter-measures. Back in the 1980's, a new type of armor was introduced to defeat shaped-charge warheads. Reactive armor consists of explosive tiles; when struck by a projectile, they detonate -- disrupting the armor-piercing jet produced by a shaped charge. The response to this was the tandem warhead, with a precursor charge that sets off the reactive armor tile followed by a main charge that does the damage.
Armor designers are now moving a step ahead to from reactive armor to active defenses, with systems like the Russian Arena, the much-hyped Israeli Trophy, and the forthcoming U.S. FCLAS. These detect an incoming round and launch a projectile to meet it, destroying or disrupting the threat by impact or blast. (Dense inert metal explosives, which spray out micro-shrapnel, are particularly suitable for this; they have a very limited radius of destruction and will not harm friendly troops nearby.)
The RPG-30 has 105mm tandem warhead reckoned to be capable of penetrating over 650mm of steel armor behind reactive armor. But its special feature is a second tube, firing a smaller-caliber decoy rocket a fraction of a second ahead of the real one. The idea is that active protection systems will engage the decoy, but will not be able to engage a second threat immediately afterwards.
TASS quotes an un-named expert (in Russian -- I used Babelfish to translate) as saying that existing active protection systems can only engage a second target after a minimum of 0.2 seconds.
Russia
The RPG-30 is made by Bazalt, who havenot updated their website with details of the new rocket yet; then again, their News section only goes up to 2007. Whatever else it is, the RPG-30 does not look like it is designed to be an Abrams killer. The Abrams does not rely on either reactive armor or an active protection system. It just has an advanced version of traditional tank armor which incorporates sheets of high-density depleted uranium among other components.
In any case, there have already been cases of both U.S. Abrams and British Challenger II tanks being penetrated by the RPG-29, which also has a caliber of 105mm. It is not possible to armor a vehicle with more than 600mm of armor from every possible angle, and every tank will have some weak spots. However, the small warhead of an RPG only punches a small hole and does relatively little damage beyond that; many vehicles have had multiple penetrating RPG hits and suffered only minor crew injuries.
What is interesting is that the Russians have pushed so far ahead with a weapon to tackle a threat which doesn't even exist yet. One of the big selling points of the new multi-billion-dollar Future Combat Systemfamily of vehicles is that active technology will give 30-ton vehicles the same level of protection as 60-ton heavy armor like the Abrams. But if active protection can really be faked out by the RPG-30 and its successors, then the designers might have to do some re-thinking. Given the amount of pressure already being brought to bear on the FCS in these cash-strapped times, this might be significant.
Abrams killer, no; FCS killer, well….
(Big up: Steve at the firearm blog; pictures - ITAR-TASS)
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