SABOT can't penetrate an M1?

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by Kazuaki Shimazaki II

Honestly, I thought TC created this story. Anyway, we are actually currently in a generation of tanks that are quite invulnerable to sabot and HEAT, at least from the front. Look up the latest circulating estimates for armor and AP performance of sabot rounds. We're back to the days when if you want to penetrate you need to get some kind of weak spot.

Tank Protection Levels

If it is the story I think it is, then it is from "Into the Storm", which was written by Clancy together with Gen. Franks. The incident is real, then, but is being told in many different versions around the net now. the book is a very substantial, impressive look at the war of 91 from a commander's viewpoint, and what was on mind of subordinate commanders during the ahead-the-timetable advance of Frank's corps. Franks wrote some hundred pages, basing on his own experiences and thoughts he had back then. The parts by Clancy are - well, ehem, Clancy-like. Compared to Franks he does not so much know what he is writing about. highly recommended for the non-clancy parts of the book.

Penetration ability cannot be simply judged for SBAOT per se. The different kinds of SABOT ammunitions developed over the years by the major developers US, Germany and Russia vary considerably in their destructive potential. Like the Leo2, the M1 is said to have formidable damage reducation capabilities and survivability, and the M1s of the year 91 had slighty better armour than the Leo2A4s, which may have changed now with the new A5, and A6EX. It is imaginable that at close range a SABOT round will simply pass through a tank like the M1, and eventually simply do that and nothing else, but I wouldn't bet money on that, and wouldn'T expect to see that often. However, the part that says that shots got deflected I believe to be untrue - not at that close distance. at point blank range I expect every SABOT round to penetrate chobham armour, no matter how shallow the impact angle is. If it will get stuck before reaching the interior, or hit a part where it doesn'T do damage - that is the question. Usually it is not solid object (left of the penetration rod) anyway that reaches the tank'S interior, but just kind of burning gas that expands explosively.

German and American gunners are trained to keep the crosshairs on the centre of mass. In the stress of battle, nobody wants to lose a shot by fiddling around with the aiming control too long, and the targets, at the preferred shooting range, are simply not big enough in the optics to make precise aiming for certain parts of a moving vehicle that fires back a reasonable practice. However, aiming for vulnerable parts of a tank is being done at closer ranges. Tanks crews in Holland and Denmark carry diagrams that mark the motor compartments and vulnerable spots from front and side view, for every hostile tank model. I assume Americans and Germans and others have the same kind of diagrams available.

It is fair to say that most modern tanks like M1A3 and Leo2A6 have close to non-penetratable frontal turret armour concerning any kind of missile, SABOT or HEAT. However, expect accumulating damage when being hit repeatedly, and estruction if getting hit oine time too often, or receiving that lucky hit (from the other guy's perspective). there is two reasons why NATO tanks train to fight within a ceratin frame of ranges. At longer ranges their guns can'T rwach the enemy, while Russian special ammunitions can engage (and kill!) tanks at ranges of up to 5500m. Below that range, even inferior Russian SABOT (inferior is relative here) can become lethal for tanks, for they will arrive with too much kinetic energy on their target. But somewhere in the middle, when Russian tanks don't use that special ammo anymore (it is in principle guided mini-missiles fired from the gun and travelling slowly), but switch back to their own (lighter) SABOTs (that travel at higher speeds than Western SABOT), the advantage of Western armour, more precise aiming systems, and better punch from the ammo, meet the russian system when it is the weakest: when they are still not close enough to be as precise as wetsern tanks, and their SABOT still has not that punch than their Westn counterparts already have. Maximum lethality, minimum vulnerability.

Invulnerability is relative and depends a lot on what one is doing with a tank, and how it is manouvering. Always keep in mind that latest generations of small "toys" like the RPG-7 can KILL any tank if handled and aimed accordingly and not shooting at the front turret. They can kill from the rear, and eventually from the side as well.