From:	"Like, dude, where's the firefight?" <MURRAYMD@******.BITNET>
Subject:	Guns, guns, guns! Life would be so boring without them!
Date:	Thu, 8 Apr 93 19:32:27 CET

>Sizes
> The smallest tanks (and I do mean tanks, in the sense of heavily
>armored vehicles designed to destroy each other, not souped-up battle-taxis
>like the M2 Bradley) have guns about 75mm in calibre; this is a medium sized
>gun. The big tanks (M1A1, Challenger, T-80) have 120mm guns. Soviets use
>125mm with autoloaders, while most NATO tanks still have human loaders (they're
>about the same speed and don't jam).

Actually the way things are these days the 75mm is on the very
small end for tanks. They are still used, but more on the light recon
tanks. The standard used to be the 105mm rifled tank gun for NATO (The
British designed L7 series, called the M68 in the USA) and the 125mm for
Soviet/Russian tanks since the T-64(?). The new apparent standard is the
120mm smoothbore (Normally the German designed/produced Rheinmetal but word
is the Isrealis have designed a damn good ones for themselves also.) for
NATO and allies. The British 120mm tank gun is a rifled design, being
rather odd because HEAT rounds lose effectiveness with high spin and the
sabot shells tend to be fin stabilized (but don't have to be, see below).
Future developement is geared towards a 140mm gun.

>Rounds
> The most basic type is the High Explosive. Real tanks typically don't
>use thes because they don't accomplish a real tank's primary mission: destroy
>another tank. The HE warheads will kill people and take out soft targets
>(bunkers, trucks, and lightly armored vehicles) but will usually just scorch
>the paint of a real tank.

I think you may be talking about the HESH round. High Explosive
Shaped Head tank rounds were designed to squash against the armor of the
tank before detonating. The intended effect was to produce a shock wave
through the armor and make some of the inside armor shatter off to bounce
around the inside of the tank. The armors developed for todays tanks
eliminate this a lot, especially Main Battle Tanks (MBT) of the various
armies. HESH rounds will still do a number on older tanks and APC of which
both are around in good numbers.

> High Explosive Anti-Tank (HEAT) is now a misnomer. This is the famous
>shaped-charge warhead that comes with a funnel to focus the blast at a
>concentrated point and burn a hole through the armor. I say it's a misnomer
>because most HEAT rounds will barely hurt a real tank. HEAT warheads on
>missiles, which are considerably more powerful, will hurt a tank, but the
>payload of a 105-125mm round just doesn't cut against modern armor.

Here I have to say: "How wrong you are sir!" Yes, HEAT rounds
really aren't that good against MBT, courtesy of Chobham armor more than
anything, but tank HEAT rounds will still tear 2-5 new rectums in an APC
or light tank which have armor compositions ranging from extra bolted on
graphite composite (Isreali M113) to aluminum (M2 Bradley) to good ol'
steel (Lots'a stuff).

> AP rounds come in a variety of forms. The most common now has a sabot
>(say-bow). The round itself is sub-calibre; it's smaller than the bore of the
>gun. The sabot (French for "show" is molded around it to give it the width
>needed (oops. It's French for "shoe". I'm in a hurry). Anyway, this results
>in a small object being propelled at very high force, resulting in greater
>penetration than a standard round.

Sabot rounds are truly sub-calibre rounds, but the sabot is not
"molded" around the penetrator. The sabot is in 3-5 parts and fitted around
the penetrator so that the sabot may fall off after leaving the muzzle.
The sabot allows the smaller penetrator to fit in the bore of the gun and
be fired without the propellent gases going around the round. The
penetrator is so good because it delivers high kinetic energy (high mass
due to high density and high velocity due to lots of propellent) to a small
area (the need for a sub-calibre high density round comes out here).

> AP rounds may also be fin-stabilized (FS), resulting in a more stable
>flight path. Not all are made of Depleted Uranium. So, to pierce armor you
>have APDS, APDSFS, and APDSFSDU. The military just loves acronyms.

AP rounds are normally spin stabilized if they are relatively
short. Once the round is 7+ calibres long the spin action is actually
destabilizing and the round wobbles. For rounds that are 7-12 calibres
long fins are used to stabilize it. Here is the difference between APDS
and APDSFS(-T). The DU just signifies that the round is Depleted Uranium
as opposed to Zinc-Carbide(?). The DU rounds are not used all that much to
my knowledge because of the difficulty and high costs associated with
processing DU.

> There are also FASCAM rounds for artillery (Field Artillery Scatterable
>something-or-other mines). These drop mines from an artillery round. Another
>cute option for artillery is Cannon Launched Guided Projectiles (CLGP). These
>are artillery rounds with tiny microprocessors and servo-mounted stabilizers
>hooked up to a sensor that reads a laser designator fired by someone else (a
>soldier, or a helicopter hiding behind trees). It homes in on the painted
>target. Very precise.

Field Artillery Scatterable fAmily of Mines is what FASCAM stands
for. These mines don't have to be dispersed by Field Artillery guns.
These mines are simply standardized and can be deployed by aircraft and a
towed trailer.
CLGP rounds, more commonly refered to as Copperhead rounds (I
think), are rarely used anymore, though still an intollerably cool idea.
The M551 light tank fired these missiles from it low recoil 155mm gun in
addition to the low recoil rounds it normally fired.

> But I digress from useful information. The above should give you
>enough ideas about how modern tank rounds work to figure out how to apply it
>to Shadowrun balistics. But then, I'm sure most of you were aware of the above
>information already. Enjoy.

Same here. I am though taking these types of round and lots more
and putting them into my Btech variant Slaughtertech. Due out soon on the
net!

>J Roberson


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* Matt: You shot him!!!! | Matt Murray at the University of Dayton *
* Chris: No I didn't. It | MURRAYMD@******.BITNET *
* was a gunfight. | MURRAYMD@******.OCA.UDAYTON.EDU *
* He forgot his gun.| "Like, dude, where's the firefight?" *
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