| From: | Gurth gurth@******.nl |
|---|---|
| Subject: | exchange rates, and APDS...pronounced APP-ee-das ? : ) |
| Date: | Tue, 23 Feb 1999 11:44:09 +0100 |
the street was...
> In an APDS bullet, you have a hard, dense core (the 'armour piercing'
> portion), surrounded by a jacket that will come off when fired (the
> 'discarding sabot' portion). On being fired, the sabot will strip away from
> the dense core. This causes the bullet to become more stable or something,
> or possibly reduces the friction... I'm not exactly up on ammo design.
The way this works is that the round as a whole (including the sabots) is
usually lighter than a normal round would be, but it has the same amount
of propellant behind it. The net result is a higher velocity, and thus
more kinetic energy in the bullet. The reason the sabots fall away after
firing is because the smaller cross-section of the bullet makes it have
higher armor-piercing capabilities -- the same energy over a smaller area
means more energy per square millimeter, thus it'll punch through more
armor.
Even if the core+sabots assembly weighs as much as a normal round for the
gun (thus it will have the same energy), the smaller diameter of the
penetrator will make it pierce armor better.
> Modern APDS rounds are used in tank ammo, and there the core is, in fact,
> depleted uranium. One of the qualities of depleted uranium is that when you
> slam a bullet made out of it into a tank, it will combust, transferring a
> lot more energy into the tank than a lead bullet (which would bounce off in
> many cases). That's why tanks like it. However, it's bloody expensive, and
> DU wouldn't be so effective against a "soft" target like someone in a full
> suit of armour. So, no, APDS rounds for guns do not use DU. I think they use
> tungsten, but don't quote me.
Tungsten and uranium are the normal materials APFSDS is made of (BTW, APDS
isn't normally used in tank guns these days anymore), mainly because of
their very high specific gravity -- roughly 19, or about 1.5 times as
heavy as a piece of lead of the same dimensions. Again, this is because it
will give a higher kinetic energy and thus more armor will be pierced.
Tungsten is (and has been for many years) the material of choice for most
armies except in the US, who prefer(ed?) uranium. Although uranium will
burn when it hits iron at high velocity, it also has a big drawback in its
low-level radioactivity, which apparently gets worse once it has hit a
target. For example, in the Gulf War US troops were forbidden to search
wrecked Iraqi AFVs for souvenirs due to the radioactive conamination, and
current US Army vehicle manuals carry several warnings about the
radioactivity of certain types of ammunition.
--
Gurth@******.nl - http://www.xs4all.nl/~gurth/index.html
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