From:	David Buehrer dbuehrer@******.carl.org
Subject:	exchange rates, and APDS...pronounced APP-ee-das ? : )
Date:	Tue, 23 Feb 1999 07:07:59 -0700 (MST)

Gurth wrote:
/
/ According to Robert Watkins, at 10:38 on 23 Feb 99, the word on
/ 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.

The smaller size also has less friction, making it more accurate over
long ranges.

Basically you end up with a high velocity, high mass round with a small
cross section that has good armor piercing ability and low drop off.

/ Tungsten and uranium are the normal materials APFSDS is made of (BTW, APDS
^^^^^^
Armor Piercing Fin Stabalized Discarding Sabot for the uninitiated :)

-David B.
--
"Earn what you have been given."
--
ShadowRN GridSec
email: dbuehrer@******.carl.org
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