Quote:
Originally Posted by WallShadow
If the idea of stand-off armor is to pre-detonate the HEAT warhead outside of its optimal detonation distance, what easily-available/manufacturable substance would make the thermal jet even less effective? Firebricks? (yeah, I know, really heavy). Compressed layers of aluminum foil wrapping fragments of tempered glass (pyrex dishes)? Filled water containers/heavy plastic bags or plastic water bottles nestled between the detonation plate and the hull or turret armor? Enamelled metal plates (it was tried in WW1 for body armor)?
Yes, I know some of these are being pulled out of left field, but if you are an occupant of that vehicle, you may be stretching your brain as to how to survive some overeager marauder or Pact greenie with an RPG or antitank grenade, especially if you've seen some buddies get fragged in their tank or APC.
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Somebody had a random thought one time, I'm trying to remember specifics (I cannot for the life of me recall what forum I saw this on but it was about a decade ago) - a sandwich of steel, packed sand, steel. His thought being that the sand being granular and not hard packed, would cause the jet to behave irregularly plus the heat would fuse the sand and add a further layer of material to penetrate.
Would this actually work? I have absolutely no idea. It sounds as though it "might" work but I don't know all the physics involved. I'm also left to wonder about the required thickness of sand to provide that effect (and the subsequent weight added).
I believe his idea was inspired by the use of sandbags on some tanks during WW2 but while I can understand bags of sand would degrade the performance of kinetic projectiles, I'm not convinced that they would degrade a HEAT round enough to stop it causing damage (unless they were stacked thick enough).