Quote:
PlasmaKrab said:
About standoff, the question is: from what weapon up can the penetrator be considered untouched by one foot thick of cold air? That is, neglecting the incidence angle. Air won't spend and slow the penetrator jet down as steel would, but the metal will cool down anywauy. If the amount of energy spent is significant or not I must still calculate...
|
I said nothing about it being "untouched, I said it the standoff distance practically possible on vehicles of reasonable size will be pretty insignificant.
Why are you talking about projectile temperature btw? Projectile temperature has nothing to do with its effectiveness.
The HEAT penetrator uses velocity and mass to penetrate. Due to its nature (being a liquid hyper-velocity penetrator formed by an explosion) makes it interact differently with armour, but it still works through kinetic energy.
The standoff gives the liquid stream time to disperse (f e turn into smaller droplets through friction) and loose coherence" and effectiveness. Modern warheads loose coherence slower than early types decreasing the effect of stand off armour.
Most "spaced" armour today has "something" in the space, f e small aluminum balls suspended in foam, that interacts with the penetrator stream rather more agressivley than atmosphere.
I think that the APC mods you refer to use spaced armour matixes more advanced than mere standoff plates. The chain skirt on the Merk is probably intended to prevent people lodging a bomb between the hull and turret overhang, but perhaps also to induce yaw on kinetic penetrators.