Quote:
Originally Posted by dmnt
Comparing to APILAS, that has a 1.5 kg warhead and 720 mm RHAe penetration and again simply scaling (although APILAS is older tech) gives 864 mm for NLAW.
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The APILAS has a 112 mm warhead, which means that the shaped charge cone diameter is probably somewhat larger than in the NLAW. That might more or less cancel out the fact that the APILAS is older tech. Also, the NLAW being a top attack weapon is probably not 100% optimized for penetration, since MBTs rarely have very thick armor on the top. My guess is that the actual penetration might be no more than 600-700 mm RHAe, but with enhanced behind armor effects over purely penetration optimized warheads.
The 720 mm for the APILAS is quite optimistic, by the way. Lower figures have also been floating around; 650 mm appeared in some sources. Considering that the APILAS is from the same generation as the I-TOW and the latter has recently been found falling quite short of the old 800 mm marketing figure, I have a strong feeling that 650 mm is closer to the truth than 720 mm...