Western/Israeli MBT HEAT armor too high?

[Marcello]

Originally Posted by Companion

Damn, Hull penetration AFTER ERA? Didn't know 29 was that powerful. (I might actually buy into RHA 1200mm performance claim )

Maybe it could be the case that the RPG impacted at such a angle that the glacis' angled armor advantage was negotiated enough for penetration.

I don't think so. The RPG-29 has a 105mm or so main warhead with a small precursor charge. This means it can deal with ERA but while penetrations in excess of ten warhead diameters are supposed to be possible now (or so it has been claimed) they were definitively not possible on a production weapon when the RPG-29 was developed.

The Challenger 2 was developed during the Cold war. Hull down defense against a numerical superior enemy advance would be a common engagement in this scenario. This required fairly impenetrable turret fronts even at the expense of the rest of the armored scheme, which while generally quite good, might not always be impervious to the greatest and latest OPFOR weapons.