Military vehicles are commonly armoured to withstand the impact of shrapnel, bullets or shells, protecting the soldiers inside from enemy fire. The design and purpose of the vehicle determines the amount of armour plating carried, as the plating is often very heavy and excessive amounts of armour restrict mobility. An armoured fighting vehicle (AFV) is a military vehicle, equipped with protection against hostile attacks and often mounted weapons. ... Shrapnel is the collective term for fragments and debris thrown out by an exploding shell or landmine. ... 0. ... A shell is a projectile, which, as opposed to a bullet, is not solid but contains an explosive or other filling, though modern usage includes large projectiles without a filling. ... Usually considered in the context of the applied arts, engineering, architecture, and other such creative endeavours, design is used as both a noun and a verb. ...

The most heavily armoured vehicles today are the main battle tanks, which are the spearhead of the ground forces, and are designed to withstand anti-tank missiles, kinetic energy penetrators, NBC threats and in some tanks even steep-trajectory shells. The Israeli Merkava tanks were designed in a way that each tank component function as additional back-up armour to protect the crew. Outer armor is modular and enables quick replacement of damaged armour. The US M1A1 Abrams tank is a typical modern main battle tank. ... Anti-tank, or simply AT, refers to any method of combating military armored fighting vehicles, notably tanks. ... APFSDS at point of separation of sabot. ... NBC is an initialism used to indicate nuclear, biological and chemical weapons. ... Merkava (Hebrew: ▶ (help· info)) is a series of main battle tanks developed and manufactured by Israel for the Israel Defense Forces. ...

Technologies

For efficiency, the heaviest armour on an AFV is placed on its front: on the gun mantlet and glacis plate. Tank tactics require the vehicle to always face the likely direction of enemy fire as much as possible, even in defence or withdrawal operations. A mantlet was a large shield or portable shelter used for stopping arrows or bullets, in medieval warfare. ... A glacis ( or ) in military engineering is an artificial slope of earth in the front of works such as fortifications, so constructed as to keep any potential assailant under the fire of the defenders to the last possible moment. ... In military science, defense (or defence) is the art of preventing an enemy from conquering territory; usually via fortifications. ... Definition Withdrawing is the act of removing all or part of a military force from combat and moving to a safe location. ...

Sloping and curving armour both increase its protection. Given a fixed thickness of armour plate, a projectile striking at an angle must penetrate more armour than one impacting perpendicularly. An angled surface also increases the chance of deflecting a projectile. Sloped armour was developed as a defensive measure by the French SOMUA (Société dOutillage Mécanique et dUsinage dArtillerie) right before the outbreak of World War II. It was a technological response to the trend of fitting increasingly bigger guns on battle tanks. ... This article is about angles in geometry. ... Perpendicular is a geometric term that may be used as a noun or adjective. ...

Appliqué armour screens have sometimes been bolted or welded onto armoured vehicles to increase protection.

Beginning during the Cold War, many AFVs have spall liners inside of the armour, designed to protect crew and equipment inside from fragmentation (spallation) released from the impact of enemy shells, especially high explosive squash head warheads. Spall liners are made of kevlar, Dyneema or similar materials. Spall are flakes of a material that are broken off a larger solid body. ... High explosive squash head (HESH) is a type of explosive ammunition designed to defeat tank armour. ... Kevlar (poly-paraphenylene terephthalamide) is the DuPont Company’s brand name for a synthetic material constructed of para-aramid fibers that the company claims is five times stronger than the same weight of steel, while being lightweight, flexible and comfortable. ... Dyneema® is a synthetic fiber based on UHMWPE, 15 times stronger than steel and up to 40% stronger than Kevlar. ...

Spaced armour

German Pz Kpfw IV with spaced armour skirts (schürtzen) and turret wrap-around

Spaced armour can cause bullets and solid shot to tumble and deflect, reducing their penetrating ability—for which effect spaced armour was used as early as the First World War, on the Schneider CA1 and St Chamond tanks. Many early-WWII German tanks also had armoured skirts installed, to help protect their thinner side armour from antitank rifles and antitank guns. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (973x654, 181 KB) From de. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (973x654, 181 KB) From de. ... The Panzerkampfwagen IV (PzKpfw IV), more commonly referred to as the Panzer IV, was a tank developed by Nazi Germany and used extensively in World War II. It was designed initially as an infantry-support medium tank, to work in conjunction with the anti-tank Pzkpfw III. Later in the... The Schneider CA1 was the first French tank. ... French St Chamond tanks: Note the short tracks and large body, which gave so much trouble crossing obstacles. ... An anti-tank rifle is a rifle designed to penetrate the armour of vehicles, particularly tanks. ...

Soviet T-34-85 with anti-Panzerfaust screens improvised from sprung bed frames, protecting side and top armour during street fighting, Berlin, May 1945.

Spaced armour also takes advantage of the principle that a high explosive anti-tank (HEAT) warhead creates a focussed jet of plasticised metal, which dissipates with distance. The innovation of the Bazooka, Panzerfaust, and other HEAT weapons in the Second World War prompted the employment of factory-made and improvised stand-off armour. Relatively thin armour plates or even metal mesh were attached as side skirts or turret skirts on tanks and other armoured vehicles. Even today, light armoured vehicles mount panels of metal mesh, or "slat armour", and some main battle tanks carry rubber skirts to protect their relatively fragile suspension and front belly armour. Image File history File links T34_85_4. ... Image File history File links T34_85_4. ... The T-34 is a Soviet medium tank credited by some armor analysts to be the best and most influential tank of the Second World War. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... High explosive anti-tank (HEAT) rounds are made of an explosive shaped charge that uses the Neumann effect (a development of the Munroe effect) to create a very high-velocity jet of metal in a state of superplasticity that can punch through solid armor. ... The bazooka weapon was one of the first anti-tank weapons based on the HEAT shell to enter service, used by the United States Armed Forces in World War II. It was nicknamed bazooka from a vague resemblance to the musical instrument of the same name (see: bazooka (instrument)). In... The Panzerfaust (lit. ...

In response to very heavy HEAT warheads, integral spaced armour was reintroduced in the 1960s on the German Leopard 1. There are hollow spaces inside this type of armour, increasing the length of travel from the exterior of the vehicle to the interior, in hopes of reducing the shaped charge's penetrating power; in some cases the interior surfaces of these hollow cavities are sloped, presenting angles to the anticipated path of the shaped charge's jet in order to further dissipate its power. Thus instead of having a single thirty-centimetre layer of steel armour, it is possible to have two fifteen-centimetre layers half a metre or more apart, giving far greater protection against shaped charges at no penalty in weight. The Leopard is the primary post-WWII German tank design, a design that has been in use as the primary main battle tank for most European countries in various versions since the early 1960s. ...

The Whipple shield uses the principle of spaced armour to protect spacecraft from the impacts of micrometeoroids. Whipple shield used on NASAs Stardust probe The Whipple Shield, also known as a meteor deflection screen, was invented by Fred Whipple and is designed to protect spacecraft from collisions with small particles during high speed flight. ... A Micrometeoroid (also micrometeorite, micrometeor) is a tiny meteoroid; a small particle of rock from space, usually weighing less than a gram, that poses a threat to space exploration. ...

Composite armour

Composite armour (including Chobham armour) was developed in the 1960s by the British and first used on the American M1 Abrams but not, as is often presumed, on the German Leopard 2. It consists of layers of steel, ceramic, and plastic honeycomb, sometimes with layers of depleted uranium added. Composite is effective against both kinetic and shaped charge munitions. Against kinetic penetrators, the brittle ceramic blunts the projectile while the softer steel layers absorb its kinetic energy. Still, it is significantly less effective against KE-munitions, so sometimes depleted uranium layers are added to provide extra protection against these warheads. Composite Armor is a type of armor consisting of layers of different material such as metals, plastics, ceramics or air. ... Chobham armour is a composite armour developed at the British tank research centre on Chobham Common. ... The 1960s decade refers to the years from 1960 to 1969, inclusive. ... The M1 Abrams main battle tank is the principal combat tank of the United States Army and the United States Marine Corps, with three main versions being deployed starting in 1980: the M1, M1A1, and M1A2. ... The Leopard 2 is a German main battle tank developed in the early 1970s and first entering service in 1979, replacing the earlier Leopard in the MBT role in the Bundeswehr. ... The old steel cable of a colliery winding tower Steel is a metal alloy whose major component is iron, with carbon being the primary alloying material. ... The word ceramic is derived from the Greek word Κεραμεικος (the name of a suburb of Athens), and in its strictest sense refers to clay in all its forms. ... Plastic is a term that covers a range of synthetic or semisynthetic polymerization products. ... Honeycomb on a Langstroth frame A honeycomb is a mass of hexagonal wax cells built by honeybees in their nests to contain their larvae and stores of honey and pollen. ... // Depleted uranium (DU) is uranium which contains a reduced proportion of the fissile isotope U-235. ... Kinetic energy (also called vis viva, or living force) is energy possessed by a body by virtue of its motion. ... A shaped charge is an explosive charge shaped to focus the effect of the released energy. ... Munition is often defined as a synonyn for ammunition. ... A projectile is any object sent through the air by the application of some force. ... Kinetic energy is energy that a body has as a result of its speed. ... // Depleted uranium (DU) is uranium which contains a reduced proportion of the fissile isotope U-235. ...

An alternate description of Chobham armour is that it combines spaced armour with composites. Supposedly the deeper interior heavy metal layer is a cast aluminium slab with rods of tungsten (encased in titanium) or depleted uranium running perpendicularly through it, intended to cause the points of high-velocity long-rod penetrator armour-piercing projectiles to deform, which sometimes causes the projectile to tip and strike the armour at an angle, presenting far greater surface area to the armour and therefore greatly increasing the resistance. General Name, Symbol, Number tungsten, W, 74 Chemical series transition metals Group, Period, Block 6, 6, d Appearance grayish white, lustrous Atomic mass 183. ... General Name, Symbol, Number titanium, Ti, 22 Chemical series transition metals Group, Period, Block 4, 4, d Appearance silvery metallic Atomic mass 47. ... // Depleted uranium (DU) is uranium which contains a reduced proportion of the fissile isotope U-235. ...

Another type is perforated steel—armour with hollow perpendicular spaces serving the same function that they do in spaced armour, often filled with ceramic foam and backed by layers of Kevlar, Dyneema or similar material to trap and reduce fragmentation. This is the type used in the original version of the Leopard 2. Kevlar (poly-paraphenylene terephthalamide) is the DuPont Company’s brand name for a synthetic material constructed of para-aramid fibers that the company claims is five times stronger than the same weight of steel, while being lightweight, flexible and comfortable. ... Dyneema® is a synthetic fiber based on UHMWPE, 15 times stronger than steel and up to 40% stronger than Kevlar. ... The Leopard 2 is a German main battle tank developed in the early 1970s and first entering service in 1979, replacing the earlier Leopard in the MBT role in the Bundeswehr. ...

Reactive armour

Explosive reactive armour, initially developed by Israel, uses layers of high explosive sandwiched between steel plates. When a shaped-charge warhead hits, the explosive detonates and pushes the steel plates into the warhead, disrupting the charge's plasma flow. It is less effective against kinetic penetrators. Reactive armour poses a threat to friendly troops in the area of the vehicle. Reactive armor or explosive reactive armour (ERA), is a type of armour used primarily on tanks to lessen the damage from explosions caused from missile warheads, exploding shells, grenades, or dropped bombs. ... This article is concerned solely with chemical explosives. ... A weapons cache is detonated at the East River Range on Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan Detonation is a process of supersonic combustion that involves a shock wave and a reaction zone behind it. ... The word plasma has a Greek root which means to be formed or molded (the word plastic shares this root). ...

Non-explosive reactive armour is an advanced sort of spaced armour, using the changing geometry of materials under stress to increase its protection.

Active protection systems use a sensor to detect an incoming projectile and explosively launch a counter-projectile into its path. An active protection system is a system activated at very close range (but before the incoming projectile hits its target) for the defense of the vehicle it is mounted on. ...

Electrically charged armour

Electrically charged armour is a recent development in the UK. A vehicle is fitted with two thin shells, separated by insulating material. The outer shell holds an enormous electrical charge, while the inner shell is a ground. If an incoming HEAT plasma-jet penetrates the outer shell and forms a bridge between the shells, the electrical energy discharges through the jet, disrupting it. Trials have so far been extremely promising, and it is hoped that improved systems could protect against KE penetrators. Developers of the Future Combat Systems series of armoured vehicles are considering this technology. Future Combat Systems (FCS) is the core building block of the US Army’s Future Force. ...

More information is available on this website

See also

• Armoured forces
• Body armour
• Active protection system
• Armoured fighting vehicle
• Main battle tank