Combat Vehicle Technology

1 Armour Materials and Protection

Col (Prof) James K

Varkey
 Combat Vehicle Technology
2 Syllabus
1. Introduction to Combat Vehicles
2. Design Philosophy of Various Countries
3. Vehicle Mounted Weapons and Platforms
4. Design Parameters of Combat Vehicle
5. General Configuration of Tanks
6. Armour Layout and Hull Design
7. Turret Design Considerations 1,2
8. Armour Materials and Protection 1,2
9. Tank Guns and Ammunition 1,2
10. Errors and Biases and Chance of Hit Theory 1,2
11. Design for Nuclear, Biological and Chemical
Protection
12. Emerging Trends in Design of Combat Vehicles
 Combat Vehicle Technology
3
Turret Dimensions & Traversing Mechanism
Revision
Turret Dimensions for gun installation
 Requirements for gun traversing mechanism
 Types of gun traversing mechanisms
 Electric Driven
 Hydraulic driven
 Design calculations for electric driven TTM
 Armour Materials and Protection
4 Properties of Armour Materials

 Required Properties of Armour Material

 Materials used as Armour
 Steel Armour
 Titanium Armour
 DU Armour
 Aluminum Armour
 Spaced Armour
 Composite Armour: Chobham, Kanchan Armour
 Explosive Reactive Armour
 Armour Materials and Protection
5 Properties of Armour Various Materials

 Armour protection governs the ability of the tanks to

survive under fire and to a large extent makes them to
immune to all types of enemy weapons, enable them to
move around the battle field more freely.

 The basic properties expected from any armour material

are extremely high strength, hardness, toughness,
durability and lightweight with an enhanced
capability to stop multiple impacts from the latest
generation of projectiles.
 Properties of Armour Materials
6 Requirements of Armour Materials
Toughness:
Toughness is the ability of a material to absorb energy and
plastically deform without fracturing.
Another definition of material toughness is the amount of
energy per unit volume that a material can absorb before
rupturing.
It is also defined as a material's resistance to fracture when
stressed.
Toughness requires a balance of strength and ductility.
Tough materials can absorb a considerable amount of
energy before fracture while brittle materials absorb very
little.
 Properties of Armour Materials
7
Hardness
Hardness is the ability of a material to resist deformation.
e.g. diamond
Strength
It is the ability of the material to withstand force or
pressure without failure.
Cleanliness
It is the requirement of maintaining the surface of the
armour plate with out any environmental effects for long
period of time.
 Properties of Armour Materials
8 Steel Armour
 For the first 40 years of the tank history, the armour of the tanks
was designed almost only to protect them against kinetic
energy attack and solely consists of high strength steels.
 Steels have 0.25 to 0.4 % of carbon and other alloying
elements like nickel, chromium, manganese etc.
 Steel armour is further heat treated in order to increase its
resistance to penetration and then tempered to make it tougher
to absorb KE of the impacting projectile.
 During 1930s the thickness of the plates used was about 15
mm, during second WW the thickness increased to 75 mm,
150mm, 185 mm, 250 mm and some of the German tanks had
more than 300 mm thickness.
 Properties of Armour Materials
9 Steel Armour
 Machineable Rolled Homogeneous Armour (RHA) is the most
widely used armour steel.
 Ballistic protection provided by RHA and cast armour were
improved by additives which made them harder and were able to
resist penetration.
 In 1960s dual hardness steel, consists of layers of two different
steels bonded together came. Outer layer has a relatively high
carbon heat treated to achieve 600 BHN, back plate had low
carbon content and was softer and ductile.
 Rolled Homogeneous Armour is strong, hard, and tough (does
not shatter when struck with a fast, hard blow).
 Steel with the above characteristics is produced by processing
cast steel billets of appropriate size and then rolling them into
plates of required thickness.
 Properties of Armour Materials
10 Steel Armour
 Later in 1960s attention was given to Electro Slag Re-melted
(ESR) steel which became most suitable for production of thick
armour plates of homogeneous high hardness armour.
 Metallurgical quality of steel produced by electro-slag re-melting
is better than that of steels made by any other melting processes
and also it costs less.
 Typical armour of 4340 ESR steel has tensile strength of
2190MN/m² and a hard ness of 550BHN.
 Better resistance to penetration
 Possesses high ductility and toughness.
 Eliminates the danger of large chunks of armour being
thrown off from back plates by stress waves caused by
HESH ammunition
 Reduces spalling when armour is perforated (i.e. breaking up
of the armour to form a conical spray of small fragments.)
 Properties of Armour Materials
11 Titanium Armour
Titanium is a light weight armour material, which has a density of
.only 4.5 g/cm³ and offers resistance of 80-90% of RHA steel
against APFSDS projectile.
However, the cost of Titanium is high, having many times the
price of aluminum which itself is twice as expensive as RHA.
Titanium is known to be used in select items of the USA tank
armor to reduce weight and maybe used in the latest Russian
tanks.
Titanium is roughly the weight of aluminum, but as strong as
iron. So despite it being rather expensive, if finds it application in
areas where weight is a concern, such as personal armour.
 Properties of Armour Materials
12 Titanium Armour
Titanium alloys as armour offer many advantages.
Titanium alloys have a high mass efficiency compared with RHA
steel and aluminum alloys against ballistic threats as well as
good multi-hit ballistic capability. They have a high strength-to-
weight ratio and excellent corrosion resistance, which results in
lower maintenance costs.
The above properties of Titanium offers appreciable weight
reduction over the conventional steel and aluminum alloys.
Titanium is used in the commander's hatch of M2 Bradley
infantry fighting vehicle (originally made from forged aluminum)
has been replaced with forged titanium at a weight savings of
35% and with greatly increased ballistic protection.
 Properties of Armour Materials
13

RHA vs Titanium Armour

 Properties of Armour Materials
14 Aluminium Armour

 Development of Aluminium alloy armour began in the United

States in 1956; production of the first aluminium-hulled ICV,
M113 started in 1960.
 Aluminium alloy 5083 with about 4.5% of magnesium and
0.75% of manganese has a tensile strength of 300 to 350
MN/m2 and was strain hardened to improve its ballistic
characteristics.
 Its hardness is only 75 BHN and had lower strength, hence the
plates have to be considerably thicker than those of steel
armour for a given level of ballistic protection.
 Another Aluminum alloy 7039 with Zinc and magnesium
having density of 2780kg/m3 was found suitable for as armour
protection. Alloy 7039 is heat treatable and possible to make
more stronger.
 Properties of Armour Materials
15 Aluminum Armour

 Aluminium alloy 7039 has superior ballistic characteristics and

less weight and good machinability.
 Its disadvantage is its welding problems, which have called for
careful control of heat to safeguard against stress corrosion in
heat affected areas.
 Corrosion and stress cracking have been a major problem
with hulls and turrets welded from 7039.
 Properties of Armour Materials
16 Comparison Armour Materials

Some Properties of Steel, Aluminum, and Titanium Armor

RHA Aluminum 5083 Ti-6Al-4V

MIL-A-12560 MIL-A-46026 MIL-A-46077
Tensile Strength (MPa) 1,170 350 970
Density (g/cm3) 7.86 2.70 4.50
Specific Strength*
(MPa-cm3/g) 150 130 220
1
Mass Efficiency (Em)** (by definition) 1.0-1.2 1.5
* Specific strength—tensile strength divided by density.
** Mass Efficiency (Em)—the weight per unit area of RHA required to
defeat a given ballistic threat divided by the weight per unit area of the
subject material.
 Properties of Armour Materials
17 Depleted Uranium
Depleted Uranium is Uranium with very low content of the fissile
isotope U-235 than natural Uranium. DU has very high density of
19.1 g/cm3.
Depleted Uranium is a byproduct of the production of enriched
uranium for use in nuclear reactors and in the manufacture of
nuclear weapons.
During mid 1970s, USA was in search for a better projectile
which can penetrate Soviet armour. After testing various metals,
ordnance researchers identified depleted uranium as penetrator.
Natural uranium contains about 0.71% U-235, 99.28% U-238,
and about 0.0054% U-234. In order to produce enriched uranium,
the process of isotope separation removes a substantial portion
of the U-235 for use in nuclear power and weapons. The
remainder, depleted uranium, contains only 0.2% to 0.3% U-235.
 Properties of Armour Materials
18 Depleted Uranium
Depleted uranium is very dense; at 19,050 kg/m³, it is 1.67 times
as dense as lead, only slightly less dense than tungsten and gold.
The DU projectile of given mass has a smaller diameter than an
equivalent lead projectile, with less aerodynamic drag and deeper
penetration due to a higher pressure at point of impact.
DU projectile ordnance is often inherently incendiary because
uranium is flammable.
Armor plate
Because of its high density, depleted uranium can also be used in
tank armor, sandwiched between sheets of steel armor plate.
USA Tanks M1A1and M1A2 Abrams tanks built after 1998 have
DU reinforcement as part of the armor plating in the front of the
hull and the front of the turret.
 Properties of Armour Materials
19 Depleted Uranium
 DU is used by the U.S. Army in 120 mm or 105 mm cannons
employed on the M1 Abrams tank.
 The Russian military has used DU ammunition in tank main
gun ammunition since the late 1970s, mostly for the 115 mm
guns in the T-62 tank and the 125 mm guns in the T-64, T-72,
T-80, and T-90 tanks.
 Properties of Armour Materials
20 Composite Armour

 Composite armour is armour consisting of layers of two or more

materials with significantly different chemical properties. Different
material such as metals, plastics, ceramics and air are generally
used.
 Composite armour's effectiveness depends on its composition
and is effective against kinetic energy penetrators as well as
shaped charge munitions.
 Heavy metals are sometimes included in composite armour
specifically for protection from kinetic energy penetrators.
 The first widespread use of a composite armour for tanks
appears to have been on the Soviet T-64.
 Properties of Armour Materials
21 Composite Armour
The most common type of composite armour today is Chobham
armour, first developed and used by the British in the
experimental FV 4211 tank which was based on Chieftain tank
components.
Chobham sandwiches a layer of ceramic between two plates of
steel armour, which was shown to dramatically increase the
resistance to HEAT rounds. Chobham was also used on the
U.S. M1 Abrams.
Chobham Armour is the name informally given to a composite
armour developed in the 1960s at the British tank research
centre at Chobham Common, Surrey, England. The name has
since become the common generic term for composite armour.
Other names informally given to other combination of Chobham
Armour include "Burlington" and "Dorchester."
 Properties of Armour Materials
22 CHOBHAM Armour
The hardness of the ceramic tiles, against lighter projectiles causes
a "shatter gap" effect so a higher velocity projectile will not get a
deeper penetration but destroy the KE projectile itself.
Against HEAT projectile, because the ceramic is so brittle that the
entrance channel of a shaped charge jet is disturbed when
penetrating a non-homogenous metal, causing extreme asymmetric
pressures which disturb the geometry of the jet thus reducing its
penetrative capabilities.
To date, only few Chobham armour-protected tanks have been
defeated by enemy fire in combat. One of the known case is the
Challenger 2 tank got stuck in a ditch while fighting in Basra against
Iraqi forces, during the second Iraq war in 2003.
The crew remained safe inside for many hours, the composite
Chobham armour protecting them from enemy fire, including rocket
propelled grenades (RPG).
 Properties of Armour Materials
23 KANCHAN Armour
Kanchan Armour is the name informally given to a modular
composite armour developed by India.
Kanchan Armor uses the same principle as the Chobham armour,
but probably the composition is different. The Kanchan Armour got
its name from Kanchan Bagh, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India,
where the laboratory Defence Metallurgical Research Laboratory
(DMRL) is located .
In 1980’s the Kanchan composite armour had a composition of
Ceramic, Aluminium oxide, Fibre glass and some other such
materials mixed. The Kanchan composite used had two
thicknesses, i.e. a 350 mm plate and a 315 mm plate. However
these two plates had the same weight as a 120 mm RHA.
Hence it is said that Kanchan armour is more volume at same
weight.
 Properties of Armour Materials
24 KANCHAN Armour

Although the construction details of the armour remain a secret,

it has been described as being made by sandwiching composite
panels between Rolled Homogeneous Armour (RHA). The
number of layers may vary based on the user requirements. This
armour is able to defeat APFSDS and HEAT rounds.
During the trials in 2000, the Kanchan was able to withstand a hit
from a T-72 at point blank range, and was able to defeat all
HESH and APFSDS rounds of India and Israeli APFSDS rounds
also.
 Properties of Armour Materials
25 Spaced Armour
High explosive anti-tank (HEAT) projectiles penetrates the
armour by the generation of focused high velocity jets. The
spaced armour defeats the HEAT projectiles by introducing
air gaps between armour plates, which disrupts the jet
velocity and reducing its power for penetration.
So relatively thin armour plates or even metal mesh, much
lighter than fully protective armour, can be attached as side
skirts or turret skirts on tanks can give adequate protection
against HEAT projectile.
The light armour in front of main tank armour detonates the
warhead prematurely so that the jet of metal is focused well
before the main armour, thus becoming relatively
ineffective.
 Protection of Armour
26 Explosive Reactive Armour (ERA)

 During 1970s an additional form of protection made up of

modules with a layer of an explosive sandwiched between two
metal plates appeared in Israel. Later similar modules appeared
in Russian tank T-64 also.
 This is now known as Explosive Reactive Armour (ERA), which
reduces the penetration capability of shaped charge jets. Its
explosive layer detonates when penetrated by a jet and driving
its plates apart at about one tenth of the velocity of jet.
 If the jet strikes the ERA sandwich at an angle, the bottom plate
material is fed continuously into its path causing lateral
disturbances which reduce its ability to penetrate the armour
located behind ERA by 50 to 90%.
 Protection of Armour
27 Explosive Reactive Armour (ERA)
 Protection of Armour
28 Explosive Reactive Armour (ERA)
 Protection of Armour
29 Explosive Reactive Armour
 The choice of the explosive which is sandwiched between the
two plates is very important:
 It must detonate only when struck by a shaped charge jet.
 Should not detonate by hits of bullets or shell fragments

 Should not detonate due

to a fire, or welding.
 Detonation should
confined to the module
struck by jet and should
not spread to adjoining
modules.
 Protection of Armour
30 Explosive Reactive Armour
 To be effective, the ERA sandwich needs to be at an angle to the
shaped charge jet. (at least 25 degrees from the normal to jet)
 The ERA plate should be located at a distance in front of the
main armour to provide room for the movement of back plate,
which causes more disturbances to jet than front plate, as it
moves in the same direction as jet.
 Typical example of ERA can
be steel plates of 3 or 5 mm
thick separated by 3 mm of
sheet explosive.
 ERA is also effective against
long rod APFSDS
projectiles.
 Protection of Armour
31
Explosive Reactive Armour
 The latest version of Russian ERA, Kontakt5, deployed with
T-80 and T-90 tanks is believed to provide some protection
improvements to counter kinetic energy (KE) rounds as well
as shaped charges during the initial phase of the
penetration.
 Further advancements of the ERA, considered for future
implementation, include a "Smart Armor" concept that has
integrated sensors and microprocessors embedded into the
armor, which sense the location, type, velocity and
diameter of the projectile or jet, and will trigger smaller
explosive elements, and give effect tailored action against a
specific penetrator.
 Armour Materials and Protection
32

Discussion