Newsgroups: sci.military.moderated
From: George Herbert <gherbert@crl.com>
Subject: Re: Question on soviet armor capabilities
Date: Mon, 13 Apr 1998 13:36:36 GMT

In article <Er3w2o.LHz@ranger.daytonoh.ncr.com>,
Jussi Saari  <Jussi.Saari@hepo.cc.lut.fi> wrote:
>  So if battle experience is the final argument, should we take the
>experience where a T-55 was shot at side with 25mm fire with no apparent
>effect, or where a T-62 was shot at frontally with catastrophic results?
>Bearing in mind of course that hitting the turret ring even with
>low-velocity 20mm guns is going to kill the tank, front or side.
>
>
>> In other words, all the numbers are fine, but I'll take the word of
>> people who spent half a year sitting in the desert, and a week
>> destroying the fourth largest army in the world,
>> over some yahoo who's never left the comfort of his living room.
>
>Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't the story basically this: "we fired
>at the tank's fron't and the tank exploded"? If so, then please explain
>how you they could be sure that the rounds penetrated the armor rather
>than going through a weak spot.

I think you miss part of the point here.

With automatic weapons, and the 25mm bushmaster counts although
it has lousy cyclic (200 rpm or so), you don't *need* to always
shoot through the thick armor: you get multiple hits, if there
are weak spots that are easier to penetrate, you have an
increasing probability of having hit one with every additional
round fired into the target.  A former employer went to visit
Kuwait in 93; he has photos of a T-62 with dimples all over
the front and turret front, right front drive wheel blown off,
two penetrations through the turret ring, burned out as a result.
This is known to be Bradley damage not 30mm GAU-8 damage.
A total of perhaps 15 rounds hit, or 5 seconds of firing.

5 secons is the cycle time for loading and firing a 120mm
cannon, more or less.  If a Bradley can kill a T-62
with five seconds of front aspect fire within 2,000 meters,
which is roughly extreme range of T-62 guns, I would say it's
an effective way of killing T-62s.


-george william herbert
gherbert@crl.com