Blackhorse
Posts: 1983
Joined: 8/20/2000 From: Eastern US Status: offline
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A few comments on the observations above: 1. Most modern tanks carry few true HE rounds. The most common anti-tank rounds are inert, except for the propellant. Most tanks also carry HEAT, which is designed to detonate after a distance, on impact, with the blast going directionally forward. So even if a grenade triggered a sympathic detonation, most of the blast effect would head down the barrel. 2. Depending on doctrine, tanks have been known to travel with a round in the tube. On exercises in West Germany in the mid-80s, practicing against a Warsaw Pact invasion of the Fulda Gap, US tanks might 'battle carry' sabot. The theory was, enemy tanks (or helicopters) were the main threat, and a round in the tube might enable you to engage first. If a lesser threat appeared first, we could fire off the sabot anyway, then load the most appropriate ammunition. 3. A thermite grenade down the tube would definitely hurt a tank. If it settled at the base of the tube, it would eventually fuse the barrel and breechblock. More effective than a fragmentation grenade, I think. But it would take some time. 4. Grenades were considered effective against tanks in WWII -- US infantry doctrine was to get a bundle or a bag of grenades and try to throw them against the side of an enemy tank to break the track, or blow off a roadwheel. Not for the faint of heart. 5. witpqs: interruptor screw, methinks.
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WitP-AE -- US LCU & AI Stuff Oddball: Why don't you knock it off with them negative waves? Why don't you dig how beautiful it is out here? Why don't you say something righteous and hopeful for a change? Moriarty: Crap!
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