Chapter 186 Great Idea

New reactive armor? Kartsev's eyes lit up when he heard Andrei's words.

Now, the Soviet Union's armor research and development has reached the world's advanced level, so Soviet tanks mainly rely on composite armor to increase their protection capabilities. Until later generations, when they discovered that their own tank main armor could not withstand the advanced ammunition of Western 105mm tank guns, let alone Western 120mm tank guns, the Soviet Union began to quickly develop reactive armor and equip their own tanks.

And now, the unprecedented Hokkaido War has broken out. In this war, the T-72 has shown the disadvantages of its armor performance and can be penetrated by the island country's 105mm tank gun!

This is still an armor-piercing shell from an island country. If it were more advanced British and American ammunition, it would be able to penetrate at a longer distance! Therefore, the armor protection capability of the T-72 tank must be increased!

If the same armor structure as the T-64 is adopted, it will greatly increase the cost and affect the large-scale equipment of our own tanks. However, Andrei proposed a new idea, using reactive armor!

The tanks were still built as before, and after they were built, reactive armor was added to the outside! It was only because of the limited performance of reactive armor that the Soviet Union was forced to abandon this technology.

Now, hearing what Andre said, all the technicians' eyes were shining.

"You can put explosives between the two layers of steel plates. Moreover, this type of explosives is insensitive explosives. In this way, machine gun bullets and artillery shell fragments cannot penetrate this layer of steel plates at all, and cannot detonate the reactive armor. Insensitive explosives will only detonate when encountering metal heat flow." Andre said: "In this way, the problems encountered by previous reactive armor can be easily solved."

Kartsev nodded and praised: "Yes, this will solve the problem of reactive armor! Andre, you are so smart!"

"I was also reminded by the proposal put forward by Dr. Held." Andre said, "Bring me a pen, I can draw the structure of the reactive armor I envisioned."

Pen and paper were quickly brought, and Andre spread the paper on the flat armor at the back of the T-72 and began to draw.

"The outer layer can be made of 3 mm steel plates, with two 15 mm thick armored steel plates placed at an angle in the middle, one of which is the throwing plate and the other is the back plate, and the gap between the steel plates is filled with insensitive explosives. The overall size is 250 mm X 138 mm X 103 mm, with about 350 grams of insensitive explosives, such as Semtin plastic explosives." Andre explained as he drew: "In this way, when the metal jet penetrates the outer shell and the throwing plate, the insensitive explosive located in the middle of the steel plate is detonated. Driven by the blast wave of the explosive, the throwing plate flies outward while the back plate moves in the opposite direction. The throwing plate pinches the jet head, cuts off the sharpest part of the jet and consumes the jet. The back plate then removes the tail of the jet, causing great disturbance and interference to the jet, further reducing the jet's penetration of the main armor. Anti-tank weapons that penetrate tank armor with metal jets, such as RPGs and anti-tank missiles, can be greatly reduced."

What Andrei is talking about is the Kontakt-1 reactive armor that was officially equipped to the Soviet troops in the 1980s. It is more advanced than the technology proposed by the Germans. It cleverly uses wedge-shaped steel plates to make the explosives produce asymmetric detonation, driving the steel plates to consume and cut the jet quickly and violently, achieving better results.

"However, this device is only better against metal jets. Its protection against armor-piercing bullets is probably average, right?" Just then, another technician raised a question.

It is true that laymen watch the excitement while experts watch the doorway! The idea proposed by Andre made all the tank soldiers extremely excited. They looked at Andre with admiration. However, these technicians immediately thought of a more difficult problem: how to defend against armor-piercing bullets?

After all, the biggest threat to tank soldiers is the enemy's tanks, and in tank combat, the proportion of armor-piercing shells used is increasing. In later generations, tanks are even only equipped with armor-piercing shells and grenades.

If it cannot defend against armor-piercing bullets, then this type of reactive armor will still be a failure.

"Then we need to make further improvements." Andre said, "To deal with armor-piercing bullets, we can use another mechanism, which is the shear effect. Using two thicker and harder metal plates to move in opposite directions is like a pair of scissors, which can cut off the flying armor-piercing rods."

If we only rely on increasing the strength of the armor to resist the incoming armor-piercing projectiles, the armor will have to become thicker and thicker, which is quite unrealistic. Therefore, we have to improve it structurally. The shear effect is relatively good for dealing with armor-piercing projectiles, which is also the working principle of constrained armor in later generations.

Andre is familiar with these principles. Now that he has met a tank designer, he can explain what he knows and improve the level of his own tanks.

The scene in the future where the T-72 is easily defeated by the Americans will never happen!

"The explosive reactive armor I just mentioned can solve the problem of armor-piercing shells. It has a ejection plate and a back plate, which can be used as scissors. Although it cannot cut off the flying high-strength warheads, it can still attenuate the kinetic energy of the warheads. In order to achieve good results, we can combine the three explosive reactive armor units I just mentioned together. Each unit has a ejection plate and a back plate that are 10 to 15 mm thick, and the unit group is filled with insensitive explosives. In this way, during the penetration of the armor-piercing rod, the ejection plate and the back plate move in the opposite direction, and with the thickened steel shell on the outside, the three of them work together to complete the destruction of the armor-piercing rod." Andre said.

This is just the basic principle. When it comes to specific development, there will be various engineering problems. Of course, these are not within Andre's consideration. Andre only talks about the principle.

When Andre finished saying this, he felt silence around him.

Kartsev's mind suddenly became enlightened. Yes, why didn't he think of it? The back and forth movement of the steel plate can just use the Coriolis force to offset the energy of the warhead!

"Comrade Kartsev?" Andrei waited for three full minutes, and seeing that the other party didn't speak, Andrei couldn't help but ask.

"Andrei, your idea is really great!" Kartsev said, "You are such a talent, it would be a waste of talent if you don't engage in tank design. Can I hire you to be the chief designer in Nizhny Tagil?"

"Comrade Kartsev, I have many more little ideas." Andrei chuckled in his heart.