Approved: sci-military-moderated@retro.com Return-Path: news@news1.rivrw1.nsw.optushome.com.au Delivery-Date: Thu Aug 09 07:09:08 2001 Delivery-Date: Thu, 09 Aug 2001 07:09:07 -0700 for ; Thu, 9 Aug 2001 07:09:05 -0700 (PDT) for ; Thu, 9 Aug 2001 09:54:04 -0400 (EDT) (InterMail vM.4.01.03.20 201-229-121-120-20010223) with ESMTP id <20010809135357.PVYH4715.mss.rdc2.nsw.optushome.com.au@news1.rivrw1.nsw.optushome.com.au> for ; Thu, 9 Aug 2001 23:53:57 +1000 Thu, 9 Aug 2001 23:53:56 +1000 (EST) To: sci-military-moderated@moderators.isc.org Message-ID: <3B72960C.A49E77B8@hotmail.com> From: NME Organization: Ex Inferus radio X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.7 [en-gb] (Win98; U) X-Accept-Language: en Newsgroups: sci.military.moderated Subject: Re: What anti-tank missiles will take out an M-1 Abrahms? References: <6o7qmt47bc5e4tch8j13o581523a69j70t@4ax.com><3B6FCAF0.6CA8E26@schunter.etc.tu-bs.de> <3B71667F.3335E228@schunter.etc.tu-bs.de> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Date: Thu, 09 Aug 2001 13:53:56 GMT X-NNTP-Posting-Host: 203.164.55.63 X-Complaints-To: abuse@optushome.com.au X-NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 09 Aug 2001 23:53:56 EST Content-Length: 1906 Lines: 36 NNTP-Posting-Host: 5a2a99f6.newsreader.tycho.net X-Trace: 997385070 gemini.tycho.net 322 205.179.181.194 X-Complaints-To: abuse@tycho.net Marcus Metzler wrote: > Michael Emrys schrieb: > > > > A grenade down the barrel in a modern tank wont do anything - cause you have > > > to get it in when the breach is open. > > > > Why? I should have thought that a grenade just going off in the barrel would > > put a crimp in it. > > A grenade in the barrel explodes - guess what happens ? A bit smoke will come out > of the barrel that's all. The barrel is very high grade steel with chrome coating > and withstands the blast of like 28 Kg explosives driving the shell at Mach 6 out > of the barrel. A mere 300-400g handgranate will do nothing :) > Of course the charge that accelerates the shell has a special fuse and tends to > channel the blast to the front as best as engineers could design it. But the > grenade explosion is lacking both power and the blast can efficiently channel > through the barrel outside so the pressure is even less (as the blast doesn't get > blocked at least in one direction). > Best would be using something like the welding-charges they use for railroad > tracks and weld some steel inside the barrel - the next shot *might* break the > barrel. But you need to be a metallurgy expert to know what type of welding charge > and what steel you weld inside the barrel as chrome surface is one of the worsed > materials to weld something to. And you probably need like 15 minuts to do that > .. > > murx A thermite grenade (if it does exist) would seem like the ticket in this case. Thermite is used to weld train tracks and is made up of rust and aluminium powder and is set off with some sort of magnesium flare or an oxy/acet torch. I'm pretty sure it would get plenty hot enough to melt the lining of a gun barrel,as it has to get hot enough to liquify iron (1,450 C plus). The only problem with thermite is that it is not an instant heat build-up and requires time to burn the aluminium and melt/purify the iron.