What are all these rectangular blocks on the outside of a T-72?
What are all these rectangular blocks on the outside of a T-72?
Levi Myers
Benjamin Hall
it should be ERA
metal boxes of explosives
their detonation can interrupt the flow of a shaped charge, allowing them to resist HEAT shells and rockets better
Isaac Thompson
Reactive armor to defeat HEAT warheads.
The reason you don't see them on western tanks is because they were designed with reactive armor packages integrated already.
Isaac Brooks
Ahh...That's a Russian MRE box. You see comrade. When Russian tankers passing the war-torn village, they'll pass this MRE box to affected civilian because Russian are known with their charity and benevolent nature.
Nathan Nguyen
Reactive armor.
High-Explosive-Anti-Tank (HEAT) charges use a directed jet of plasma or molten metal to penetrate steel armor, and those blocks are full of plastic explosives. When struck by a HEAT charge they explode, disrupting the jet and preventing penetration.
Ian Rodriguez
>Don't want tank to explode
>Strap explosives to tank
Blake Cruz
It's also somewhat useful against KE pens (though less so than HEAT) by shattering (part of) the arrow. Though a part of it still impacts the armor, due to sheer speed.
Blake Nelson
ERA has some major drawbacks though, the biggest being that when stuck the casing explodes, sending metal fragments in a cone away from it, which obviously isn't very healthy for any dismounted infantry nearby. Also, being detonated it's gone, any further hits will penetrate, and there are dual, and even triplex HEAT charge warheads that completely ignore ERA.
>satan
Telling hard truths.
Hudson Sullivan
>Also, being detonated it's gone, any further hits will penetrate
i mean, its still an extra hit you other wise might not have survived
and there are dual, and even triplex HEAT charge warheads that completely ignore ERA.
single charge weapons are still the majority of anti-tank threats
like, you shouldn't get complacent, obviously
but even in a high threat environment its still protecting you from a good chunk od threats, even if its not all the threats
its not, like, the perfect defence
but the advantages of installing it are really good and enough to offset its limitations
Carson Carter
Tank means more than a nearby suicide cultist anyway.