What is composite armor? Can the current tanks defend against the latest armor-piercing projectiles?

After World War II, with the development of precision charge technology of armor-piercing projectile and piezoelectric ceramic fuze technology, homogeneous armor has come to an end. Because the modern armor-piercing projectile can produce enough armor-piercing ability compared with the homogeneous armor whose warhead diameter is nearly 7 times larger, it is obviously unrealistic for tank designers to increase the tank armor to nearly 1 meter thickness if they want to obtain enough defense ability. It is impossible for today's main battle tanks to install armor with a thickness close to 1 m or even more than 1 m at the expense of precious loads.

British? Challenger? In order to solve the contradiction between car body weight, armor thickness and protection ability, composite armor appeared on -2 tank. This kind of armor made of several different materials has stronger protection ability. At that time, tanks had two development routes, one was jointly developed by France and Germany? Europa chariot? Series, later Germany? Leopard 1 and French? AMX-30？ , this kind? A streaking car? Completely abandoned the armor protection ability, in Germany and France's view, it is better to directly pursue the maximization of maneuverability and firepower than to assemble heavy armor and still be penetrated by armor-piercing projectiles.

The other was led by Britain, America and the Soviet Union? Composite armor? The most representative is the British army? Challenger? . There are many kinds of materials that can be used for composite armor, including metal, plastic, ceramics and even air. Most composite materials are much lighter than all-metal equivalent materials, but they are not as protective as homogeneous steel plates. Compared with traditional armor, composite armor is stronger, more effective and lighter, but its disadvantage is that its cost is too high, which limits its large-scale use in general vehicles and is generally only used in military special vehicles or main battle tanks.

Although the composite armor of Britain and the United States is very famous, it seems that the first widespread use of composite armor was on the Soviet T-64 main battle tank, which used a kind of tank called. Combination k? The material plays a protective role through the thixotropy mechanism through fiber reinforced plastic (FRP) between the inner steel layer and the outer steel layer. Later version of T-64 adopted newer boron carbide filled resin material, which greatly improved the protective performance.

The world's most famous silicon carbide composite armor used for military special vehicle protection is? Chobham? Composite armor, in the1970s, the British Tank Research Center found a stronger method to resist thermal bombs. By using special ceramic materials, it can be broken during thermoelastic penetration, and the geometry of high-energy metal jet is destroyed, thus greatly reducing the threat of penetration. In the1990s, it fought Iraq? Desert storm? In action? Chobham? The protection and effectiveness of composite armor have been fully verified. There was not a British army during the whole war? Challenger? Destroyed by the fire of Iraqi tanks, the American M 1 abrams and the British Challenger -2 all use the third generation? Chobham? Armor.

Aramid ceramic composite armor Of course, we also have our own composite armor. Both Type 96 and Type 99 are made of constrained ceramic composite armor independently developed by China, which can resist the direct attack of M256 smooth-bore gun of US Army M 1A2 and depleted uranium bomb with 55 times120mm caliber launched by extended version of German Leopard 2A6, and the protection ability is equivalent to1000mm to 65438+.