Projectile that penetrated M1A1 Abrams Tank still a mystery

Strategypage.com ^ | Oct 31,2003

[spetznaz]

October 31, 2003: The U.S. Army is not saying much about the "mystery projectile" that went through the side skirts and side armor of an M-1A1 tank last August 28th. Whatever it was just barely missed the tanks gunner (it went through the back of his seat and grazed part of his flak jacket) and put a pencil size hole nearly 50mm deep into the four inch thick armor on the other side of the tank. The damage may have been done by a projectile, not a shaped charge (which uses a jet of super-hot plasma to burn a hole in armor and put a quantity of plasma and molten metal inside the tank.) No known RPG would do that kind of damage. But some Western anti-tank rockets generate a different kind of plasma jet that might create the kind of damage done. A U.S. 25mm armor piercing shell (fired from the gun mounted on the M-2 Bradley armored vehicle) uses a small penetrator, but that penetrator is of depleted uranium, which burns like a flare once it is inside its target. One major unknown is the large number of portable anti-tank weapons (especially Russian and Chinese models) that have not been tested against the M-1 tank. It's not unusual for new weapons to have unpredictable effects once they are first used in combat. Until the army releases more information, if they have any, the mystery lingers.

[spetznaz]

I remember wondering what the heck that 'projectile' was, and more importantly whether the Iraqis had more of them. Anyways here are the pictures of the objects penetration.

1) The white piece of paper in the photo above covers where the tanks armor was penetrated.

2) The red circle in the photo above marks where the side armor of the M1A1 tank was penetrated.

3) A close-up view of the penetration of the side armor (in the turret well).

4) Whatever penetrated the hull, continued inside the tank, going through a hose behind the gunners seat.

5) The projectile continued through the back of the gunners seat. The gunner was in the seat at the time and his flak jacket was damaged, and he reported that it felt like someone had hit him in the back with a hammer.

6) The mystery projectile continued under the breech of the main gun and damaged a safety guard.

7) The mystery projectile then came out the other side of the safety guard.

8) The mystery projectile then went through the turret networks box.

9) The mystery projectile round then went through the breaker panel. The mystery projectile (or stream of hot plasma) finally hit the opposite side of the tank, making a hole some 45mm deep.

[spetznaz]

Ping: Mystery projectile that penetrated Abrams tank in Iraq remains a mystery.

[OneTimeLurker]

Maybe it was friendly fire? It's not out of the realm of possiblity that we may have a top secret weapon that is capable of this. That would explain why we haven't seen other incidents too.

[Poohbah]

Meanwhile, 70,000 light-years away, someone is trying to explain to his boss what happened to one of their starships. (c8

"It seems that Grogthar made a wee bit of a navigational error and came out of hyperspace inside Earth's atmosphere, less than a meter away from one of their armored fighting vehicles. Oopsie."

[Blueflag]

Perhaps a very fortunate outcome of blue on blue SABOT round gone astray.

[swarthyguy]

It's the Magic Bullet!

This is an indication of some serious s**t coming down.

We can laugh at the jihadis, but their experience, combined with the ex-army types, and ability to procure new arms (Apart from those in country) through their arab moneybags
means some tough times ahead this winter.

There've been a couple of other threads on this with a lot more detail and speculation on the nature of this projectile.

[Blueflag]

depleted U round can do this, but odd it did not spall. Perhaps due to the nature of the Chobham armour

[Bear_in_RoseBear]

Mystery-weapon ping...

[Experiment 6-2-6]

"It seems that Grogthar made a wee bit of a navigational error and came out of hyperspace inside Earth's atmosphere, less than a meter away from one of their armored fighting vehicles. Oopsie."

"Admiral Grogthar thought surprise would be beneficial.."

Darth Vader: "Admiral Grogthar is as clumsy as he is stupid..."

[spetznaz]

If possible please provide a link to those threads. Thanks Swarthy.

[FreeInWV]

Geez! Now I know what I want for Christmas!

[AAABEST]

It most certainly wasn't any type of plasma stream, the troop would be burnt to a crisp if it had been.

My guess is it's some kind of sabot round, which creates a concusion that would explain the gunner feeling like he was hit with a hammer.

If it was a large sabot round, the concussion from that would have made the gunner feel like his nads were coming out of his ears, because that's kind of what actaully happens.

[spokeshave]

High speed Yellow 2D pencil....or a rail gun....?

[Jim Cane]

Dirty Russian Pet Tricks?

[glorgau]

My observations:

1. The shot was center mass on the tank, so it was probably fired from some distance away.
2. Impact was slightly behind the armored track skirts. The front skirts are classified armor (probably DU), and the rear ones are thin steel. The shot went through the thin steel.
3. The positioning of the skirts worked - if the shot was farther forward, it would have killed the gunner, but it would also have had to penetrate the armored skirt.
4. M-1 gunners now have a good excuse to lean forward in their seats. In the Army, sleeping while leaning against the sight was called "gunner's scan mode".

I wonder if this thing set off the fire suppression system. No mention of that.

[omega4412]

One of them is
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1010258/posts

Related:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/921019/posts

[Dead Dog]

This resembles some of the target at JPL's hypervelocity balistics lab. Those are caused by relatively small objects hitting a spacecraft at orbital speeds (14K mph) and turning the targets hull into a plasma sprey that does most of the damage. Like Plasma buckshot. This pic seems to fallow that. What ever hit it was moving DAMN fast.

[spunkets]

Pics 2 and 3 show the projectile didn't penetrate the turret itself, just a reletively thin section of base. In order to get to that the projectile had to fly in the narrow gap between the top plane of the tank body and the lower edge of the turret body. That seciton of base is probably just steel. There's no reason to think a sabot round wouldn't go through there and end up putting a 1.8" hole in the steel on the opposite inside wall. That exposed slice of the turret base is unprotected by any fancier armour system.

[pfflier]

Are you part of the blame US first movement? Our government is the root of all evil and is full of conspirators? No other country in the world is capable of developing new technology?

Art Bell awaits you.

P.S. Area 51 gets cold at night. Take a jacket with your tinfoil hat.

[biblewonk]

coolness ping.