‘Something’ felled an M1A1 Abrams tank in Iraq – but what?

Army Times ^ | 11/3/04 | John Roos

[KC_Conspirator]

bump

[dighton]

Some interesting comments here and here.

[Akira]

Very interesting, thanks for posting...

[Fighting Irish]

Woooooops! Thanks...didn't know this was a re-post.sorry

Moderator....do your thing!

[Yardstick]

Thank goodness the crew wasn't hurt by whatever it was. I can see why the tank crews would be worried. On the plus side, it sounds like whatever this thing is has been designed to disable the mechanicals of the tank rather than kill the crew.

[Joee]

I have viewed pictures of the incident and am totally snowed. I can think of two basic questions in regards to the situation. The first, what weapon has the velocity to do what happened to the tank? The second, is what alloy allowed such penetration without total self-destruction.

On a totally wild stab as to answers, I would guess the launcher would be of the electro magnetic type, capable of over 6000 FPS. I know the US is testing such. The projectile ??? I haven't a clue.

Regardless, I think crews or armored vehicles will not sleep as well, henceforth.

[Kay Soze]

ping for later review!

[cavtrooper21]

Seen this??

[Justice]

I wonder if our old adversaries in Russia are behind this new technology??

[Sabatier]

laser?

[archy]

Seen this??

Yep. See earlier FReeppost *here*.

[Joee]

"Laser!" No, I don't think so, as a projectile was involved.

[cavtrooper21]

ok.
sorry.

[MindBender26]

But think of the electrical energy that would be needed, if you're talking railgun or the like.

[swilhelm73]

So the only question here, is this one of the weapons Russia was selling Hussein under the table, or one of the weapons France was selling Hussein under the table?

[Husker24]

It was a shaped charge of some sort, not any type of rail gun.

[Ogmios]

Agreed, this was not a railgun, this was a sophisticated RPG, and it happened accidentally or on purposely hit one of the weakest parts of the tank.

I don't know if any of you have seen pictures, but the projectile went through near a hinge in the skirt and just above one of the wheel assemblies, there are weak spots, not many, but some.

This was nothing more then a sophisticated RPG that either got lucky, or the guy was a really good shot.

[MindBender26]

Agree. Was posting to #15 who thought it might be. Also, agree it was lucky shot. RPG very inaccurate.

[MindBender26]

Agree. Was posting to #15 who thought it might be ELECTRIC. Also, agree it was lucky shot. RPG very inaccurate.