MYSTERY WEAPON ZAPS TANKS

NY Post ^ | 11/5/03 | Niles Latham

[Tumbleweed_Connection]

The Army is investigating whether pro-Saddam insurgents have a new mystery weapon that can disable the powerhouse M1AI Abrams tank - while leaving only a pencil-size hole in the hull. The Army Times reported yesterday that commanders in Iraq have grown alarmed about the prospect that exotic new weaponry may be in the hands of the death squads after one of the 69-ton workhorse tanks was disabled while on patrol in Baghdad Aug. 28.

[Fierce Allegiance]

there was a post around 10-11 this morning explaining this was likely a new version of the russian RPG-7.

[spunkets]

"and the guys facing it want very much to know what it is "

Never mind what it is. It only had an effect, because it hit a place with light armor.

"and how they can defend themselves"

Use the main gun. It's very good at removing pesky little threats like this.

[Newbomb Turk]

Your post make it seem as if they have destroyed multiple tanks. This is untrue as only one M1A2 has been disabled by said weapon and it most likely was a lucky shot.

I have seen the pictures of the damage and the penatration point is not exactly the most heavily armored point of the tank.

I do beleive it still is a cause for concern.

[Howie]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1014037/posts
Found it, finally.

[xm177e2]

Not the M1A2, the M1A1. The A2 is better armored (although if this "mystery weapon" is as good as it sounds, it would probably be able to disable an M1A2 just as easily as an M1A1).

I agree with your analysis. If only one tank has gone down, it doesn't seem like we have a lot to be worried about (unless this is some secret weapon our enemies will spring on us en masse at some later date).

[John H K]

It's not clear that anything about the RPG-7 warhead was all that "new" at all, even.

[kimoajax]

In Vietnam we used to put sort of heavy rebar type cages around our very lightly armored gunboats, zippos and the like to catch these frightening little buggers...so that they would hopefully never even expload, or if they did, to at least detonate them a few inches earlier which helped a bit.

It was a real thrill to remove them with a pipe wrench and a rope afterwards, and gingerly drop them over the side.

[Newbomb Turk]

Here is a link to the pictures of the tank and a good explanation of the weapon that may have caused the damage.LINK

[Newbomb Turk]

Yep M1A1 not M1A2. My Bad.

[Gorzaloon]

It's not clear that anything about the RPG-7 warhead was all that "new" at all, even.

It just sounds like a typical shaped charge, a small one.

At beyond 10" or so, even a HEAT 105 only makes a smaller-than-finger sized hole in Chrome Moly for the rest of the 16" it penetrates. In front of the exiting jet of metal would still be a very bad place to be, though.

[em2vn]

I rode Alphas and Tangos out of Dong Tam. What did you ride?

[ijcr]

Classic HEAT damage. HEAT-High Explosive Anti-Tank; a type of anti-tank round that defeats an armored target by means of a hyper-velocity jet that is formed when a charge consisting of a concave metal hemisphere or cone (known as a liner) backed by a high explosive detonates.

The most likley culprit is the Iranan "Saghegh" , an improved version of the manportable RPG-7 anti-tank rocket with an 80 mm tandem HEAT warhead instead of the standard 30 mm design.

It is basically a copy of the Russian PG-7vr grenade developed by the Federal State Unitary Enterprise "State Research and Production Enterprise "Bazalt".

The PG-7VR has a tandem warhead capable of defeating some modern tanks provided with apron explosive reactive armor.

One thing is for sure, these journalists love to make the enemy ten feet tall and armed with ray guns.