[polemikos]

The metal from the hole is called spalling

I thought I read in one of the earlier reports that there was little evident spalling. That's why the crew is alive and why there was some confusion as to the nature of the missle.

[fourscore]

Good point.

[Poohbah]

I thought I read in one of the earlier reports that there was little evident spalling. That's why the crew is alive and why there was some confusion as to the nature of the missle.

Right, almost no spalling.

Boss alien: "Damnit, what happened out there? We've lost an entire starship and the Intergalactic Council wants to tear a strip off of my vignert!"

Assistant: "Uh...well...Zontar said he knew of a shortcut, and came out of hyperspace WAY too close to the third planet of this yellow dwarf."

Boss alien: "What's the planet's name?"

Assistant: "Earth. Um...looks like what was left of Zontar and his ship went straight through one of their armored fighting vehicles, and then the singularity field collapsed."

[rightofthefairway]

wow head scrater huh? anyone know anything about railguns?

I've put some really clean holes in some pretty thick steal with 12.7 x 99mm (nato) before but much still gonna be thicker than a pinky finger??

[archy]

I thought I read in one of the earlier reports that there was little evident spalling. That's why the crew is alive and why there was some confusion as to the nature of the missle.

Chunks of shattered armor roughly equivalent to the the size of golfball to that of an orange or softball, as developed by impact from a HESH or HEP round would be *a lot* and could be expected to kill everyone inside, destroy optics, hydraulic lines, batteries and radios, and probably ignite the ammunition aboard [though not usualy detonate it until the fires touch off a HEAT or HE round's detonator and booster charge] A *little* evident spalling would be about equivalent to the result of hitting a glass marble with a sledge hammer. But flying through the interior of a tank at speeds in excess of a mile per second that too can do serious damage- as seen in the impacted Abrams interior- if not to as severe a degree.

HESH/HEP is particularly effective against reinforced concrete, less so against spaced *Chobham* armor found used in the construction of British and US tanks. Typically, a HESH round impact may not even penetrate the armor, just chip off enough scabs from the interior surface to get the job done. Think of the demonstration of inertia when a cue ball strikes a line of pool balls and the last one on the end flies off with nearly the velocity of the cueball hitting the stack. Seperate the balls a bit, and that won't happen.

If you've ever seen a tempered glass window struck by a BB or air rifle pellet that results in a cone-shaped hole on the inside of the window and a tiny hole that may not even be large enough to allow the passage of the BB through it, you've got an idea of how well it can work