TankSharp

[PlasmaKrab]

Thanks for all the work, Mark, I think I'll make extensive use of this!

[MarkSheppard]

Thanks for all the work, Mark, I think I'll make extensive use of this!

May I suggest for the future US AFVs which share a common chassis across all lines, like the IFV, SP Artillery, Tank etc; in that you design them so that they all have the same basic protection, perhaps 50mm of Rolled RHA (outer frontal hull), followed by about 650mm of void space then 50mm of Rolled RHA (Inner hull).

And basically the void space is filled with materials of different densities depending on your protection requirements?

E.g, the MBT variant gets 650mm of Chobham Generation IV; while the IFV gets several layers of honeycombed aluminum, while the SPA gets filled with kevlar anti spall layers...

[Marcello]

The protection needs of a MBT and a SPA are too much different for a standardized armor scheme to make sense. A SPA need all around protection against shells fragments, top protection against DPCM (be it ERA blocks or some composite) and maybe provision for some appliquè just in case it is pushed in situations which exceeds its normal mission. That's it. Everything else is superfluos, only a waste of money and useless strain for the mechanical systems.

[MarkSheppard]

The protection needs of a MBT and a SPA are too much different for a standardized armor scheme to make sense.

With 1950s and 1960s technology, yes; but not with 1970s and onward tank technology.

Essentially, tanks have become Rolled Homogenous Armor enclosures for slabs of fairly thick secret armor inserts, which can be swapped out to improve protection when needed.

In fact, in order to get maximum protection from most modern composite and ceramic armor systems, you need a dense cover and backing for the ceramic/composite, because the backing and cover plate actually help increase the resistance of the plate to KE by 25% over what it should be.

So if you take the armor insert technology to it's logical end, modular armor; it opens up new design approaches:



What if you simply design a common 40 ton tracked vehicle chassis; and then mix and match armor to each role?

The tank can have the 9 ton 600mm thick ceramic/composite chobham frontal armor insert; while in the SP Artillery piece, the 600mm thick insert space in the frontal armor are is left empty, and the weight is instead allocated towards:

5 tons of 25mm SHS Steel Armor plates bolted onto the top armor for artillery fragment protection; followed with 4 tons of ERA bolted on top of the SHS plates to protect against DPICM.

[MarkSheppard]

And version 0.3 is done!

[PlasmaKrab]

May I suggest for the future US AFVs which share a common chassis across all lines, like the IFV, SP Artillery, Tank etc; in that you design them so that they all have the same basic protection, perhaps 50mm of Rolled RHA (outer frontal hull), followed by about 650mm of void space then 50mm of Rolled RHA (Inner hull).

That's exactly what I had figured out for now. Without the metrics, of course, and that's where Tanksharp will be helpful.
If you look at my OOB, most Block-III combat vehicles have exactly the same hull armor levels.

Now I hope your latest version is advanced enough to include crew-in-hull ergonomics, advanced ERA and NERA, hybrid drives, DE weapons...

[Marcello]

"With 1950s and 1960s technology, yes; but not with 1970s and onward tank technology"

So did the designers of the 2S19, AUF-1, Palmaria, PzH 2000, AS90 etc, all post 60's stuff and none of which has armor exceeding the levels I described (judging from the information available), get it wrong ? And some of those are actually built using tank components.
I am all for standardization but sometimes it does not make sense. Using the same components (like engine and such) for maintenance ease is a good thing. But a tank and a SPA are on the opposite spectrum of the level of protection vs volume protected trade off. Unless you are designing a SPA turrett for the export market, to be mated with whatever tank hull is locally available (like the Denel T6) the approach described does not make much sense. Two 50mm layers of RHA is overkill for a SPA armor needs.