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Subject:
RE:You must be Russian
mustavaris
3/16/2002 5:00:28 AM
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| First: we must remember that composite armour means exact the same when speaking of for example composite bows in 16th century.. They are made of different layers and materials. Of course- thereīs such things that we call "composite materials" but its not the same as composite armour. Straightly saying: Russians donīt have composite materials in T-64 but definately that machine had the first composite armour in the world. The Combination K that was used in T-64 fits well in rounded turret- basically it is fiberglass and other stuff (donīt know what) messed between layers of different kinds of ordinary armour, its far more efficient against HEAT than ordinary armour and also better against kinetic penetrators. Later Combination K has been developed but basically itīs the same stuff in T-80. Russians have developed the use of composite armour very far and that gives them very good results even though they dont use real composite materials in their MBTs. That new tank (dont remember the name) they are developing is going to have armour of composite materials and is said to combine the good sides of two aspects.
Russians have used real composite materials in their fighting equipment (rotor blades, bullet-proof vests, air-planes, helicopters etc), but they havent used them widely in armoured vehicles- because they arent so effective when comparing to stuff they use- we must remember the soviet eagerness to rely more on numbers than just little better quality. And we must remember the environment- 50+ ton western vehicles with high ground pressure would just sink into soil in their conditions. I have seen pics of two T-72s doing that in southern Finland and they have very low ground pressure.. 50+ ton tank has little use outside roads here in Finland and I guess that its the same in Russia.
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