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Subject: Whats is the best way for an Infantry man to take out a tank?
SteelGear    2/9/2006 12:30:09 AM
There have been many methods that have popped up other the years for taking out these armoured behemoths. One of the more common ways for common "foot slogger" to deal with a 20-70 ton "problem" is to use a man portable anti tank weapon (i.e. RPG7, Milan, Javalin, RPG7 etc.) Molotov tails and anti tank mines are just a few other ways of dealing with MBTs that come to mind. A somewhat recent method in killing tanks would be the use of an IED such as the ones used in by insurgents in Iraq. Now an IED can be made from practically any kind of explosive so theoretically you can pack enough explosives into one of these devices to kill even the latest MBT. BTW have tanks ever been nailed by an IED??? In any case I don't profess to be an expert on the subject so if anyone can think of something better than what i have suggested here or something really creative.........please dont hold back
 
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longrifle    RE:Whats is the best way for an Infantry man to take out a tank?   2/9/2006 3:20:22 AM
With a radio. That has an Apache or an A-10 pilot on the other end.
 
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SteelGear    RE:Whats is the best way for an Infantry man to take out a tank?   2/9/2006 4:29:48 AM
I said "Whats is the best way for an Infantry man to take out a tank?" as in how the infantry man himself (along with members of his squad) can kill the tank NOT with air support. Besides air support may not always be available to the infantry man so he will have use other assets to take care of "business"
 
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shek    RE:Whats is the best way for an Infantry man to take out a tank?   2/9/2006 7:10:16 AM
Sticky bombs!
 
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AussieEngineer    RE:Whats is the best way for an Infantry man to take out a tank?   2/9/2006 9:45:17 AM
Javelin maybe... Sniper rifle, shoot out the optics.
 
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Weasel    RE:Whats is the best way for an Infantry man to take out a tank?   2/9/2006 9:53:26 AM
Actually, An AN-94 rifle with SLAP rounds firing a two round burst in the butt, might give you a mobility kill. Its an interesting weapon because it fires 2 rounds in the same recoil motion. If you could speed it up so the ROF/min was in the order of, say 1600 RPM then you would have (for all intents and purposes) a segmented long rod penetrator. Segmented Long Rods have 130% of the penetration efficiency of a Long Rod Penetrator as a general rule. So it wouldn't be very nice to a lightly armored engine compartment of an MBT. Anyway first order of biz would be to make the "kill" shot from behind and above if you could. I'll leave it up to you as to how you are going to do that with all the support vehicles and motivated marines around. Yes IEDs have taken out MBTs specifically the MK3 Merkava with 100kg (ie overkill) of explosive. There have been other ways an IED has worked but I figure you will find out about all those when you go to Duntroon. I would suggest you learn demolitions, as that is what an IED is anyway, and if you were on foot patrol and knew you might be facing tanks, keep an eye out for the materials and best terrain you need to succeed. Like any battle, preparation is the key to success (I would imagine).
 
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SteelGear    RE:Whats is the best way for an Infantry man to take out a tank?   2/9/2006 5:49:53 PM
A lot of cool ideas here. Segmented Long Rods?? Hey can anyone explain to me what these things are and how they work?
 
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Weasel    RE:Whats is the best way for an Infantry man to take out a tank?   2/10/2006 5:50:01 PM
segmented long rods work on the same principle as long rod penetrators, but it was found that they were more effecient in defeating an armor. trouble is that it is very hard to replicate in the field....essentially they are a series of say 5 rods, launched at X velocity but, by the time they reach the strike face they are spaced out, one behind the other. They are good for increasing your penetration efficiency for, say something like a missile, as you can space the rods out within the airframe and it does the same thing. this means you can make the missile smaller, becasue you do not have to reach as high a velocity to achieve the same penetration you would with an ordinary long rod penetrator like the "silver bullet" used in the 1991 GW.... so it follows that if you can fire two bullets in one recoil motion (so that they are following each other despite the soldier's best efforts to pull the weapon one way or the other) and the ROF is such that the spacing remains small, then you will begin to achieve the same penetration benefits of a segemented long rod penetrator.... not perfect, but similar. You can find all this on the internet and the missile thing? that is speculation... cheers W
 
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joe6pack    RE:Whats is the best way for an Infantry man to take out a tank?   2/10/2006 7:31:44 PM
In general infantry vs tank is not got a match up. Most of the things people come up with for taking on armor require getting relatively close to the tank. Which is not all that easy. Particularly if the tank is working with enemy infantry. The Javelin and some of the other "fire and forget" systems that have a top attack mode are likely infantry's best shot. Even so, I imagine if you were dealing with a well trained opponent, you are trading your infantry AT team for one tank. In regards to some of the methods mentioned, heres my 2 cents from my experience as an infantryman: Things like mines and IED's require the tank to actually run over them or get close to them. It's not a certainty that will happen. It's also tends to only be an option when in the defense or as an ambush. RPGx / AT-4 / etc.. A death wish for the brave, stupid or desperate. Yes, you "could" disable or if really lucky kill a modern MBT with them. However, the max effective range on those is 300-500 meters. A tanks main gun and variety of machineguns is lot better than that. That's also within range of any infantry that are with the tank. Even if you score a mobility kill, you have just pissed the tankers off and they have access to two or three machineguns that will likely ruin your whole day. Molotov - works fine against T-55's in the 1950's Hungarian cities. I wouldn't want to try it. Someone mentioned the radio and that is the honest and best answer to dealing with an enemy tank if you are an infantryman. Friendly armor, jets, attack helos, artillery, and all that sort of stuff is around for that reason. There are lot's of ways an infantryman by his lonesome "could" take out a tank. Although, not many of those have a very high probability of success (if you consider success not becoming a causality in the attempt AND taking out the tank).
 
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Horsesoldier    RE:Whats is the best way for an Infantry man to take out a tank?   2/10/2006 7:45:01 PM
>>An AN-94 rifle with SLAP rounds firing a two round burst in the butt, might give you a mobility kill. Its an interesting weapon because it fires 2 rounds in the same recoil motion. If you could speed it up so the ROF/min was in the order of, say 1600 RPM then you would have (for all intents and purposes) a segmented long rod penetrator.<< A 5.45mm projectile before the sabot petals seperate, fired from a man-portable and shoulder-fired weapon, is not going to do much. By the standards of even a relatively modest weapon system like, say, a Bradley's 25mm gun, 5.45mm delivers negligible energy, and that is before the sabot splits off, taking a portion of the muzzle energy with it. Even against non-frontal aspect armor on a tank it is going to be a non-penetrator by a couple orders of magnitude.
 
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TheArmchairCmd    RE:Whats is the best way for an Infantry man to take out a tank?   2/10/2006 8:02:18 PM
IIRC, according to UK Gen (ret?) Sir Hugh Michael Rose you can stop a T-55 with a crow bar. He said it in a BBC interview when a NATO airstrike had just taken out a Bosnian Serb T-55 that had been shelling an airfield at point blank. He was a tad miffed that the Muslim forces had let it lumber alone and unhindered through their lines from the Serb positions in the mountains and into the valley of Sarajevo. He could have stopped it with a crow bar. Now imagine what you can do with 21st century crow bar! ;)
 
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