Interesting video depicting the nasty effect that cause the TOW hollow charge against a tank filled with explosive ammo.
http://www.zippyvideos.com/3340448913188086/tow_vs_m-46_patton./
Listen the secondary explotions…frightening.
Great video Panzerknacker and amazing how all the ammo explodes after the Hit. I theink that this destroyes the tank and the crew with great effect. Do you maybe know who build this?
Henk
Do not know for sure, I think that is a US Army trial in the Aberdeen proving grounds.
AFAIK It was originally produced by Hughes Aircraft Co - long at the forefront of the missile business.
That part of Hughes is now absorbed into Raytheon.
Thank you very much. So they use it now?
Henk
Yes. TOW has gone through several generations. I believe the US military is currently onto TOW-2A and -2B
The armour threat evolved to try to defeat weapon systems just like TOW. Russian tanks in particular can often be seen absolutely covered in little boxes. These are Explosive Reactive Armour cells. Essentially they disrupting an incoming shaped charge such as that used by the warhead on TOW.
TOW-2A uses a small warhead right at the tip of the missile, which sets off the ERA. Being explosive reactive armour, ERA can only work once per location. But as the initial warhead has detonated the ERA at the location the missile is hitting, the second, main warhead has a clear run in. Simple but effective.
TOW-2B is altogether a more complex idea implemented on a similar missile. Other TOW’s (and for that matter, most but not all other Wire-guided missiles) go straight for where you point them - not TOW-2B. Because even without reactive armour, modern armoured vehicles are getting more and more sophisticated laminte armour that across the frontal arc will defeat a shaped charge warhead. But the top armour… that’s not so thick. So TOW-2B flies over the target, and two warheads (this time just two pretty much the same - aiming at slightly different points to improve probability of hitting - they’re not in tandem as with 2A) explode downover towards the thin top armour of the target. All very clever but at a guess, more complex and expensive since there are onboard sensors and all sorts.
Perhaps the biggest weakness is that TOW is generally anything but fire and forget! (apart from the wireless Fire and Forget version which I think got cancelled anyway!) This unfortunately means that you have to fire it - with all the smoke and debris and crap that firing a big rocket entails, and then sit with the target in the launcher sight while the missile - on a nice big length of wire connected to your launcher, flies towards the target a helluva lot slower than bullets or cannon rounds could fly back (as you can see on the video - it flies slow enough for you to watch it near the target!). So perhaps the most effective countermeasure to TOW is to shoot back!
I’m not a military man, but I would imagine this isn’t a very warming proposition for the guys operating the launcher, particularly if the crew of the target are unbuttoned and hence stand a good chance of seeing your location when you launch it. But it’s better than the other affordable alternatives (EDIT: well, that’s actually changing these days: see Javelin comments)! I’m sure one of our resident military men can enlighten us on this, since the likes of MILAN and Dragon all operate on the same wire-guided principles. The newer Javelin system however is fire and forget - presumably to get around this little problem! It’s also smaller and lighter (if you can call something that size light!) than TOW and should be truly man-portable, has a dual warhead and selectable between direct and top attack - so a nifty little weapon.
As an aside - Swingfire has an interesting remedy from the problem - put the launcher out of line of sight from the target! Put the Striker launch vehicle behind cover. Someone wander off with a remote optical sight and go sit up a tree or something daft like that. Spot your target and fire off a Swingfire remotely! The Swingfire comes out from behind the cover - making it difficult to return direct fire to the launch vehicle, and hopefully nobody is any the wiser as to where the missile is being sighted from.
Hey, nice vid man.
thats some good video,
the tow is a mini nuke with a delpeted uranium rod inside.
[quote=“kritischmasse”]thats some good video,[/qupte]
the tow is a mini nuke
Entirely untrue.
with a delpeted uranium rod inside.
Entirely untrue.
Shaped charge warhead. No DU involved. TOW doesn’t have the speed to utilize a kinetic kill mechanism like a DU rod. (Tank main guns however, do)
i was thinking of hellfire.
but its result is true bout being a mini nuke (hf).
others contain it also.
so how does the tow penetrate the armour at such a low speed?
Hellfire isn’t a “mini nuke” either. TOW uses a shaped charge warhead which was stated by festamus already.
the effect of du-283 is like a mini nuke, superheated when rod enters tank atmosphere.
if you want to get technical about it.
My boss worked on the development on many weapons.
we still build stuff for raytheon.
the actual effects are classified so i wouldnt expect you to know that.
I am not trying to act smart i am sharing information with you passed down to me from poeple at Edwards AFB.
here=
The Hellfire Air-to-Ground Missile System (AGMS) provides heavy anti-armor capability for attack helicopters. For antiarmor roles, the AGM-114 missile has a conical shaped charge warhead with a copper liner cone that forms the jet that provides armor penetration. This high explosive, antitank warhead is effective against various types of armor including appliqué and reactive. Actual penetration performance is classified.
Actually you got that bottom information from http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/missile/agm-114.htm and it says it uses a shaped charge.
read further the underlined is my point.
classified.
You said you got your information from people at Edwards AFB, but you got it from http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/missile/agm-114.htm . Yes, the penetration is classified, but it dosen’t use a classified “min nuke”. Also Raytheon dosen’t make Hellfires.
ya i treid to find info to paste but i knew this in 2001.
raytheon we only did windtunnel models for.
we did work for alenia aerospazio, raytheon, northrop gumman, etc.
we made the air ducts for spacestation (kevlar tubing).
microcraft started out doing windtunnel models.
we also made the hyper-x which is a research vehicle capable of doing mach 10, with a gasl scramjet engine.
vehicle A crashed due to fualty pegasus.
after mods, vehicle b and c flew excellent.
we also did a uav ring wing.(reconasance)
hopefully that is more explanitory.
Depleted Uranium rounds work by kinetic energy - which as we all know is KE = 0.5mass(Velocity^2). You’re going to need that KE to get through modern armour without using an extra load of chemical energy (like that contained in the explosive, and transmitted to the jet of molten metal of a shaped charge, perhaps?).
You can quite nicely achieve the Velocity required from a main battle tank main gun, or smaller cannon such as the 30mm rotary barrel jobbie found in the nose of an A-10.
Depleted Uranium helps you maximise the “mass” term for a given cross-section - you want to focus the MAXIMUM m KE (hence maximum mass and velocity) onto the SMALLEST area of armour possible in order to get through. And it’s tough enough not to shatter.
Much the same as nails tend to be very thin and pointy, and you tend to whack them in with a big heavy hammer without breaking!
DU is VERY very dense stuff - it isn’t used for any “nuclear” properties because quite frankly, there aren’t many. It’s DEPLETED uranium after all. Radioactivity is low, and does not really enter into it so “mini-nuke” is a misnomer. Of course, while it isn’t very radioactive it IS highly toxic (more so than lead, for instance) which is the likely source of all the health concerns.
Missiles like Hellfire and TOW just can’t give DU enough velocity to work a kinetic penetrator. You’re looking at ~1500 m/s muzzle velocity from a Rheinmetall 120mm smoothbore tank main gun, as found on the M1A1/A2 Abrams among others. That’s well in excess of 3000mph. Which is, at sea level, around or above the Mach 4 mark. Hellfire would be lucky to see 1000mph - three times less. And you can probably guess what’s coming next - as the velocity term in the Kinetic Energy equation is squared, a hypothetical DU penetrator equipped Hellfire would have NINE TIMES LESS K.E. than a 120mm DU APDS-FS round from a 120mm smoothbore, assuming Hellfire was carrying the same mass of DU. DU on an ATGM is starting to look less and less likely! 
Kinetic energy kill-mechanisms do exist on some missiles - but not for defeating armour. And probably not with DU penetrators.
huh?
throd is 18 inches long by .70 in dia.
when it penetrates the armor the rod burns at a high rate when it comes into contact with the air>
thus having the effect of of a mini nuke.
staight from the pilots mouth.
this info is classified and i wouldnt expect you to know that.
you can argue all you want and research all you want you wont find it.
I work in the mfg of these weapons, so i have first hand of the slip of the lip.
I could possibly get in trouble for posting this so subject is closed on my side.
Depleted uranium bullets and tank armor were used for the first time in warfare during Operation Desert Storm. American aircraft and American and British tanks fired hundreds of thousands of armor-piercing depleted uranium (DU) penetrators at Iraqi tanks and other armored vehicles. When a depleted uranium round impacts a target, up to 70% of the round burns up, causing radioactive and chemically toxic dust to be scattered in and around the target. (1) This dust can be transported by the wind or in water, and can enter the human body via inhalation, ingestion, or wound contamination. In addition, soldiers inside vehicles hit by DU rounds may be wounded by depleted uranium shrapnel. More than one thousand Iraqi tanks and other vehicles were destroyed and contaminated
No.
Materials do strange things when put into the conditions that a kinetic penetrator sees when penetrating armour at extremely high velocity. DU in small quantities - say powder, dust or fragments that will occur when you slam it through armour - happens to be pyrophoric. That is, it ignites in contact with air. A bit like White Phosphorous. NOT the same thing as a nuclear weapon. Nukes don’t burn in air to work. Nuclear fission or fusion occurs to release massive amounts of energy. The primary kill mechanism for a DU round is kinetic - not nuclear.
The (relatively low) radioactivity and radioactive properties of depleted uranium are purely coincidental and irrelevant (and if anything, undesirable) to its use as a kinetic penetrator for defeating armoured targets. It is used because of its density and mechanical properties.
Tungsten based rounds are an alternative to DU rounds, offering high performance without the high toxicity of DU - but they “kill” tanks in the same way. I’m sure you won’t propose that Tungsten is a mini-nuke!
staight from the pilots mouth.
this info is classified and i wouldnt expect you to know that.
No it isn’t.
you can argue all you want and research all you want you wont find it.
Because it’s not there. DU does not work by nuclear effects. At all. Period. This fact is not classified at all.
I work in the mfg of these weapons,
Microcraft make DU penetrators now? :roll:
I could possibly get in trouble for posting this so subject is closed on my side.
Believe me, you won’t get into trouble for posting what you’ve posted.
Depleted uranium bullets and tank armor were used for the first time in warfare during Operation Desert Storm. American aircraft and American and British tanks fired hundreds of thousands of armor-piercing depleted uranium (DU) penetrators at Iraqi tanks and other armored vehicles.
American aircraft firing SHELLS from their cannon, and American and British tanks firing SHELLS. And for ARMOUR PIERCING - not nuclear effects.
When a depleted uranium round impacts a target, up to 70% of the round burns up
Burns, notice. Burns (as small quantities of DU are pyrophoric as outlined above). Not the same as “undergoes nuclear fission or fusion”. Not a mini-nuke. And not a classified fact.
no microcraft in calif is now closed.
this is what the prject manager had told me it was similar t a mini nuke.
he was a pilot so i took what he said as true but i aggree with you.
he said the effects of penetrion is classified ie goverment making up alternative results.
what ever its dam nasty.