Battle Machines - Ground Warfare

Reactive Armor
This episode would show how the vehicle evolves in the battlefield history.
I always think the history class that should be taught like this in the school.
More room to think, and more interesting avoiding snoozing ~ ~



Stryker APC
For over four thousand years, army used the mobility in the warfare.
Ancient Chariot, Medieval Heavy Cavalry, Battle Tank.

Design Formula : Armor, Speed, Fire Power.

Chariot



The Roman set the axle at the very rear of the platform maximizing its mobility to change direction in the battle.

Cavalry

Armored Car
What kind of machines did break the trench ??



Little Willie

Little Willie would get stuck on the trench.

The secret of the design is the tracks that rounded all the way of the body of the tank.

At first, the tank definitely daunting the German army, but very soon the German found this tank
vulnerable, due to notorious to maneuver it on the battlefield. The most dangerous thing is the
plunging artillery striking on the tank.





The early " Panther Tank "  emphasized the speed over the armor or fire power.







J. Walter Christie



Christie suspension. From Wikipedia.
It allowed considerably longer movement than conventional " Leaf Spring "  , and also creating
his tank to have greater cross-country speed and lower profile.



The US government rejected his design in peace time, so he sold his suspension to Soviet Union.

T-34
Soviet Russia used the Christie Suspension to build the legendary " T-34 "  tank.

Sloped Armor

Sloping armor gave the tank superior defense, despite it sacrificed some space.











The effective think armor gets greater as the sloped armor increased.

The early design of armor is vertical making the enemy shell more chances to penetrate through it.

Perpendicular Armor



30 degrees it may bury the shell.



60 degrees armor, it bounces the shell off leaving the crews safe.



From the front view of M1 Abrams, we can see no vertical armor making the minimum target.



Tiger Tank

Battle of Kursk.
This battle would determine which " T-34 " or " Tiger Tank "  is the ultimate tank.

T-34. From this figure, clearly see the " Parting Line ", " Welding Line "...

Very coarse finished surfaces.

Contrast " T-34 "  to German " Panther Tank "  is absolutely fantastic.

It looks like building in the Mercedes-Benz  factory. Very delicate and exquisite in every parts
and detail.

It may be pretty beautiful, but German us unable to produce the " Panther " on the industry scale.













King Tiger
German revised the goal from attack to defense, so the great protection became the priority.









Now, the main battle tank faces the different threat making it possible to disappear like  Chariot.

Shaped Charge.
The gray part is filled with explosive charge.

As the explosion travels down to the copper making it into the liquid and concentrating it pouring
down that allowed the liquid metal to puncture the armor.

He invented the " Reactive Armor ".







Without the Reactive Armor



Six plates.

With the Reactive Armor.





The Reactive Armor had reduced the impact by almost half.

Merkava
For Israel, the small population, the lost of highly skill tank crews outweighed lost the tank itself.
Soldiers are precious and re-training coasts high, so fire power and mobility become second and third. Unlike all other main battle tank, the " Merkava "  engine is in front which put the extra barrier between the crews and incoming fire.







This door allowed the crews get out the tank after the hit quickly.



Laser Ranger Finder



Stryker, Humvee, Landing Craft Air Cushion

[Highlights]
The brief history of tank development
Reactive Armor
Sloped Armor
Christie Suspension

[Questions]