140mm SUPER Abrams vs T-72B '89 | CATTB 140mm APFSDS vs ERA | Armour Penetration Simulation

The simulation presents the 140mm depleted uranium XM964 APFSDS projectile of the Abrams CATTB impacting the composite turret cheek of the T-72B (1989) with K5 ERA, at 2km.

The Abrams CATTB was an experimental American tank developed and tested in the late-80's/early-90's, which was intended to test advanced systems. One of these was the XM291 cannon, which could either be 120mm or 140mm in calibre. The 140mm version fired massive two-piece ammunition, with one sources stating that the Armour-Piercing Fin-Stabilised Discarding-Sabot (APFSDS) projectile had a 25.5x780mm depleted uranium penetrator, and was fired at 1650m/s. This is one of the most powerful cannons ever tested on a tank.

Assessment of K5 effectiveness can be found towards the bottom of the description.

The T-72B's armour array has been based on available sources, including The Soviet Armour Blog / Tankograd's article. The turret is comprised of a Cast-Homogenous Armour (CHA) outer and inner face, with a High-Hardness Armour (HHA) plate inserted against the back wall and Non-Energetic Reactive Armour (NERA) panels spaced evenly throughout the cavity. While The Soviet Armour Blog states that the turret's internals are at a horizontal angle of 55°, various diagrams and top-view images show that it is closer to 45° -which has been used in the simulation.

Kontakt-5 ERA was added to the turret in 1989 and has been modelled with a 17mm HHA front flyer plate and two layers of 4S22 (7mm HE per layer). These dimensions are based on European measurements from a T-80U. For efficiency, the ERA acceleration has been modelled with a variable pressure load based on the Gurney and Flis equations and validated against a model with the explosive explicitly modelled.

At the impact point, the cast front face has a LoS thickness of about 110mm CHA. Each NERA panel has been modelled as 500BHN HHA, with a 21mm thick front, 6mm rubber interlayer, and a 3mm bulging plate. 22mm steel spacers are placed between each NERA panel. A 45mm 500BHN HHA rear plate is behind the NERA panels, followed by ~90mm CHA inner turret.

EVALUATION OF RESULTS:
Lanz-Odermatt XM964 Penetration based on a 25.5x780 mm DU penetrator, at 2 km (1550 m/s impact velocity), against 250BHN RHA at 35° = 720 mm LoS penetration.

T-72B '89 LoS steel (at impact point) = 528 mm (see community tab)
As the projectile could penetrate ~50mm more RHA, the XM964 was able to penetrate ~578mm LoS steel. This means its penetration potential was reduced by ~142mm (20%). In comparison, 120mm M829A1 had its penetration reduced by ~250mm (40%). This demonstrates that ERA does not provide a specific amount of protection and that it is dependent on the properties of the projectile impacting it. XM964 is thicker (therefore having a higher moment of inertia), and flies faster than M892A1, so is less affected by the ERA.

Diagrams provided here:    / @sysimulations  

Support me on Patreon: patreon.com/SYSimulations

Amazing thumbnail artwork from: SelvariaBles, ‪@Warthunder‬, and TankHistoria