Spall Liner

Kevlar is a common composite material used in the west as „spall liners“ in tanks like the British Chieftain, but is also used as backing material for ceramics in armor like the M-1 Abrams. Kevlar offer less resistance to AP shot compared to Fiberglas but comparable figures for APFSDS and HEAT. Not as good as Steltexolites but lighter at just ¾ of the density, it’s a good solution as a spall liner. The effect of spall is like a ‘small grenade’ going off inside the AFV, with the addition of spall liners this is reduced to a ‘shot gun blast’ [50% reduction in particles and blast cone]. Newer materials like ‘Spectra Shield’ and ‘Dyneema’ achieve the same effect but at 2/3 the weight of Kevlar. Dyneema is of note as being the liner in German AFVs, and has comparable resistance to Fiberglas at 1/3 the density.(Armor Technology, Paul Lakowski)

In Steel Beasts, spall liners are factored into the damage models. This is important to remember, since the vehicles equipped with spall liners will be harder to kill because of this. Spall liner essentially minimizes the effects of spall which, in its current representation in the simulation, greatly reduces the chance of indirect crew damages. This means that penetrating hits on vehicles with spall liners, will have much lower probabilities of crew damages from spall as opposed to vehicles that do not have spall liners. The damage model in Steel Beasts is detailed enough that spall liners are only present on the surfaces in which they are present in real life, meaning that simply because a vehicle has spall liner does not mean it is present all over it.

Current vehicles in Steel Beasts that are equipped with spall liners:

Tanks: Leopard 2A5DK Leopardo 2E Strv 122 [[

PCs: CV 90/35 DK CV 90/40-C BMP-2 Pizarro M113AS4