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Printable list of the different ammo's


Siinji

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Is there a list of the different ammos, with short explanation? I´m having a hard time remembering all the different ammos. Tank ammo, Antitank ammo...etc...everything. Would be cool if someone could make a list, where the name is mentioned with a two or three sentence explanation, together with strenght explanation. I can make it into a nifty printable PDF, if someone just writes them down.

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I'll add a list to this post.

Full Calibre Kinetic Energy rounds:

AP Armour Piercing. Solid shot, usually full bore although it can contain subcalibre penetrating cores, and not containing a bursting charge. Relies on KE for penetration and behind armour effect.

API Armour Piercing Incendiary. Similar to AP, but including an incendiary compound at the nose or base. This offers slightly enhanced target effect against flammable targets or on penetration at the expense of slightly less penetration.

APHE Armour Piercing High Explosive. AP shell with an HE bursting charge. If the round penetrates intact, the bursting charge is extremely effective at disabling a vehicle but at high penetrations the shell often breaks up, preventing a high-order detonation. Penetration is by KE, and the normal behind armour effect of KE rounds is augmented by the HE filling.

APC Armour Piercing Capped. AP Shot or Shell, with a blunt Penetrating Cap. The cap is designed to prevent the shot ricocheting and to reduce the tendency for the shell to shatter on striking armour at an oblique angle.

APCBC Armour Piercing Capped Ballistic Cap. An APC round, with a streamlined fairing at the nose to improve energy retention and penetration at longer ranges.

APCR Armour Piercing Composite Rigid. A subcalibre solid hardened penetrator contained in a lightweight full calibre shot. This is the precursor to APDS, and is only used in circumstances where the discarding sabot petals are not advisable. The A10's GAU8 uses API rounds which have this form, but the name is seldom used for modern ammunitions.

Subcalibre Kinetic Energy Projectiles.

APDS Armour Piercing Discarding Sabot. A hardened sub calibre projectile driven in the barrel by a light weight alloy shoe, or sabot. On exiting the muzzle the sabot falls away, and the dense small projectile continues to the target. The smaller diameter gives better energy retention and the light weight allows a higher muzzle velocity from the same gun. This gives much better penetration than a full bore KE round, but the terminal effect of a the smaller diameter is less. The shot is flat and at short range gives superior accuracy, but at longer ranges the shot-shot dispersion is often high enough to reduce accuracy below that for AP or HE rounds, especially for earlier examples.

APFSDS or Slprrj Armour Piercing Fin Stabalised Discarding Sabot. A hardened sub-calibre projectile driven in the barrel by a sabot. The projectile is longer and narrower than for an equivalent APDS round, giving better energy retention and increased penetration. The increased penetration makes most vehicles vulnerable, but the small penetrator sizes could cause lethality problems for single shot effectiveness of mid calibre weapons. (40mm Bofors has an in flight diameter of ~11mm, and a penetrator diameter of (est) 9mm, roughly equivalent to 50 cal AP). Stabilisation is primarily by fin stabilisation, but almost all are spun (relatively slowly), either by slipping bands on a rifled bore, a small section of rifling near the muzzle of a smooth bore or by the configuration of the fins. Some types are spun at full rate, notably those from Rheinmetall for medium calibres.

FAPDS - FAPFSDS Frangible APDS and Frangible APFSDS. The penetrator is also made from a heavy metal alloy, but is designed to breakup on exiting the armour (it breaks up in the armour, but the confinement by the target allows the projectile to continue penetrating nearly as deeply as the normal APDS/APFSDS round does (at least in medium calibres)). The dispersion is reliable with only a few mm of armour/aircraft skin etc, but penetration depths of around 100mm are claimed for the 30-35mm rounds. Penetration and behind armour effects from KE. Much more effective against light/soft targets than normal AP types.

PELE Penetrator with Enhanced Lateral Effects. Recycled ammunition, can be made in a variety of calibres and formats. We have the DM33 version in 120mm available. The centre of the penetrator is bored out, and a softer plastic material is incorporated, possibly with a central penetrating core(s). The penetrator defeats armour as normal, where the heavy materials are located, possibly a central perforation and an annular ring perforation by the external walls. The armour material confines the lateral expansion of the projectile, while the poor penetrating capability of the plastic filler stresses the armour and penetrator walls. On exiting the rear of the armour the projectile shatters with a much wider dispersion of fragments than is usual. Good expansion is seen with very thin targets 10mm from one test shot published, and penetration depth should be good too as rod length is not reduced (the primary penetration parameter), thin spaced arrays may not offer much protection, a 3x 10mm target at 60 degrees was defeated, but performance against heavy arrays may be poor. A 100mm at 60 degree target was also defeated (200mm LOS) - this is not a limiting performance though, AFAICT. This is inert ammunition, with similar effectiveness to HE against light targets and field fortifications, but with greatly reduced fragmentation radius and no UXO problem for FIBU/MOUT, and with decent anti-armour performance. Lethality will reduce significantly with thick targets, as energy and projectile material is expended on perforation.

Dual Purpose Ammunition:

ABM, AHEAD Airburst Munitions. Uses a small (<1g) HE charge to disperse a cloud of preformed fragments at a predetermined point before a target. Intended to saturate the target with a dense cloud of fast moving and heavy fragments, ensuring high probabilities of a hit and damage. KE predominantly used for attack.

3P PPPFX Kulsgr95 Preprogrammed, prefragmented, proximity fused. Multipurpose round. HE filling, with hardened fuse and body, and 1500 preformed tungsten pellets. Can be set for direct impact, when there is KE penetration (and if the fuse survives - subsequent HE explosion with blast and fragmentation), or for timed or proximity fusing, where the kill mechanism is primarily fragmentation from the HE, the warhead being too small of reliable blast effects at a distance.

PFHE Kulsgr90 Prefragmented HE. Proximity or direct impact fused HE. Similar to, but less refined than the 3P round.

HE, HEI High Explosive, High Explosive Incendiary. Steel body with HE or HE and incendiary filling. Impact fused normally, but delay or timed fuses possible. Limited penetration ability in delayed mode - hard armours can break up the shell before the fuse functions. Primary effect is from fragmentation, but direct hits, especially those that penetrate inside the target (building or vehicle) can also have significant blast effects - near misses from large calibre shells will damage or disable even an MBT, and a direct hit could destroy one.

HEP, HESH High Explosive Plastic, or High Explosive Squash Head. Fired from a rifled tank gun, these have a soft walled shell that is designed to allow the explosive content to spread onto the armour face on impact. The resulting increase in diameter, and better contact with the explosive can generate very large (9kg +) spall fragments from the interior of the armour. Only effective at low-moderate impact velocities. Can damage components from shock, even if the impacted are is immune from perforation or from behind armour spalling due to spaced/laminate construction.

HEAT High Explosive Anti Tank. Shaped charge high explosive shell. The (usually) conical depression in the front of the charge is typically lined by a thin aluminium or copper liner. When the warhead is triggered, the explosion's pressure front collapses the liner into an elongated solid jet with very high tip velocity and a velocity gradient to the slug, which contains most of the liner mass. Tip velocity is possibly near to 8km/s and the slug around 1km/s, but this varies between weapons. The high kinetic energy in the jet forces the target material to fail and to flow radially, opening a permanent penetration channel. This is in essence the ultimate long rod penetrator, with very long and narrow jets possible, and maximum attainable velocity at the expense of mass and penetrator integrity. Penetration depth is sensitive to the jet's integrity and laminate, spaced bulging armours, and ERA are all designed to attack this aspect. General lethality is often very low for smaller warheads that are optimised to give maximum penetration depth, as the hole diameter is restricted, although the jet will destroy anything sensitive that it actually strikes (crew, ammunition, vehicle components etc). A large warhead with similar penetration depth will produce a significantly larger hole, and more spalling that will damage off axis components.

Edited by GH_Lieste
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Lieste,

your missing one...

APFSDSDU Armor Piercing Fin Stabalized Discarding Sabot Depleted Uranium.....

All US service APFSDS rounds are made from DU & I don't think they routinely tack the DU on the end - sounds like a WRG type war gaming name to me.

(As opposed to training rounds, TPCSDS Training Practice Cone Stabilised Discarding Sabot. A steel penetrator, with a perforated cone replacing the normal fins of APFSDS type ammunition. Base drag at over 3-4km rapidly slows the projectile giving a maximum range of less than 10km, compared to a very long way for the war rounds (I forget the actual range, but something well in excess of 30km)).

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