Possible new weapon disabled M1A1 tank in Iraq...

[Analog]

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?Something? felled an M1A1 Abrams tank in Iraq ? but what?
Mystery behind Aug. 28 incident puzzles Army officials

By John Roos
Special to the Times


Shortly before dawn on Aug. 28, an M1A1 Abrams tank on routine patrol in Baghdad ?was hit by something? that crippled the 69-ton behemoth.
Army officials still are puzzling over what that ?something? was.

According to an unclassified Army report, the mystery projectile punched through the vehicle?s skirt and drilled a pencil-sized hole through the hull. The hole was so small that ?my little finger will not go into it,? the report?s author noted.

The ?something? continued into the crew compartment, where it passed through the gunner?s seatback, grazed the kidney area of the gunner?s flak jacket and finally came to rest after boring a hole 1½ to 2 inches deep in the hull on the far side of the tank.

As it passed through the interior, it hit enough critical components to knock the tank out of action. That made the tank one of only two Abrams disabled by enemy fire during the Iraq war and one of only a handful of ?mobility kills? since they first rumbled onto the scene 20 years ago. The other Abrams knocked out this year in Iraq was hit by an RPG-7, a rocket-propelled grenade.

Experts believe whatever it is that knocked out the tank in August was not an RPG-7 but most likely something new ? and that worries tank drivers.
...

 

[oniq]

As a tank driver, I sure am worried!

 

[J0hnny]

From what it the article states, it sounds like a high velocity rail gun or something to the extent of a magnetically propelled object.

Does anyone know how thick a M1 Abrams armor is?

[edit]
Ooops, I just read the WHOLE article now and I don't think it's some sort of rail gun anymore.

 

[Scarpozzi]

Whatever penetrated the tank created enough heat inside the hull to activate the vehicle?s Halon firefighting gear, which probably prevented more serious injuries to the crew.

That sounds REALLY interesting. How could it generate that amount of heat within a few seconds. The projectile was described as molten metal.... Could this be some kind of chemical reaction besides a conventional explosive? I know the army has developed some tank-stopper technologies that sound very similar to this, but I don't remember the details.

 

[Eli]

Wow... bizzare???

I wonder if it was like.. a microwave gun.. lol

 

[StageLeft]

Unfortunately I have to say I put little credence to the claim that some poorly equiped iraqi ragtag fighters could get their hands on a weapon that mystefies the most advanced military in the world.

 

[J0hnny]

Originally posted by: Skoorb
Unfortunately I have to say I put little credence to the claim that some poorly equiped iraqi ragtag fighters could get their hands on a weapon that mystefies the most advanced military in the world.

Unless Osama is behind this! Dum dum dum!

 

[tnitsuj]

Relax people. This isn't some sort of rail gun, super secret mystery weapon. Got to P&N, where this has already been posted...and stop playing counterstrike.

Most likely an advanced anti tank missile.

 

[Eli]

Originally posted by: tnitsuj
Relax people. This isn't some sort of rail gun, super secret mystery weapon. Got to P&N, where this has already been posted...and stop playing counterstrike.

Most likely an advanced anti tank missile.

Yeah. Just finished reading the article.

Still though, they have an idea, but don't know exactly what it was... and the military likes being exact.

 

[GtPrOjEcTX]

" After checking with them, the spokesman delivered the manufacturer?s verdict: The tank was hit by ?a ?golden? RPG? ? an extremely lucky shot."

 

[Shelly21]

RPG-7 has been around since Vietnam isn't it?

 

[SilentZero]

Crazy....I wonder if it was just a lucky shot as they speculate, or there is a new weapon out there. Hmmm...

 

[J0hnny]

LOL, the "golden" shot reminds me of the golden gun back in the days when I used to play goldeneye on N64.

 

[MegaloManiaK]

http://www.armytimes.com/channel.php?GQID=292236#7

I wouldn't step foot in P&N, in case there are others who refuse to go over there here are some pics of the damage that are probably posted in P&N, which as i said im not going over there.

 

[earthman]

MBT's are mainly sitting ducks in that environment. They need to retire those things and get something smaller and lighter.

 

[Feldenak]

Originally posted by: earthman
MBT's are mainly sitting ducks in that environment. They need to retire those things and get something smaller and lighter.

Yeah, because they are obviously obsolete.

. That made the tank one of only two Abrams disabled by enemy fire during the Iraq war and one of only a handful of ?mobility kills? since they first rumbled onto the scene 20 years ago.

 

[P.O.W.]

Originally posted by: Skoorb
Unfortunately I have to say I put little credence to the claim that some poorly equiped iraqi ragtag fighters could get their hands on a weapon that mystefies the most advanced military in the world.

There are a lot of countries that would pay to be able to test their latest contraptions out on the U.S. military.

 

[OutHouse]

I heard about this last night.

 

[Savij]

Originally posted by: Scarpozzi

Whatever penetrated the tank created enough heat inside the hull to activate the vehicle?s Halon firefighting gear, which probably prevented more serious injuries to the crew.

That sounds REALLY interesting. How could it generate that amount of heat within a few seconds. The projectile was described as molten metal.... Could this be some kind of chemical reaction besides a conventional explosive? I know the army has developed some tank-stopper technologies that sound very similar to this, but I don't remember the details.

An impact with that much force can generate enough heat to melt metal as the projectile penetrates the armor without the use of additional chemicals and explosives.

 

[AMCRambler]

The the "golden rpg" comment is a take off on an old fighter pilot adage. They used to talk about the golden BB, basically that lucky shot from a small caliber weapon that will bring down the plane because it hit a critical component. I don't see how it could have been an rpg though if the hole it made in the vehicles skirt was too small to stick a finger through. It sounds like it was a bullet of some kind.

 

[ShotgunSteven]

Sorry about that, I passed a kidney stone.

 

[Eli]

That's really insane. What kind of projectile can go through so many layers of metal like that? It almost went straight clean through!

 

[MithShrike]

Originally posted by: ShotgunSteve
Sorry about that, I passed a kidney stone.

Heh, wow, that must have hurt!

 

[mcveigh]

I was a TOW gunner in the Marines, basically what they described is a shaped charge as mentioned earlier, it uses exlposive force to turn a penetrator (small dense piece of metal) into the killing object. the principal is widely used, since they can't figure it out though it maybe a lucky shot or maybe someone is using Iraq to test their weapons???
http://www.hqmc.usmc.mil/factfile.nsf/0/4ba8f1e3958ca16d8525628100789abb?OpenDocument

 

[BeauJangles]

I would rather be in an M1A1 than almost any other vehicle in the world. That thing is just a mobile killing machine.