From: James Rogers (jamesr@best.com)
Date: Thu Mar 25 1999 - 09:06:56 MST
At 02:30 AM 3/25/99 -0500, you wrote:
>
>A hand held rifle built for .50 caliber machine gun rounds (uranium core)
is quite
>capable of offing any tank armor but reactive armor.
Two problems:
First, reactive armor *only* works against explosive/shaped-charge
anti-armor weapons. Kinetic energy weapons (such as a bullet) will cut
through reactive armor like it isn't there.
Second, a hand held .50 with uranium rounds will not cut through modern
tank armor. It doesn't have the velocity (at least not in a "hand-held"
.50 of normal dimensions and cartridge loadings) or the energy, and a
person would have a hard time shooting a high-velocity uranium load anyway
from a "hand held" weapon (I'd guess ~20-25,000 ft-lbs ME). In fact, 20mm
rounds (uranium or otherwise) won't penetrate modern armor either, but
you'll be able to shoot people at 3,000 meters.
The minimum cost of entry for anti-armor bullets these days is
high-velocity 25mm uranium rounds. Anything smaller and you are just
making noise.
-James Rogers
jamesr@best.com
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