Composite Armour Tank

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The first mass-produced tank with composite armour!

Composite armour is a type of vehicle armour consisting of layers of different materials such as metals, plastics, ceramics or air. Most composite armours are lighter than their all-metal equivalent, but instead, occupy a larger volume for the same resistance to penetration. It is possible to design composite armour stronger, lighter and less voluminous than traditional armour, but the cost is often prohibitively high, restricting its use to especially vulnerable parts of a vehicle. Its primary purpose is to help defeat high-explosive anti-tank (HEAT) projectiles.

The Soviet tank T-64 is deemed to be the first mass-produced tank to have widespread use of composite armour technology. Its protection included a 3-layer composite armour (K formula), with a thickness between 450 and 20 mm:

Front: 120 mm steel, 105 mm fibreglass, 40 mm steel.

Sides: 80 mm steel.

Front of the turret: 150 mm steel, 150 mm fibreglass, 40 mm steel.

Even though the original T-64 concept dates back to the early 1960s, many countries still use its modernized versions: T-64s have been used by both Russian-backed separatists and Ukraine during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Source:#managingcomposites