Originally Posted by
Tartiflette Fan
Well, I have to say that 75% less ammunition and significantly increased loading times don't sound like a successful formula in a tank-to-tank encounter. I have no0 idea how much metal is flying around inside, but had the impression that either the spalling effect , or the molten "penetrator " pretty much guaranteed a dead crew, even without the ammunition load igniting.
I agree that once anything comes through the armor and explodes it's pretty much game over for the poor sods, and as I wrote before going to a fight with only 1/4 the capacity opens a whole different box of issues from fighting capability to need for resupply burning fuel and stressing logistics. I want to stress a few things
- the test turret mentioned earlier was a Finnish military test. Hence the rather accurate info on what happens with full cartouch. The Finns had T72's in inventory therefore the tests are pretty solid (nice to know the weakness of your own/adversarys kit). The turret is out on display nowadays.
- the info of Russians loading only 10 rounds at a time comes from a Russian T80 tank crew interview in Russian media. I can't therefore quarantee it but seems plausible. In any case theory is there.
- as also previously mentioned the chance of surviving a direct penetrating hit is very slim even without the cartouch going off. But better than zero as is the case with turret blowing off. Maybe these guys are hanging on to anything to increase their chances as so far the chamces have been nil.