Shakie

I didn't think anyone actually used B4C in tank armour due to its cost? I thought they only used it to absorb neutrons in the event of a nuclear detonation.

I see. I was under the impression that NERA worked basically the same way as ERA; just with less energy and multi-hit capability. I thought that was why there had to be air gaps between NERA sandwiches, so that the metal plates have something to expand into, rather than getting squashed against each other. Also, I'm not sure if there's a separate thread for this, but here's my first (not to scale) attempt at armour design, I would appreciate it if someone would critique it. First, you have ceramic tiles encased in staballoy (the green/black layer) to break up the incoming projectile. Next there's the NERA (dark grey/brown layers), with rubber sandwiched between HHS plates and kevlar layers. Note that some of them are parallel to the first layer, while others are perpendicular; this is to put any incoming projectiles under as much stress/strain as possible. Then at the very back there's an air gap followed by a slab of Ti-6Al-4V to catch any remaining fragments. Finally, this whole arrangement, which is 400mm thick total, would be arranged in multiple layers to defeat multi-segment KEPs. For example, 3 identical such armour arrays could be arranged back-to-back, for 1200mm thick armour in total, and can defeat 3-segment KEPs. This would also keep production costs down since each layer is identical. Something similar could be used for the turret as well, though you'd have to arrange it carefully to manage the sheer bulkiness. I also haven't worked out how heavy it is.

Hi everyone, This is my first post, but I've been lurking for quite a while. I was just wondering what the best materials are for making NERA out of, disregarding the costs? It seems to me that for the middle, reactive layer, you need to consider both how quickly it expands when struck, and also how much it expands (i.e. maximise the expanded volume:unexpanded volume ratio). I have no idea what the best material for this is, I assume the fact that's its usually rubber is simply to keep the costs down. Because the purpose of NERA is to both force more of the expanding metal plates into the path of the KEP/HEAT jet, and to snap it in half, it stands to reason the best material for said plates would be something hard and dense; staballoy for example. It increases the weight, but due to the way NERA increases the protection for a given thickness of metal, and because the armor is mostly air anyway, surely it would be more efficient overall to use fewer layers of staballoy than more layers of steel NERA. Again, presumably the main everyone uses steel is simply to keep the costs down. Or am I just completely wrong? Also, another question; there was another post showing how some NERA systems have kevlar embedded in them, between the rubber and steel layers, with claims of up to 60% increased protection compared to regular NERA. How exactly does kevlar increase the efficiency of NERA so dramatically?