War Thunder Wiki - User contributions [en]

Armour

2022-04-09T12:09:19Z

U16328860:

=Armour=
'''Armour''' is the basic defense an entity has against threats. Armour can be found in both air and ground vehicles in War Thunder and plays a very important role to the vehicle's survivability.

== Types of armour in-game ==

* KE: Kinetic Energy
* CE: Chemical Energy

Armour modifier applies to both types of penetrators, unless specified.

{| class="wikitable"
! Material or Component !! Armour Modifier!! Examples
|-
! colspan="3" | Ground vehicles
|-
| '''Rolled homogeneous armour''' (RHA) || x1.00 ||
|-
| '''Modern RHA''' || x1.01 || {{Specs-Link|cn_ztz_96}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|germ_leopard_1a5}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_chieftain_mk_3}}
|-
| '''Cast homogeneous armour''' (CHA) || x0.94 ||
|-
| '''Modern CHA''' || x0.98 || {{Specs-Link|germ_kpz_70}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_merkava_mk_3d}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_64_b_1984}}
|-
| '''High hardness rolled armour''' (HHRA) || x1.25 || {{Specs-Link|germ_pzkpfw_III_ausf_L}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|it_centauro_mgs_120}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|sw_ikv_91}}
|-
| '''Modern HHRA''' || x1.10 || {{Specs-Link|sw_strv_122}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_m1128_mgs}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_bmp_2}}
|-
| '''Tracks''' || x0.75 ||
|-
| '''Structural steel''' || x0.45 ||{{Specs-Link|us_t26e4_superpershing}}
|-
| '''Structural steel of chassis''' || x0.60 ||
|-
| '''Wheel''' || x0.30 ||
|-
| '''Rubber-fabric screens''' || x0.20 || {{Specs-Link|it_of_40_mk_1}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_m901_itv}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_62m1}}
|-
| '''Composite screen''' || x0.16 KE x2.00 CE || {{Specs-Link|fr_leclerc_s2}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|jp_type_16}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_vickers_mk7}}
|-
| '''Air''' (Spaced armour) || x0.05 KE x0.30 CE || {{Specs-Link|fr_amx_32}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|germ_kpz_70}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_merkava_mk_1}}
|-
| '''Aluminium''' || x0.20 || {{Specs-Link|jp_st_a1}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_chieftain_mk_10}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_bmp_2m}}
|-
| '''Aluminium alloy 5083''' || x0.32 || {{Specs-Link|cn_cm_25}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|it_otobreda_sidam_25}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_m3_bradley}}
|-
| '''Aluminium alloy AA7017''' || x0.50 || {{Specs-Link|uk_fv102_striker}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_stormer_hvm}}
|-
| '''Aluminium alloy 7020''' || x0.50 || {{Specs-Link|it_centauro_mgs_120}}
|-
| '''Aluminium alloy 7039''' || x0.50 || {{Specs-Link|it_oto_r3_t20_fa}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|jp_type_75}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_t114}}
|-
| '''Alloy ABT-101''' || x0.38 || {{Specs-Link|ussr_bmp_2}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_object_685}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_object_906}}
|-
| '''Alloy ABT-102''' || x0.42 || {{Specs-Link|ussr_bmp_3}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_9p157}}
|-
| '''Aluminium alloy AMS 4050A''' || x0.50 || {{Specs-Link|fr_amx_10rc}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|jp_type_87}}
|-
| '''Alloy BT-6''' || x0.70 || {{Specs-Link|ussr_t_80b}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_80u}}
|-
| '''External composite armour with {{Annotation|NERA|Non-Energetic Reactive Armour}} elements''' || x0.10 KE x1.70 CE || {{Specs-Link|germ_leopard_2a6}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|jp_type_90b}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_vickers_mk7}}
|-
| '''Wood''' || x0.05 || {{Specs-Link|cn_ztz_99}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_is_3}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_object_120}}
|-
| '''{{Annotation|MEXAS|Modular Expandable Armour System}} 2''' || x0.16 || {{Specs-Link|us_m1128_mgs}}
|-
| '''MEXAS 2C''' || x0.16 || {{Specs-Link|us_m1128_mgs}}
|-
! colspan="3" | Naval vessels
|-
| '''Rolled homogeneous armour''' || x1.00 ||
|-
| '''Rolled cemented armour''' || x1.10 || Heavy cruisers, battleships
|-
| '''Structural steel''' || x0.45 ||
|-
| '''Coal bunker''' || x0.01 ||
|-
| '''Concrete''' || x0.35 || {{Specs-Link|germ_artilleriefahrprahm_typ_d1}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|germ_artilleriefahrprahm_typ_d3}}
|-
| '''Wood''' || x0.05 KE x0.00 CE ||
|-
| '''Antifragmentation armour''' || x0.90 ||
|-
| '''Hardened armour''' || x0.80 ||
|-
|}

=Aircraft=
Armour on aircraft are often minimum and focused on vital sections rather than on the overall airframe. Armour are often not taken into consideration in the design as armour constitutes more material and thus a heavier aircraft which would inhibit its performance due to weight penalty.<ref name="BismarckArmour">Bismarck 2017</ref>

Armour for pilots are thus usually never beyond the usage of bullet-resistant glass on the cockpit that could provide protection against rifle calibre ammunition. Though some armour plating are present in the back on some planes like the P-47, these were only thick enough for small calibers and serve more to slow down the incoming round so that it has little energy once it punches through. Other important areas that armour could be present on aircraft is around the engine. Important design features that dictate whether an aircraft design is more durable than others was in the airframe build quality, the air frame's ability to take damage, and adequate protections around vital components such as the engine, pilot, and fuel tanks.<ref name="BismarckArmour" />

=Tank=
==History==
===Interwar period===
Armour plays a very important role on tanks as they were conceived by it. The armour on the tanks at its inception made them invulnerable to the basic small arms fire, a trait that broke the stalemate of the trench warfare in World War I. During the interwar period, tank armour was prioritized on protection against firearms and artillery shrapnel. However, experience in the Spanish Civil War showed that this concept leaves the tank vulnerable to heavier guns. This is demonstrated when Italian tankettes and German Panzer I's, armed with only machine guns and simple 13 mm armour, went up against the Soviet [[T-26|T-26]], which had a 45 mm gun on its turret. The tank arms race increased armament and armour, evident on the German [[Pz.IV C|Panzer IV]] when armour increased from the initial 14.5 mm in 1936 to 30 mm in 1938 before World War II broke out.

===Early World War II===
During World War II, tank armour played a huge part in tank design. More armour means more weight on the tank and thus must be sparingly used to the tank mobility in acceptable margins. Tank armour in this period is separated by the three tank categories, light, medium, and heavy tanks. It was in this period that tank armour went through many technological advances. One of the perfect example is the French SOMUA S35 and the Soviet [[T-34 (1940)|T-34]]. The two vehicles made extensive usage of the concept of "sloped armour", which increased the armour effective thickness due to the difference in the line-of-sight thickness (See [[Armour#Sloped_armour|"Concepts"]] section). The Germans, which mainly used vertical-faced armour on their [[Pz.III F|Panzers]], struggled to take these vehicles out due to their strong armour against their inadequate guns. While the Battle of France did not incite Germany to quickly upgrade their armour and armament due to the small quantities of these kinds of tanks, the encounter with the T-34's in Operation Barbarossa came as a great shock due to the large number of T-34's available in Soviet inventory. The Germans, in a stage informally known as a "tank panic", rushed development to complete weapons able to destroy the T-34 and uparmour their tanks to withstand the Soviet 76 mm cannons. The Soviet T-34 and American [[M4A1|M4 Shermans]] caused great headaches in the German armoured forces due to their strong, sloped front armour in 1942, but that all changed in 1943 and beyond.

===Late World War II===
The year 1943 changed everything in the balance of tank power from the Allies with their T-34 and Shermans to the Germans. Germany introduced their newest tanks in large quantities, the [[Panther D|Panther]] and the [[Tiger H1|Tiger I]] tanks. These vehicles introduced powerful cannons and a new redefinition of the term "armour" for tanks. The Tiger I came with an astounding 100 mm armour thickness in front. Though vertical-faced and thus did not have the benefit of "sloped armour", the guns on Shermans and T-34 at the time could not penetrate the front plate at standard combat ranges, forcing the Allied medium tanks to close in for a kill. The Panther had 80 mm of frontal armour, but that armour was sloped at a 55° from vertical and caused the effective armour to instead be 140 mm thick. Thus, the Panther was basically invulnerable in the hull front from any anti-tank weapon in existence in Allied inventory at that time. The Germans also started to extensively used an armour called "Schürzen", which is a form of "spaced armour" that provided additional protection to their tank's weak side armour. The two new tanks, plus a new one in the form of the [[Tiger II (H)|Tiger II]] with 150 mm of frontal armour sloped for effective thickness of ~230 mm, caused turmoil in the Allied armoured forces as they find a way to easily destroy the new tanks. They were never able to compete against the German's in terms of armour thickness until after World War II.

===Cold War===
By the end of World War II, sloping armour had become a ubiquitous concept and every tank designed has it from the American [[M60|M60]], British [[Centurion Mk 3|Centurion]], and Soviet [[T-54 (1951)|T-54/55]] tanks. With increasing tank armour equaling to increased weight, countries try to keep their tank weight in manageable ranges while making the armour up to date with current threats. By early 1960s, anti-tank technology such as the [[Anti-tank_guided_missiles|anti-tank guided missiles (ATGM)]] has grown to the point where it requires a large amount of steel to make the armour thick enough to resist the threat, but the amount was prohibitive and made the tank too heavy. Some nations such as Germany tried to solve this by relying on mobility at the expense of armour such as the [[Leopard I]], but it became clear a new type of armour is needed. It came in the form of "composite armour", which used steel combined with a variety of material such as plastic and ceramic that can resist penetration more effectively at a lighter weight. Composite armour soon became the new standard of tank armour throughout the world. Another armour developed in the Cold War was the "explosive reactive armour", which used an explosive to deflect a penetration property. Explosive reactive armour, or ERA, was highly effective against the ubiquitous HEATFS rounds used as anti-tank weapons. These armour technology saved the tanks from becoming obsolete during the Cold War against the new anti-tank missile threat that allows a small infantry crew to destroy a tank as far as 2000 meters away. Composite armour, ERA, and the increasing lethality of tank armament helped revolutionize the tank concept from light, medium, and heavy tanks into the new, universal "main battle tank".

==Concepts==
===Sloped armour===
[[File:T-54 Training Parola Tank Museum.jpg|x200px|thumb|right|A cut-out of a [[T-54 (1951)|T-54]] to show the effectiveness of sloping armour.]]

Sloped armour is effectively angling the armour of a tank on an angle rather than placed for a flat surface.

Slope armour presents the advantage of having a much thicker effective armour on a tanks for a lighter weight due to using a thinner armour plate. The sloped nature also increases the chance of the impacting shell to simply ricochet or deflect off, doing no effect to the armour. The disadvantage of the sloped armour was its more complicated manufacturing process and a reduction in internal space.

====Calculating sloped armour effective thickness====
A simple formula to calculate a tank's effective thickness (Line Of Sight, or LOS) due to sloping armour is with this: 

[LOS Effective Thickness vs Projectile Type] = ([Armour Thickness] × [Armour Modifier vs Projectile Type]) / cos ([Armour Angle]) 
'''Note:''' This formula does not factor in the possible horizontal or vertical angle of the target's armour plate relative to the shot's origin or deviations of the shell's angle of inclination due to bullet drop at longer ranges. We assume the target is placed on an even field and shot at from straight ahead at distance where the shell will hit the armour with 0° of bullet drop. 

For example: A Panther has an 80 mm (armour thickness) front armour plate, sloped at an angle of 55° (armour angle) and made out of RHA (armour modifier), being shot at by an AP projectile (armour modifier vs projectile = 1.0 vs KE). Thus, we input the values: 

(80 mm × 1.0) / cos (55°) = 80 mm / cos (55°) = 80 mm / 0.574 = 139.4 mm ≈ 140 mm (vs Kinetic AP) 

Thus, we get the value of how thick the Panther's sloped frontal armour is in a line-of-sight angle.

===Armour angling===
Outside of sloped armour, another way to improve the effective armour thickness on tanks is simply angling the armour towards the opponent. This means instead of sloping the armour in a vertical plane, instead angle sideways.

[[File:TigerIHTank Armour Angling.png|x200px|thumb|left|An example of armour angling with the [[Tiger_H1|Tiger I]], angled towards the opponent in its most optimum degree for best all-around armour.]]

This gives another form of thickness as not only does the round have to pass through a plane of armour, but two plane of the same armour, which would boost the effective thickness. This is best seen in vertical-faced armoured tanks like the [[Tiger H1|Tiger I tank]]. Though their vertical faced 100 mm front plate would only give 100 mm effectiveness, it was recommended in the Tigerfibel crew manual that a 45 degree diamond angle position would provide a front armour of nearly 130 mm of effective thickness.<ref name="Tigerfibel">Carruthers 2011</ref> This gives tank a chance to improve their effective front armour thickness especially when against enemies that would penetrate their front with little difficulty. However, beware of angling to much towards the enemy that it exposes the weaker side armour to enemy fire, which may have a chance of penetrating.

Some tanks attempt to implement this concept into the designs itself. One example is the Soviet [[IS-3]] with its "pike nose" front armour. Due to the sloping effect not only going back, but sweeping to the sides, this improves the IS-3 front armour effectiveness and ricochet chances.

===Spaced armour===
Spaced armour helps against anti-tank rounds in a form of disruption and denial. Spaced armour was first widely used by the Germans in the form of "Schürzen", attaching metal sheets away from the base armour of their Panzers. These metal sheets were intended to disrupt the kinetic energy of the Soviet 14.5 mm anti-tank rifles, which could penetrate the weaker side armour of their tanks. It does this by forcing much of the energy on the rifle round to be expelled on the Schürzen sheets, passing through and causing negligible damage on the base side armour. The Schürzen may also disrupt tank rounds as well, but the much greater kinetic energy of tank shells means that its disruption will be ineffective to all but the most sloped shots. Though there is a belief that the Schürzen plates were meant to stop HEAT rounds from shoulder-launched weapons, the plates were not intentionally designed for this task.

Spaced armour was used in various formats in the Cold War tank designs. It was used as a form of protection against HEAT rounds from tank guns and rocket launchers, with the air separating the tank's base armour and the spaced armour acting to dissipate the HEAT's power before it reaches the hull. Spaced armour also works against kinetic penetrators by shattering the round on impact with the first layer. Though early kinetic rounds using brittle materials like tungsten were affected by this armour, better material like depleted uranium made the rounds more durable and proof against this type of armour.<ref name="MM.Spaced">M.m. 2015</ref>

===Explosive reactive armour (ERA)===
Explosive reactive armour (ERA) works by using an explosive force to disrupt an incoming armour-piercing ammunition. The construction of ERA usually takes the form of individual tiles made up of "reactive elements", which are sandwiched explosives in between sheets of metal. These tiles would be used around vulnerable points of a tank to provide protection at these locations.

Though ERA provides good protection against HEAT ammunition, high-velocity kinetic penetrators like APDS and APFSDS penetrates too quickly for the explosive force to be effective against them. This was a problem in early ERA designs, but more modern ERA types have been able to resist these ammunition. Even so, ERA still has drawbacks in that each explosive tile were one-time-use against the incoming round, leaving the exposed tank metal underneath once expended. ERA also has become vulnerable to tandem-charge ammunition, which use a two-stage detonation sequence with the first charge destroying the ERA plate and the second penetrating the armour underneath the plate. Finally, the ERA plates rarely cover the entire tank sections due to contouring and moving parts, so the armour is still exposed in various degrees to be hit and penetrated.

{| class="wikitable"
! ERA Type!! Protection Value !! Vehicles
|-
| '''"Passive" {{Annotation|ERA|Explosive Reactive Armour}}''' || 5 mm {{Annotation|KE|Kinetic Energy (AP rounds)}} 370 mm {{Annotation|CE|Chemical Energy (HEAT rounds)}} || {{Specs-Link|cn_cm11}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_m60a1_rise_passive_era}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_m60a3_tts}}
|-
| '''"Blazer" ERA''' || 5 mm KE 260 mm CE || {{Specs-Link|sw_strv_104}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_centurion_shot_kal_d}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_magach_3}}*
|-
| '''"CONTACT-1" ERA''' || 5 mm KE 400 mm CE || {{Specs-Link|ussr_t_64_b_1984}}*{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_72av_turms}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_72b}}
|-
| '''"CONTACT-5" INTEGRATED ERA''' || 120 mm KE 450 mm CE || {{Specs-Link|ussr_t_72b3_2011}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_80u}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_90a}}
|-
| '''"Relict" ERA''' || 20-250 mm KE 450-600 mm CE|| {{Specs-Link|ussr_t_72b3_2011}}* {{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_80bvm}}
|-
| '''FY-4 ERA''' || 140 mm KE 450 mm CE || {{Specs-Link|cn_ztz_96a}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|cn_ztz_99}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|cn_ztz_99_w}}
|-
| '''ZTZ59D1 ERA''' || 5-120 mm KE 370 mm CE || {{Specs-Link|cn_type_59d}}
|-
| '''T-69 II G ERA''' || 5 mm KE 370 mm CE || {{Specs-Link|cn_type_69_2g}}
|-
| '''"ROMOR-A" ERA''' || 30 mm KE 300 mm CE || {{Specs-Link|it_b1_centauro_romor}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_centurion_mk_5_avre_era}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_challenger_II}}*{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_challenger_2_dorchester}}
|-
|'''"BRENUS" ERA'''||5 mm KE 400 mm CE||{{Specs-Link|fr_amx_30_b2_brenus}}
|-
| '''Integrated ERA''' || 10 mm KE 250 mm CE || {{Specs-Link|fr_leclerc_s1}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|fr_leclerc_s2}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|fr_leclerc_sxxi}}
|-
|'''"DYNAS" ERA'''
|100 mm KE 550 mm CE
|{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_72m2_moderna}}
|-
! colspan="3" | <nowiki>*</nowiki>with add-on armour modification
|-
|}

====History====
The first efforts in discovering this form of protection reach back to 1949 in the Soviet Union at the Nii Stali facility, although nothing much came out of it after failed tests and it was discontinued on the belief that the current armour on their main battle tanks was good enough. The traction did not continue again until German researcher Dr.Manfred Held, a shaped charge (HEAT) specialist, traveled to Israel on the conclusion of their 1967 Six-Day War. Examining several of the destroyed tanks from the conflict, he discovered that the force from exploding ammunition slightly reduced the effect of the shaped charge used. He then developed the first working ERA plate in 1970. Though this was the first effective iteration of the ERA, Held's design required the explosive mesh to be fitted inside empty cavities, integrated into the tank armour. Held improved on the design in the same year which consisted of a tiles formed with the reactive elements. This model would become the fundamental design of modern ERA.<ref name="MM.Era">M.m. 2016</ref>

The majority of the NATO countries did not buy into the explosive reactive armour that Held presented. He did not find anyone interested until he returned back to Israel in 1974, after the 1973 Yom-Kippur War. There, the Israeli government and the Israeli Defense Force were persuaded, perhaps from their combat experiences, to adopt the ERA as a protection for their tanks. The Israelis then produced the ''Blazer ERA'' plates which followed Held's design with reactive elements. The Blazer ERA will first see usage in the 1982 Lebanon War, the tiles attached onto M60 tanks to protect the steel hull against anti-tank weaponry.<ref name="MM.Era" />

The Soviet Union was the next country to use ERA, under the name ''Kontakt ERA''. It was first introduced in 1984 and featured a tile design similar to Blazers, though using one or two reactive elements stacked together for better effectiveness. Like the Blazer, these plates were highly effective against HEAT rounds, but were generally ineffective against kinetic penetrators. Following the Soviets, the reactive armour was soon adopted by many other countries in the 1980s, from mainly Eastern bloc countries such as Czechoslovakia, Ukraine, and Poland. Today the ERA plates are still viable against modern anti-tank weaponry, especially when complemented with other tank defensive measures.<ref name="MM.Era" />

===Composite armour===
''To be filled''

===[[Add-on Armor|Add-on armor]]===
{{main|Add-on Armor}}

Add-on armour is a form of improvisation of the tank armour usually done by the crew or a maintenance unit in the front lines. Due to the rushed nature of tank technology in World War II, armour once considered adequate on tanks can quickly become obsolete with the introduction of a new gun piece in the field or a new equipment, such as the [[KwK 36 (88 mm)]] on the [[Tiger H1|Tiger I]] and the Panzerfaust anti-tank launcher, both could cut through Sherman and T-34 armour with little resistance. The declining armour effectiveness against these weapons prompted the tank crews to attempt an expedient method to improve the armour quality of their tanks. Troops went and attached logs, sandbags, tracks, concrete, and metal sheets onto their tanks to improve its effective thickness. The usefulness against anti-tank rounds from tank shells and HEAT rounds are controversial. Some tankers swear by it and claim they were saved by their improvised armour while analysts say that the add-on armour has no effect at all in interfering with incoming rounds. What was universally accepted was that these add-on armour helped improve the tank crew morale when fighting the enemy, renewed in confidence with their "improved" tank armour. However, add-on armour increases the weight of the tank due to the add-on of materials and thus can cause a strain on the power train and suspension of tanks, prompting some commanders like General George S. Patton to ban the usage of improvised armour to improve tank reliability. The most useful add-on armour was the welding of additional sheets of metal onto the tank, as seen in the well-received reception of the up-armoured M4 Sherman in the form of the [[M4A3E2]] Jumbos.

From Update 1.57, a modification known as the ''Add-on Armour'' was added onto certain vehicles. The modification adds spare track links along the hull and turret of the vehicle. The track links, when added, give an average of 17 - 20 mm of additional armour where they are attached.

= Media =


;Videos
{{Youtube-gallery|mJO2sLI_jwU|'''The Shooting Range #19''' - ''Tactics & Strategy'' section at 04:53 discusses how to angle your armour.|Go91srkTM80|'''Explosive Reactive Armor and Composite Armor''' - ''War Thunder Official Channel''|o24D6yl_VLg|'''The Shooting Range #115''' - ''Tactics & Strategy'' section at 10:14 discusses how to maximize your armour while on the defensive.|B2woWvJK4ew|'''Top 7 most armoured vehicles''' - ''War Thunder Official Channel''|c7NXyv_vD1A|'''How to use the protection analysis tool in War Thunder''' - ''Skreezilla''}}

= External links =


* [[wt:en/news/5569-development-protection-analysis-en|[Development] Protection Analysis]]

==References==

;Citations
<references />

;Bibliography

* Bismarck. "⚜ | Yes, World War 2 Planes Had Armour BUT..." YouTube. YouTube, 17 Aug. 2017. Web. 26 Sept. 2017. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-v5aMayFrRE Video].
* Carruthers, Bob. Tiger I: Official Wartime Crew Manual (the Tigerfibel). Warwickshire: Coda, 2011. Print.
* M.m. "Explosive Reactive Armor - Some History, Some Types." Below The Turret Ring. Blogger, 28 Apr. 2016. Web. 25 Sept. 2017. [https://below-the-turret-ring.blogspot.com/2016/04/explosive-reactive-armor-some-history.html Website].
* M.m. "The Truth about Spaced Armor on Modern Tanks and AFVs." Below The Turret Ring. Blogger, 31 Dec. 2015. Web. 26 Sept. 2017. [https://below-the-turret-ring.blogspot.com/2015/12/the-truth-about-spaced-armor-on-modern.html Website].

[[Category:Game mechanics]]

Armour

2022-04-09T06:03:50Z

U16328860: /* Explosive reactive armour (ERA) */

=Armour=
'''Armour''' is the basic defense an entity has against threats. Armour can be found in both air and ground vehicles in War Thunder and plays a very important role to the vehicle's survivability.

== Types of armour in-game ==

* KE: Kinetic Energy
* CE: Chemical Energy

Armour modifier applies to both types of penetrators, unless specified.

{| class="wikitable"
! Material or Component !! Armour Modifier!! Examples
|-
! colspan="3" | Ground vehicles
|-
| '''Rolled homogeneous armour''' (RHA) || x1.00 ||
|-
| '''Modern RHA''' || x1.01 || {{Specs-Link|cn_ztz_96}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|germ_leopard_1a5}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_chieftain_mk_3}}
|-
| '''Cast homogeneous armour''' (CHA) || x0.94 ||
|-
| '''Modern CHA''' || x0.98 || {{Specs-Link|germ_kpz_70}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_merkava_mk_3d}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_64_b_1984}}
|-
| '''High hardness rolled armour''' (HHRA) || x1.25 || {{Specs-Link|germ_pzkpfw_III_ausf_L}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|it_centauro_mgs_120}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|sw_ikv_91}}
|-
| '''Modern HHRA''' || x1.10 || {{Specs-Link|sw_strv_122}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_m1128_mgs}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_bmp_2}}
|-
| '''Tracks''' || x0.75 ||
|-
| '''Structural steel''' || x0.45 ||{{Specs-Link|us_t26e4_superpershing}}
|-
| '''Structural steel of chassis''' || x0.60 ||
|-
| '''Wheel''' || x0.30 ||
|-
| '''Rubber-fabric screens''' || x0.20 || {{Specs-Link|it_of_40_mk_1}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_m901_itv}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_62m1}}
|-
| '''Composite screen''' || x0.16 KE x2.00 CE || {{Specs-Link|fr_leclerc_s2}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|jp_type_16}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_vickers_mk7}}
|-
| '''Air''' (Spaced armour) || x0.05 KE x0.30 CE || {{Specs-Link|fr_amx_32}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|germ_kpz_70}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_merkava_mk_1}}
|-
| '''Aluminium''' || x0.20 || {{Specs-Link|jp_st_a1}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_chieftain_mk_10}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_bmp_2m}}
|-
| '''Aluminium alloy 5083''' || x0.32 || {{Specs-Link|cn_cm_25}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|it_otobreda_sidam_25}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_m3_bradley}}
|-
| '''Aluminium alloy AA7017''' || x0.50 || {{Specs-Link|uk_fv102_striker}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_stormer_hvm}}
|-
| '''Aluminium alloy 7020''' || x0.50 || {{Specs-Link|it_centauro_mgs_120}}
|-
| '''Aluminium alloy 7039''' || x0.50 || {{Specs-Link|it_oto_r3_t20_fa}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|jp_type_75}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_t114}}
|-
| '''Alloy ABT-101''' || x0.38 || {{Specs-Link|ussr_bmp_2}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_object_685}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_object_906}}
|-
| '''Alloy ABT-102''' || x0.42 || {{Specs-Link|ussr_bmp_3}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_9p157}}
|-
| '''Aluminium alloy AMS 4050A''' || x0.50 || {{Specs-Link|fr_amx_10rc}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|jp_type_87}}
|-
| '''Alloy BT-6''' || x0.70 || {{Specs-Link|ussr_t_80b}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_80u}}
|-
| '''External composite armour with {{Annotation|NERA|Non-Energetic Reactive Armour}} elements''' || x0.10 KE x1.70 CE || {{Specs-Link|germ_leopard_2a6}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|jp_type_90b}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_vickers_mk7}}
|-
| '''Wood''' || x0.05 || {{Specs-Link|cn_ztz_99}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_is_3}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_object_120}}
|-
| '''{{Annotation|MEXAS|Modular Expandable Armour System}} 2''' || x0.16 || {{Specs-Link|us_m1128_mgs}}
|-
| '''MEXAS 2C''' || x0.16 || {{Specs-Link|us_m1128_mgs}}
|-
! colspan="3" | Naval vessels
|-
| '''Rolled homogeneous armour''' || x1.00 ||
|-
| '''Rolled cemented armour''' || x1.10 || Heavy cruisers, battleships
|-
| '''Structural steel''' || x0.45 ||
|-
| '''Coal bunker''' || x0.01 ||
|-
| '''Concrete''' || x0.35 || {{Specs-Link|germ_artilleriefahrprahm_typ_d1}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|germ_artilleriefahrprahm_typ_d3}}
|-
| '''Wood''' || x0.05 KE x0.00 CE ||
|-
| '''Antifragmentation armour''' || x0.90 ||
|-
| '''Hardened armour''' || x0.80 ||
|-
|}

=Aircraft=
Armour on aircraft are often minimum and focused on vital sections rather than on the overall airframe. Armour are often not taken into consideration in the design as armour constitutes more material and thus a heavier aircraft which would inhibit its performance due to weight penalty.<ref name="BismarckArmour">Bismarck 2017</ref>

Armour for pilots are thus usually never beyond the usage of bullet-resistant glass on the cockpit that could provide protection against rifle calibre ammunition. Though some armour plating are present in the back on some planes like the P-47, these were only thick enough for small calibers and serve more to slow down the incoming round so that it has little energy once it punches through. Other important areas that armour could be present on aircraft is around the engine. Important design features that dictate whether an aircraft design is more durable than others was in the airframe build quality, the air frame's ability to take damage, and adequate protections around vital components such as the engine, pilot, and fuel tanks.<ref name="BismarckArmour" />

=Tank=
==History==
===Interwar period===
Armour plays a very important role on tanks as they were conceived by it. The armour on the tanks at its inception made them invulnerable to the basic small arms fire, a trait that broke the stalemate of the trench warfare in World War I. During the interwar period, tank armour was prioritized on protection against firearms and artillery shrapnel. However, experience in the Spanish Civil War showed that this concept leaves the tank vulnerable to heavier guns. This is demonstrated when Italian tankettes and German Panzer I's, armed with only machine guns and simple 13 mm armour, went up against the Soviet [[T-26|T-26]], which had a 45 mm gun on its turret. The tank arms race increased armament and armour, evident on the German [[Pz.IV C|Panzer IV]] when armour increased from the initial 14.5 mm in 1936 to 30 mm in 1938 before World War II broke out.

===Early World War II===
During World War II, tank armour played a huge part in tank design. More armour means more weight on the tank and thus must be sparingly used to the tank mobility in acceptable margins. Tank armour in this period is separated by the three tank categories, light, medium, and heavy tanks. It was in this period that tank armour went through many technological advances. One of the perfect example is the French SOMUA S35 and the Soviet [[T-34 (1940)|T-34]]. The two vehicles made extensive usage of the concept of "sloped armour", which increased the armour effective thickness due to the difference in the line-of-sight thickness (See [[Armour#Sloped_armour|"Concepts"]] section). The Germans, which mainly used vertical-faced armour on their [[Pz.III F|Panzers]], struggled to take these vehicles out due to their strong armour against their inadequate guns. While the Battle of France did not incite Germany to quickly upgrade their armour and armament due to the small quantities of these kinds of tanks, the encounter with the T-34's in Operation Barbarossa came as a great shock due to the large number of T-34's available in Soviet inventory. The Germans, in a stage informally known as a "tank panic", rushed development to complete weapons able to destroy the T-34 and uparmour their tanks to withstand the Soviet 76 mm cannons. The Soviet T-34 and American [[M4A1|M4 Shermans]] caused great headaches in the German armoured forces due to their strong, sloped front armour in 1942, but that all changed in 1943 and beyond.

===Late World War II===
The year 1943 changed everything in the balance of tank power from the Allies with their T-34 and Shermans to the Germans. Germany introduced their newest tanks in large quantities, the [[Panther D|Panther]] and the [[Tiger H1|Tiger I]] tanks. These vehicles introduced powerful cannons and a new redefinition of the term "armour" for tanks. The Tiger I came with an astounding 100 mm armour thickness in front. Though vertical-faced and thus did not have the benefit of "sloped armour", the guns on Shermans and T-34 at the time could not penetrate the front plate at standard combat ranges, forcing the Allied medium tanks to close in for a kill. The Panther had 80 mm of frontal armour, but that armour was sloped at a 55° from vertical and caused the effective armour to instead be 140 mm thick. Thus, the Panther was basically invulnerable in the hull front from any anti-tank weapon in existence in Allied inventory at that time. The Germans also started to extensively used an armour called "Schürzen", which is a form of "spaced armour" that provided additional protection to their tank's weak side armour. The two new tanks, plus a new one in the form of the [[Tiger II (H)|Tiger II]] with 150 mm of frontal armour sloped for effective thickness of ~230 mm, caused turmoil in the Allied armoured forces as they find a way to easily destroy the new tanks. They were never able to compete against the German's in terms of armour thickness until after World War II.

===Cold War===
By the end of World War II, sloping armour had become a ubiquitous concept and every tank designed has it from the American [[M60|M60]], British [[Centurion Mk 3|Centurion]], and Soviet [[T-54 (1951)|T-54/55]] tanks. With increasing tank armour equaling to increased weight, countries try to keep their tank weight in manageable ranges while making the armour up to date with current threats. By early 1960s, anti-tank technology such as the [[Anti-tank_guided_missiles|anti-tank guided missiles (ATGM)]] has grown to the point where it requires a large amount of steel to make the armour thick enough to resist the threat, but the amount was prohibitive and made the tank too heavy. Some nations such as Germany tried to solve this by relying on mobility at the expense of armour such as the [[Leopard I]], but it became clear a new type of armour is needed. It came in the form of "composite armour", which used steel combined with a variety of material such as plastic and ceramic that can resist penetration more effectively at a lighter weight. Composite armour soon became the new standard of tank armour throughout the world. Another armour developed in the Cold War was the "explosive reactive armour", which used an explosive to deflect a penetration property. Explosive reactive armour, or ERA, was highly effective against the ubiquitous HEATFS rounds used as anti-tank weapons. These armour technology saved the tanks from becoming obsolete during the Cold War against the new anti-tank missile threat that allows a small infantry crew to destroy a tank as far as 2000 meters away. Composite armour, ERA, and the increasing lethality of tank armament helped revolutionize the tank concept from light, medium, and heavy tanks into the new, universal "main battle tank".

==Concepts==
===Sloped armour===
[[File:T-54 Training Parola Tank Museum.jpg|x200px|thumb|right|A cut-out of a [[T-54 (1951)|T-54]] to show the effectiveness of sloping armour.]]

Sloped armour is effectively angling the armour of a tank on an angle rather than placed for a flat surface.

Slope armour presents the advantage of having a much thicker effective armour on a tanks for a lighter weight due to using a thinner armour plate. The sloped nature also increases the chance of the impacting shell to simply ricochet or deflect off, doing no effect to the armour. The disadvantage of the sloped armour was its more complicated manufacturing process and a reduction in internal space.

====Calculating sloped armour effective thickness====
A simple formula to calculate a tank's effective thickness (Line Of Sight, or LOS) due to sloping armour is with this: 

[LOS Effective Thickness vs Projectile Type] = ([Armour Thickness] × [Armour Modifier vs Projectile Type]) / cos ([Armour Angle]) 
'''Note:''' This formula does not factor in the possible horizontal or vertical angle of the target's armour plate relative to the shot's origin or deviations of the shell's angle of inclination due to bullet drop at longer ranges. We assume the target is placed on an even field and shot at from straight ahead at distance where the shell will hit the armour with 0° of bullet drop. 

For example: A Panther has an 80 mm (armour thickness) front armour plate, sloped at an angle of 55° (armour angle) and made out of RHA (armour modifier), being shot at by an AP projectile (armour modifier vs projectile = 1.0 vs KE). Thus, we input the values: 

(80 mm × 1.0) / cos (55°) = 80 mm / cos (55°) = 80 mm / 0.574 = 139.4 mm ≈ 140 mm (vs Kinetic AP) 

Thus, we get the value of how thick the Panther's sloped frontal armour is in a line-of-sight angle.

===Armour angling===
Outside of sloped armour, another way to improve the effective armour thickness on tanks is simply angling the armour towards the opponent. This means instead of sloping the armour in a vertical plane, instead angle sideways.

[[File:TigerIHTank Armour Angling.png|x200px|thumb|left|An example of armour angling with the [[Tiger_H1|Tiger I]], angled towards the opponent in its most optimum degree for best all-around armour.]]

This gives another form of thickness as not only does the round have to pass through a plane of armour, but two plane of the same armour, which would boost the effective thickness. This is best seen in vertical-faced armoured tanks like the [[Tiger H1|Tiger I tank]]. Though their vertical faced 100 mm front plate would only give 100 mm effectiveness, it was recommended in the Tigerfibel crew manual that a 45 degree diamond angle position would provide a front armour of nearly 130 mm of effective thickness.<ref name="Tigerfibel">Carruthers 2011</ref> This gives tank a chance to improve their effective front armour thickness especially when against enemies that would penetrate their front with little difficulty. However, beware of angling to much towards the enemy that it exposes the weaker side armour to enemy fire, which may have a chance of penetrating.

Some tanks attempt to implement this concept into the designs itself. One example is the Soviet [[IS-3]] with its "pike nose" front armour. Due to the sloping effect not only going back, but sweeping to the sides, this improves the IS-3 front armour effectiveness and ricochet chances.

===Spaced armour===
Spaced armour helps against anti-tank rounds in a form of disruption and denial. Spaced armour was first widely used by the Germans in the form of "Schürzen", attaching metal sheets away from the base armour of their Panzers. These metal sheets were intended to disrupt the kinetic energy of the Soviet 14.5 mm anti-tank rifles, which could penetrate the weaker side armour of their tanks. It does this by forcing much of the energy on the rifle round to be expelled on the Schürzen sheets, passing through and causing negligible damage on the base side armour. The Schürzen may also disrupt tank rounds as well, but the much greater kinetic energy of tank shells means that its disruption will be ineffective to all but the most sloped shots. Though there is a belief that the Schürzen plates were meant to stop HEAT rounds from shoulder-launched weapons, the plates were not intentionally designed for this task.

Spaced armour was used in various formats in the Cold War tank designs. It was used as a form of protection against HEAT rounds from tank guns and rocket launchers, with the air separating the tank's base armour and the spaced armour acting to dissipate the HEAT's power before it reaches the hull. Spaced armour also works against kinetic penetrators by shattering the round on impact with the first layer. Though early kinetic rounds using brittle materials like tungsten were affected by this armour, better material like depleted uranium made the rounds more durable and proof against this type of armour.<ref name="MM.Spaced">M.m. 2015</ref>

===Explosive reactive armour (ERA)===
Explosive reactive armour (ERA) works by using an explosive force to disrupt an incoming armour-piercing ammunition. The construction of ERA usually takes the form of individual tiles made up of "reactive elements", which are sandwiched explosives in between sheets of metal. These tiles would be used around vulnerable points of a tank to provide protection at these locations.

Though ERA provides good protection against HEAT ammunition, high-velocity kinetic penetrators like APDS and APFSDS penetrates too quickly for the explosive force to be effective against them. This was a problem in early ERA designs, but more modern ERA types have been able to resist these ammunition. Even so, ERA still has drawbacks in that each explosive tile were one-time-use against the incoming round, leaving the exposed tank metal underneath once expended. ERA also has become vulnerable to tandem-charge ammunition, which use a two-stage detonation sequence with the first charge destroying the ERA plate and the second penetrating the armour underneath the plate. Finally, the ERA plates rarely cover the entire tank sections due to contouring and moving parts, so the armour is still exposed in various degrees to be hit and penetrated.

{| class="wikitable"
! ERA Type!! Protection Value !! Vehicles
|-
| '''"Passive" {{Annotation|ERA|Explosive Reactive Armour}}''' || 5 mm {{Annotation|KE|Kinetic Energy (AP rounds)}} 370 mm {{Annotation|CE|Chemical Energy (HEAT rounds)}} || {{Specs-Link|cn_cm11}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_m60a1_rise_passive_era}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_m60a3_tts}}
|-
| '''"Blazer" ERA''' || 5 mm KE 260 mm CE || {{Specs-Link|sw_strv_104}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_centurion_shot_kal_d}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_magach_3}}*
|-
| '''"CONTACT-1" ERA''' || 5 mm KE 400 mm CE || {{Specs-Link|ussr_t_64_b_1984}}*{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_72av_turms}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_72b}}
|-
| '''"CONTACT-5" INTEGRATED ERA''' || 120 mm KE 450 mm CE || {{Specs-Link|ussr_t_72b3_2011}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_80u}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_90a}}
|-
| '''"Relict" ERA''' || 20-250 mm KE 450-600 mm CE|| {{Specs-Link|ussr_t_72b3_2011}}* {{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_80bvm}}
|-
| '''FY-4 ERA''' || 140 mm KE 450 mm CE || {{Specs-Link|cn_ztz_96a}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|cn_ztz_99}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|cn_ztz_99_w}}
|-
| '''ZTZ59D1 ERA''' || 5-120 mm KE 370 mm CE || {{Specs-Link|cn_type_59d}}
|-
| '''T-69 II G ERA''' || 5 mm KE 370 mm CE || {{Specs-Link|cn_type_69_2g}}
|-
| '''"ROMOR-A" ERA''' || 30 mm KE 300 mm CE || {{Specs-Link|it_b1_centauro_romor}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_centurion_mk_5_avre_era}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_challenger_II}}*{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_challenger_2_dorchester}}
|-
|'''"BRENUS" ERA'''||5 mm KE 400 mm CE||{{Specs-Link|fr_amx_30_b2_brenus}}
|-
| '''Integrated ERA''' || 10 mm KE 250 mm CE || {{Specs-Link|fr_leclerc_s1}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|fr_leclerc_s2}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|fr_leclerc_sxxi}}
|-
|'''"DYNAS" ERA'''
|100 mm KE 550 mm CE
|T-72M2
|-
! colspan="3" | <nowiki>*</nowiki>with add-on armour modification
|-
|}

====History====
The first efforts in discovering this form of protection reach back to 1949 in the Soviet Union at the Nii Stali facility, although nothing much came out of it after failed tests and it was discontinued on the belief that the current armour on their main battle tanks was good enough. The traction did not continue again until German researcher Dr.Manfred Held, a shaped charge (HEAT) specialist, traveled to Israel on the conclusion of their 1967 Six-Day War. Examining several of the destroyed tanks from the conflict, he discovered that the force from exploding ammunition slightly reduced the effect of the shaped charge used. He then developed the first working ERA plate in 1970. Though this was the first effective iteration of the ERA, Held's design required the explosive mesh to be fitted inside empty cavities, integrated into the tank armour. Held improved on the design in the same year which consisted of a tiles formed with the reactive elements. This model would become the fundamental design of modern ERA.<ref name="MM.Era">M.m. 2016</ref>

The majority of the NATO countries did not buy into the explosive reactive armour that Held presented. He did not find anyone interested until he returned back to Israel in 1974, after the 1973 Yom-Kippur War. There, the Israeli government and the Israeli Defense Force were persuaded, perhaps from their combat experiences, to adopt the ERA as a protection for their tanks. The Israelis then produced the ''Blazer ERA'' plates which followed Held's design with reactive elements. The Blazer ERA will first see usage in the 1982 Lebanon War, the tiles attached onto M60 tanks to protect the steel hull against anti-tank weaponry.<ref name="MM.Era" />

The Soviet Union was the next country to use ERA, under the name ''Kontakt ERA''. It was first introduced in 1984 and featured a tile design similar to Blazers, though using one or two reactive elements stacked together for better effectiveness. Like the Blazer, these plates were highly effective against HEAT rounds, but were generally ineffective against kinetic penetrators. Following the Soviets, the reactive armour was soon adopted by many other countries in the 1980s, from mainly Eastern bloc countries such as Czechoslovakia, Ukraine, and Poland. Today the ERA plates are still viable against modern anti-tank weaponry, especially when complemented with other tank defensive measures.<ref name="MM.Era" />

===Composite armour===
''To be filled''

===[[Add-on Armor|Add-on armor]]===
{{main|Add-on Armor}}

Add-on armour is a form of improvisation of the tank armour usually done by the crew or a maintenance unit in the front lines. Due to the rushed nature of tank technology in World War II, armour once considered adequate on tanks can quickly become obsolete with the introduction of a new gun piece in the field or a new equipment, such as the [[KwK 36 (88 mm)]] on the [[Tiger H1|Tiger I]] and the Panzerfaust anti-tank launcher, both could cut through Sherman and T-34 armour with little resistance. The declining armour effectiveness against these weapons prompted the tank crews to attempt an expedient method to improve the armour quality of their tanks. Troops went and attached logs, sandbags, tracks, concrete, and metal sheets onto their tanks to improve its effective thickness. The usefulness against anti-tank rounds from tank shells and HEAT rounds are controversial. Some tankers swear by it and claim they were saved by their improvised armour while analysts say that the add-on armour has no effect at all in interfering with incoming rounds. What was universally accepted was that these add-on armour helped improve the tank crew morale when fighting the enemy, renewed in confidence with their "improved" tank armour. However, add-on armour increases the weight of the tank due to the add-on of materials and thus can cause a strain on the power train and suspension of tanks, prompting some commanders like General George S. Patton to ban the usage of improvised armour to improve tank reliability. The most useful add-on armour was the welding of additional sheets of metal onto the tank, as seen in the well-received reception of the up-armoured M4 Sherman in the form of the [[M4A3E2]] Jumbos.

From Update 1.57, a modification known as the ''Add-on Armour'' was added onto certain vehicles. The modification adds spare track links along the hull and turret of the vehicle. The track links, when added, give an average of 17 - 20 mm of additional armour where they are attached.

= Media =


;Videos
{{Youtube-gallery|mJO2sLI_jwU|'''The Shooting Range #19''' - ''Tactics & Strategy'' section at 04:53 discusses how to angle your armour.|Go91srkTM80|'''Explosive Reactive Armor and Composite Armor''' - ''War Thunder Official Channel''|o24D6yl_VLg|'''The Shooting Range #115''' - ''Tactics & Strategy'' section at 10:14 discusses how to maximize your armour while on the defensive.|B2woWvJK4ew|'''Top 7 most armoured vehicles''' - ''War Thunder Official Channel''|c7NXyv_vD1A|'''How to use the protection analysis tool in War Thunder''' - ''Skreezilla''}}

= External links =


* [[wt:en/news/5569-development-protection-analysis-en|[Development] Protection Analysis]]

==References==

;Citations
<references />

;Bibliography

* Bismarck. "⚜ | Yes, World War 2 Planes Had Armour BUT..." YouTube. YouTube, 17 Aug. 2017. Web. 26 Sept. 2017. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-v5aMayFrRE Video].
* Carruthers, Bob. Tiger I: Official Wartime Crew Manual (the Tigerfibel). Warwickshire: Coda, 2011. Print.
* M.m. "Explosive Reactive Armor - Some History, Some Types." Below The Turret Ring. Blogger, 28 Apr. 2016. Web. 25 Sept. 2017. [https://below-the-turret-ring.blogspot.com/2016/04/explosive-reactive-armor-some-history.html Website].
* M.m. "The Truth about Spaced Armor on Modern Tanks and AFVs." Below The Turret Ring. Blogger, 31 Dec. 2015. Web. 26 Sept. 2017. [https://below-the-turret-ring.blogspot.com/2015/12/the-truth-about-spaced-armor-on-modern.html Website].

[[Category:Game mechanics]]

BGM-71 TOW

2022-03-29T00:36:20Z

U16328860: /* HAW */

== Description ==
[[File:WeaponImage TOW.png|thumb|left|420px|The TOW missile (the launch tube, missile with fins folded, and deployed missile are shown; scale is approximate)]]
{{Break}}
''Write an introduction to the article in 2-3 small paragraphs. Briefly tell us about the history of the development and combat using the weaponry and also about its features. Compile a list of air, ground, or naval vehicles that feature this weapon system in the game.''

=== Vehicles equipped with this weapon ===


* {{Specs-Link|cn_cm_25}}
* {{Specs-Link|it_dardo_vcc}}
* {{Specs-Link|us_m3a3_bradley}}
* {{Specs-Link|it_vcc_80_hitfist_30}}
* {{Specs-Link|germ_wiesel_1_tow}}

== General info ==
''Tell us about the tactical and technical characteristics of the missile.''

=== Effective damage ===
''Describe the type of damage produced by this type of missile (high explosive, splash damage, etc)''

{| class="wikitable sortable" width="100%" style="text-align:center"
! colspan="4" |Penetration statistics
|-
! rowspan="2" data-sort-type="text" |
! colspan="3" |Penetration (mm) @ Angle of Attack (°)
|-
!0!!30!!90
|-
|BGM-71A TOW
|430||372||215
|-
|BGM-71C I-TOW
|630
|546
|315
|-
|BGM-71D TOW-2
|800
|693
|400
|-
|}
=== Comparison with analogues ===
''Give a comparative description of missiles that have firepower equal to this weapon.''

== Usage in battles ==
''Describe situations when you would utilise this missile in-game (vehicle, pillbox, base, etc)''

=== Pros and cons ===
''Summarise and briefly evaluate the weaponry in terms of its characteristics and combat effectiveness. Mark pros and cons as a list.''

'''Pros:'''

*

'''Cons:'''

*

== History ==
''Examine the history of the creation and combat usage of the weapon in more detail than in the introduction. If the historical reference turns out to be too long, take it to a separate article, taking a link to the article about the weapon and adding a block "/History" (example: <nowiki>https://wiki.warthunder.com/(Weapon-name)/History</nowiki>) and add a link to it here using the <code>main</code> template. Be sure to reference text and sources by using <code><nowiki><ref></ref></nowiki></code>, as well as adding them at the end of the article with <code><nowiki><references /></nowiki></code>.''

=== '''HAW''' ===
Fall of 1958, the Army's Office of Ordnance Research and Development formed the Ad Hoc Working Group at the Ballistic Research Laboratories (BRL) to define a future replacement for the SS.10 and 11. The team included members from Picatinny Arsenal, Frankford Arsenal, Redstone Arsenal, Watervliet Arsenal, Detroit Arsenal and Harry Diamond Laboratories.

Manual guidance systems (MCLOS) of earlier weapons like SS.11 were found to be difficult to use as the relative movements of the launcher and target increased; MCLOS worked well for stationary launchers and slow-moving targets, but had proven much more difficult to use from moving vehicles, especially helicopters.

Experience and issues with the MGM-51 Shillelagh missile especially the infrared link proved relatively unreliable in the field and was subject to countermeasures like random flashing IR lamps. For the shorter ranges envisioned for HAW, wire-guidance was perfectly suitable and both much less expensive and largely immune to countermeasures.

=== TOW ===
The resulting design was tube-launched, optically tracked, and wire-guided. BRL programmer Harry Reed immediately christened it "TOW" (Tube-launched, Optically tracked, Wire-guided), a name that the system carried into production.

== Media ==
''Excellent additions to the article would be video guides, screenshots from the game, and photos.''

== See also ==
''Links to the articles on the War Thunder Wiki that you think will be useful for the reader, for example:''

* ''reference to the article about the variant of the weapon;''
* ''references to approximate analogues by other nations and research trees.''

== External links ==
''Paste links to sources and external resources, such as:''

* ''topic on the official game forum;''
* ''other literature.''

{{Missiles}}

[[Category:Suspended armaments]]

BGM-71 TOW

2022-03-29T00:35:57Z

U16328860: /* History */

== Description ==
[[File:WeaponImage TOW.png|thumb|left|420px|The TOW missile (the launch tube, missile with fins folded, and deployed missile are shown; scale is approximate)]]
{{Break}}
''Write an introduction to the article in 2-3 small paragraphs. Briefly tell us about the history of the development and combat using the weaponry and also about its features. Compile a list of air, ground, or naval vehicles that feature this weapon system in the game.''

=== Vehicles equipped with this weapon ===


* {{Specs-Link|cn_cm_25}}
* {{Specs-Link|it_dardo_vcc}}
* {{Specs-Link|us_m3a3_bradley}}
* {{Specs-Link|it_vcc_80_hitfist_30}}
* {{Specs-Link|germ_wiesel_1_tow}}

== General info ==
''Tell us about the tactical and technical characteristics of the missile.''

=== Effective damage ===
''Describe the type of damage produced by this type of missile (high explosive, splash damage, etc)''

{| class="wikitable sortable" width="100%" style="text-align:center"
! colspan="4" |Penetration statistics
|-
! rowspan="2" data-sort-type="text" |
! colspan="3" |Penetration (mm) @ Angle of Attack (°)
|-
!0!!30!!90
|-
|BGM-71A TOW
|430||372||215
|-
|BGM-71C I-TOW
|630
|546
|315
|-
|BGM-71D TOW-2
|800
|693
|400
|-
|}
=== Comparison with analogues ===
''Give a comparative description of missiles that have firepower equal to this weapon.''

== Usage in battles ==
''Describe situations when you would utilise this missile in-game (vehicle, pillbox, base, etc)''

=== Pros and cons ===
''Summarise and briefly evaluate the weaponry in terms of its characteristics and combat effectiveness. Mark pros and cons as a list.''

'''Pros:'''

*

'''Cons:'''

*

== History ==
''Examine the history of the creation and combat usage of the weapon in more detail than in the introduction. If the historical reference turns out to be too long, take it to a separate article, taking a link to the article about the weapon and adding a block "/History" (example: <nowiki>https://wiki.warthunder.com/(Weapon-name)/History</nowiki>) and add a link to it here using the <code>main</code> template. Be sure to reference text and sources by using <code><nowiki><ref></ref></nowiki></code>, as well as adding them at the end of the article with <code><nowiki><references /></nowiki></code>.''

=== '''HAW''' ===
Fall of 1958, the Army's Office of Ordnance Research and Development formed the Ad Hoc Working Group at the Ballistic Research Laboratories (BRL) to define a future replacement for the SS.10 and 11. The team included members from Picatinny Arsenal, Frankford Arsenal, Redstone Arsenal, Watervliet Arsenal, Detroit Arsenal and Harry Diamond Laboratories.

Manual guidance systems (MCLOS) of earlier weapons like SS.11 were found to be difficult to use as the relative movements of the launcher and target increased; MCLOS worked well for stationary launchers and slow-moving targets, but had proven much more difficult to use from moving vehicles, especially helicopters.

Experience and issues with the MGM-51 Shillelagh missile especially the infrared link proved relatively unreliable in the field and was subject to countermeasures like random flashing IR lamps. For the shorter ranges envisioned for HAW, wire-guidance was perfectly suitable and both much less expensive and largely immune to countermeasures.

The resulting design was tube-launched, optically tracked, and wire-guided. BRL programmer Harry Reed immediately christened it "TOW" (Tube-launched, Optically tracked, Wire-guided), a name that the system carried into production.

== Media ==
''Excellent additions to the article would be video guides, screenshots from the game, and photos.''

== See also ==
''Links to the articles on the War Thunder Wiki that you think will be useful for the reader, for example:''

* ''reference to the article about the variant of the weapon;''
* ''references to approximate analogues by other nations and research trees.''

== External links ==
''Paste links to sources and external resources, such as:''

* ''topic on the official game forum;''
* ''other literature.''

{{Missiles}}

[[Category:Suspended armaments]]

BGM-71 TOW

2022-03-29T00:26:04Z

U16328860: /* Effective damage */

RP

2022-03-29T00:18:30Z

U16328860: /* Effective damage */

== Description ==

[[File:WeaponImage RN.png|thumb|left|420px|The RN / 2" RP rocket with fins folded and deployed (scale is approximate)]]
{{Break}}

The '''RN''', also known as the '''2" RP''' or simply '''2-inch rocket''', is a British unguided rocket. Other designations include Royal Ordnance 2-inch rocket, Royal Navy 2" rocket, 2" Folding-Fin Rocket (FFR) Mk.1 or MATRA Two-inch rocket.

=== Vehicles equipped with this weapon ===


* {{Specs-Link|buccaneer_s1}}
* {{Specs-Link|buccaneer_s2}}
* {{Specs-Link|dh_110_sea_vixen}}

== General info ==
''Tell us about the tactical and technical characteristics of the rocket.''

=== Effective damage ===

The 2" RN rocket is a 5 kg high explosive air-to-air podded rocket with a small TNT warhead. It travels at 657 m/s and detonates via an impact fuse. The majority of the damage comes from the the fragmentation of the rocket.

{| class="wikitable sortable" width="100%" style="text-align:center"
! colspan="7" |Penetration statistics
|-
! rowspan="2" data-sort-type="text" |
! colspan="6" |Penetration @ 0° Angle of Attack (mm)
|-
!10 m!!100 m!!500 m!!1,000 m!!1,500 m!!2,000 m
|-
|||10||10||9||9||9||9
|-
|}

=== Comparison with analogues ===
''Give a comparative description of rockets that have firepower equal to this weapon.''

== Usage in battles ==
''Describe situations when you would utilise this rocket in-game (vehicle, pillbox, base, etc)''

=== Pros and cons ===
''Summarise and briefly evaluate the weaponry in terms of its characteristics and combat effectiveness. Mark pros and cons as a list.''

'''Pros:'''

* Relatively high velocity (657 m/s)
* High count of rocket per pod (36)
* Very effective against lightly armoured vehicles

'''Cons:'''

* Rocket pods add parasitic drag to the aircraft
* Cannot destroy Pillboxes
* Poor explosive filler, useless against armoured targets

== History ==

The Royal Navy developed the 2-inch folding-fin/stabilized rocket during the Cold War, as a replacement for the French SNEB after a carrier-based electromagnetic interference caused issues with the pod-mounted rockets. The Royal Navy commissioned the company, Thomas French & Sons Limited to develop a majority of the pod mounts that could hold the new 2in rockets. The pods were modified and redesigned SNEB pods, developed with permission from Matra.

== Media ==
''Excellent additions to the article would be video guides, screenshots from the game, and photos.''

== See also ==
''Links to the articles on the War Thunder Wiki that you think will be useful for the reader, for example:''

* ''reference to the article about the variant of the weapon;''
* ''references to approximate analogues by other nations and research trees.''

== External links ==
''Paste links to sources and external resources, such as:''

* ''topic on the official game forum;''
* ''other literature.''

{{Rockets}}

[[Category:Suspended armaments]]

Armour

2022-02-19T23:45:11Z

U16328860: /* Types of armour in-game */

=Armour=
'''Armour''' is the basic defense an entity has against threats. Armour can be found in both air and ground vehicles in War Thunder and plays a very important role to the vehicle's survivability.

== Types of armour in-game ==

* KE: Kinetic Energy
* CE: Chemical Energy

Armour modifier applies to both types of penetrators, unless specified.

{| class="wikitable"
! Material or Component !! Armour Modifier!! Examples
|-
! colspan="3" | Ground vehicles
|-
| '''Rolled homogeneous armour''' (RHA) || x1.00 ||
|-
| '''Modern RHA''' || x1.01 || {{Specs-Link|cn_ztz_96}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|germ_leopard_1a5}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_chieftain_mk_3}}
|-
| '''Cast homogeneous armour''' (CHA) || x0.94 ||
|-
| '''Modern CHA''' || x0.98 || {{Specs-Link|germ_kpz_70}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_merkava_mk_3d}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_64_b_1984}}
|-
| '''High hardness rolled armour''' (HHRA) || x1.25 || {{Specs-Link|germ_pzkpfw_III_ausf_L}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|it_centauro_mgs_120}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|sw_ikv_91}}
|-
| '''Modern HHRA''' || x1.10 || {{Specs-Link|sw_strv_122}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_m1128_mgs}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_bmp_2}}
|-
| '''Tracks''' || x0.75 ||
|-
| '''Structural steel''' || x0.45 ||{{Specs-Link|us_t26e4_superpershing}}
|-
| '''Structural steel of chassis''' || x0.60 ||
|-
| '''Wheel''' || x0.30 ||
|-
| '''Rubber-fabric screens''' || x0.20 || {{Specs-Link|it_of_40_mk_1}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_m901_itv}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_62m1}}
|-
| '''Composite screen''' || x0.16 KE x2.00 CE || {{Specs-Link|fr_leclerc_s2}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|jp_type_16}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_vickers_mk7}}
|-
| '''Air''' (Spaced armour) || x0.05 KE x0.30 CE || {{Specs-Link|fr_amx_32}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|germ_kpz_70}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_merkava_mk_1}}
|-
| '''Aluminium''' || x0.20 || {{Specs-Link|jp_st_a1}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_chieftain_mk_10}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_bmp_2m}}
|-
| '''Aluminium alloy 5083''' || x0.32 || {{Specs-Link|cn_cm_25}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|it_otobreda_sidam_25}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_m3_bradley}}
|-
| '''Aluminium alloy AA7017''' || x0.50 || {{Specs-Link|uk_fv102_striker}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_stormer_hvm}}
|-
| '''Aluminium alloy 7020''' || x0.50 || {{Specs-Link|it_centauro_mgs_120}}
|-
| '''Aluminium alloy 7039''' || x0.50 || {{Specs-Link|it_oto_r3_t20_fa}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|jp_type_75}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_t114}}
|-
| '''Alloy ABT-101''' || x0.38 || {{Specs-Link|ussr_bmp_2}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_object_685}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_object_906}}
|-
| '''Alloy ABT-102''' || x0.42 || {{Specs-Link|ussr_bmp_3}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_9p157}}
|-
| '''Aluminium alloy AMS 4050A''' || x0.50 || {{Specs-Link|fr_amx_10rc}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|jp_type_87}}
|-
| '''Alloy BT-6''' || x0.70 || {{Specs-Link|ussr_t_80b}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_80u}}
|-
| '''External composite armour with {{Annotation|NERA|Non-Energetic Reactive Armour}} elements''' || x0.10 KE x1.70 CE || {{Specs-Link|germ_leopard_2a6}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|jp_type_90b}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_vickers_mk7}}
|-
| '''Wood''' || x0.05 || {{Specs-Link|cn_ztz_99}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_is_3}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_object_120}}
|-
| '''{{Annotation|MEXAS|Modular Expandable Armour System}} 2''' || x0.16 || {{Specs-Link|us_m1128_mgs}}
|-
| '''MEXAS 2C''' || x0.16 || {{Specs-Link|us_m1128_mgs}}
|-
! colspan="3" | Naval vessels
|-
| '''Rolled homogeneous armour''' || x1.00 ||
|-
| '''Rolled cemented armour''' || x1.10 || Heavy cruisers, battleships
|-
| '''Structural steel''' || x0.45 ||
|-
| '''Coal bunker''' || x0.01 ||
|-
| '''Concrete''' || x0.35 || {{Specs-Link|germ_artilleriefahrprahm_typ_d1}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|germ_artilleriefahrprahm_typ_d3}}
|-
| '''Wood''' || x0.05 KE x0.00 CE ||
|-
| '''Antifragmentation armour''' || x0.90 ||
|-
| '''Hardened armour''' || x0.80 ||
|-
|}

=Aircraft=
Armour on aircraft are often minimum and focused on vital sections rather than on the overall airframe. Armour are often not taken into consideration in the design as armour constitutes more material and thus a heavier aircraft which would inhibit its performance due to weight penalty.<ref name="BismarckArmour">Bismarck 2017</ref>

Armour for pilots are thus usually never beyond the usage of bullet-resistant glass on the cockpit that could provide protection against rifle calibre ammunition. Though some armour plating are present in the back on some planes like the P-47, these were only thick enough for small calibers and serve more to slow down the incoming round so that it has little energy once it punches through. Other important areas that armour could be present on aircraft is around the engine. Important design features that dictate whether an aircraft design is more durable than others was in the airframe build quality, the air frame's ability to take damage, and adequate protections around vital components such as the engine, pilot, and fuel tanks.<ref name="BismarckArmour" />

=Tank=
==History==
===Interwar period===
Armour plays a very important role on tanks as they were conceived by it. The armour on the tanks at its inception made them invulnerable to the basic small arms fire, a trait that broke the stalemate of the trench warfare in World War I. During the interwar period, tank armour was prioritized on protection against firearms and artillery shrapnel. However, experience in the Spanish Civil War showed that this concept leaves the tank vulnerable to heavier guns. This is demonstrated when Italian tankettes and German Panzer I's, armed with only machine guns and simple 13 mm armour, went up against the Soviet [[T-26|T-26]], which had a 45 mm gun on its turret. The tank arms race increased armament and armour, evident on the German [[Pz.IV C|Panzer IV]] when armour increased from the initial 14.5 mm in 1936 to 30 mm in 1938 before World War II broke out.

===Early World War II===
During World War II, tank armour played a huge part in tank design. More armour means more weight on the tank and thus must be sparingly used to the tank mobility in acceptable margins. Tank armour in this period is separated by the three tank categories, light, medium, and heavy tanks. It was in this period that tank armour went through many technological advances. One of the perfect example is the French SOMUA S35 and the Soviet [[T-34 (1940)|T-34]]. The two vehicles made extensive usage of the concept of "sloped armour", which increased the armour effective thickness due to the difference in the line-of-sight thickness (See [[Armour#Sloped_armour|"Concepts"]] section). The Germans, which mainly used vertical-faced armour on their [[Pz.III F|Panzers]], struggled to take these vehicles out due to their strong armour against their inadequate guns. While the Battle of France did not incite Germany to quickly upgrade their armour and armament due to the small quantities of these kinds of tanks, the encounter with the T-34's in Operation Barbarossa came as a great shock due to the large number of T-34's available in Soviet inventory. The Germans, in a stage informally known as a "tank panic", rushed development to complete weapons able to destroy the T-34 and uparmour their tanks to withstand the Soviet 76 mm cannons. The Soviet T-34 and American [[M4A1|M4 Shermans]] caused great headaches in the German armoured forces due to their strong, sloped front armour in 1942, but that all changed in 1943 and beyond.

===Late World War II===
The year 1943 changed everything in the balance of tank power from the Allies with their T-34 and Shermans to the Germans. Germany introduced their newest tanks in large quantities, the [[Panther D|Panther]] and the [[Tiger H1|Tiger I]] tanks. These vehicles introduced powerful cannons and a new redefinition of the term "armour" for tanks. The Tiger I came with an astounding 100 mm armour thickness in front. Though vertical-faced and thus did not have the benefit of "sloped armour", the guns on Shermans and T-34 at the time could not penetrate the front plate at standard combat ranges, forcing the Allied medium tanks to close in for a kill. The Panther had 80 mm of frontal armour, but that armour was sloped at a 55° from vertical and caused the effective armour to instead be ''140 mm'' thick. Thus, the Panther was basically invulnerable in the hull front from any anti-tank weapon in existence in Allied inventory at that time. The Germans also started to extensively used an armour called ''Schürzen'', which is a form of "spaced armour" that provided additional protection to their tank's weak side armour. The two new tanks, plus a new one in the form of the [[Tiger II (H)|Tiger II]] with 150 mm of frontal armour sloped for effective thickness of ~230 mm, caused turmoil in the Allied armoured forces as they find a way to easily destroy the new tanks. They were never able to compete against the German's in terms of armour thickness until after World War II.

===Cold War===
By the end of World War II, sloping armour had become a ubiquitous concept and every tank designed has it from the American [[M60|M60]], British [[Centurion Mk 3|Centurion]], and Soviet [[T-54 (1951)|T-54/55]] tanks. With increasing tank armour equaling to increased weight, countries try to keep their tank weight in manageable ranges while making the armour up to date with current threats. By early 1960s, anti-tank technology such as the [[Anti-tank_guided_missiles|anti-tank guided missiles (ATGM)]] has grown to the point where it requires a large amount of steel to make the armour thick enough to resist the threat, but the amount was prohibitive and made the tank too heavy. Some nations such as Germany tried to solve this by relying on mobility at the expense of armour such as the [[Leopard I]], but it became clear a new type of armour is needed. It came in the form of "composite armour", which used steel combined with a variety of material such as plastic and ceramic that can resist penetration more effectively at a lighter weight. Composite armour soon became the new standard of tank armour throughout the world. Another armour developed in the Cold War was the "explosive reactive armour", which used an explosive to deflect a penetration property. Explosive reactive armour, or ERA, was highly effective against the ubiquitous HEATFS rounds used as anti-tank weapons. These armour technology saved the tanks from becoming obsolete during the Cold War against the new anti-tank missile threat that allows a small infantry crew to destroy a tank as far as 2000 meters away. Composite armour, ERA, and the increasing lethality of tank armament helped revolutionize the tank concept from light, medium, and heavy tanks into the new, universal "main battle tank".

==Concepts==
===Sloped armour===
[[File:T-54 Training Parola Tank Museum.jpg|x200px|thumb|right|A cut-out of a [[T-54 (1951)|T-54]] to show the effectiveness of sloping armour.]]

Sloped armour is effectively angling the armour of a tank on an angle rather than placed for a flat surface.

Slope armour presents the advantage of having a much thicker effective armour on a tanks for a lighter weight due to using a thinner armour plate. The sloped nature also increases the chance of the impacting shell to simply ricochet or deflect off, doing no effect to the armour. The disadvantage of the sloped armour was its more complicated manufacturing process and a reduction in internal space.

====Calculating sloped armour effective thickness====
A simple formula to calculate a tank's effective thickness (Line Of Sight, or LOS) due to sloping armour is with this: 

[LOS Effective Thickness vs Projectile Type] = ([Armour Thickness] × [Armor Modifier vs Projectile Type]) / cos ([Armour Angle]) 
'''Note:''' This formula does '''not''' factor in the possible horizontal '''or''' vertical angle of the target's armor plate relative to the shot's origin '''or''' deviations of the shell's angle of inclination due to bullet drop at longer ranges. We assume the target is placed on an even field and shot at from straight ahead at distance where the shell will hit the armor with 0° of bullet drop. 

For example: A '''Panther''' has an '''80 mm''' (armor thickness) front armour plate, sloped at an angle of '''55°''' (armor angle) and made out of '''RHA''' (armor modifier), being shot at by an AP projectile (armor modifier vs projectile = 1.0 vs KE). Thus, we input the values: 

(80 mm × 1.0) / cos (55°) = 80 mm / cos (55°) = 80 mm / 0.574 = 139.4 mm ≈ 140 mm (vs Kinetic AP) 

Thus, we get the value of how thick the Panther's sloped frontal armour is in a line-of-sight angle.

===Armour angling===
Outside of sloped armour, another way to improve the effective armour thickness on tanks is simply angling the armour towards the opponent. This means instead of sloping the armour in a vertical plane, instead angle sideways.

[[File:TigerIHTank Armour Angling.png|x200px|thumb|left|An example of armour angling with the [[Tiger_H1|Tiger I]], angled towards the opponent in its most optimum degree for best all-around armour.]]

This gives another form of thickness as not only does the round have to pass through a plane of armour, but two plane of the same armour, which would boost the effective thickness. This is best seen in vertical-faced armoured tanks like the [[Tiger H1|Tiger I tank]]. Though their vertical faced 100 mm front plate would only give 100 mm effectiveness, it was recommended in the ''Tigerfibel'' crew manual that a 45 degree diamond angle position would provide a front armour of nearly 130 mm of effective thickness.<ref name="Tigerfibel">Carruthers 2011</ref> This gives tank a chance to improve their effective front armour thickness especially when against enemies that would penetrate their front with little difficulty. However, beware of angling to much towards the enemy that it exposes the weaker side armour to enemy fire, which may have a chance of penetrating.

Some tanks attempt to implement this concept into the designs itself. One example is the Soviet [[IS-3]] with its "pike nose" front armour. Due to the sloping effect not only going back, but sweeping to the sides, this improves the IS-3 front armour effectiveness and ricochet chances.

===Spaced armour===
Spaced armour helps against anti-tank rounds in a form of disruption and denial. Spaced armour was first widely used by the Germans in the form of ''Schürzen'', attaching metal sheets away from the base armour of their Panzers. These metal sheets were intended to disrupt the kinetic energy of the Soviet 14.5 mm anti-tank rifles, which could penetrate the weaker side armour of their tanks. It does this by forcing much of the energy on the rifle round to be expelled on the ''Schürzen'' sheets, passing through and causing negligible damage on the base side armour. The ''Schürzen'' may also disrupt tank rounds as well, but the much greater kinetic energy of tank shells means that its disruption will be ineffective to all but the most sloped shots. Though there is a belief that the ''schürzen'' plates were meant to stop HEAT rounds from shoulder-launched weapons, the plates were not intentionally designed for this task.

Spaced armour was used in various formats in the Cold War tank designs. It was used as a form of protection against HEAT rounds from tank guns and rocket launchers, with the air separating the tank's base armour and the spaced armour acting to dissipate the HEAT's power before it reaches the hull. Spaced armour also works against kinetic penetrators by shattering the round on impact with the first layer. Though early kinetic rounds using brittle materials like tungsten were affected by this armour, better material like depleted uranium made the rounds more durable and proof against this type of armour.<ref name="MM.Spaced">M.m. 2015</ref>

===Explosive reactive armour (ERA)===
Explosive reactive armour (ERA) works by using an explosive force to disrupt an incoming armour-piercing ammunition. The construction of ERA usually takes the form of individual tiles made up of "reactive elements", which are sandwiched explosives in between sheets of metal. These tiles would be used around vulnerable points of a tank to provide protection at these locations.

Though ERA provides good protection against HEAT ammunition, high-velocity kinetic penetrators like APDS and APFSDS penetrates too quickly for the explosive force to be effective against them. This was a problem in early ERA designs, but more modern ERA types have been able to resist these ammunition. Even so, ERA still has drawbacks in that each explosive tile were one-time-use against the incoming round, leaving the exposed tank metal underneath once expended. ERA also has become vulnerable to tandem-charge ammunition, which use a two-stage detonation sequence with the first charge destroying the ERA plate and the second penetrating the armour underneath the plate. Finally, the ERA plates rarely cover the entire tank sections due to contouring and moving parts, so the armour is still exposed in various degrees to be hit and penetrated.

{| class="wikitable"
! ERA Type!! Protection Value !! Vehicles
|-
| '''"Passive" {{Annotation|ERA|Explosive Reactive Armour}}''' || 5 mm {{Annotation|KE|Kinetic Energy (AP rounds)}} 370 mm {{Annotation|CE|Chemical Energy (HEAT rounds)}} || {{Specs-Link|cn_cm11}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_m60a1_rise_passive_era}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_m60a3_tts}}
|-
| '''"Blazer" ERA''' || 5 mm KE 260 mm CE || {{Specs-Link|sw_strv_104}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_centurion_shot_kal_d}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_magach_3}}*
|-
| '''"CONTACT-1" ERA''' || 5 mm KE 400 mm CE || {{Specs-Link|ussr_t_64_b_1984}}*{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_72av_turms}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_72b}}
|-
| '''"CONTACT-5" INTEGRATED ERA''' || 120 mm KE 450 mm CE || {{Specs-Link|ussr_t_72b3_2011}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_80u}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_90a}}
|-
| '''"Relict" ERA''' || 20-250 mm KE 450-600 mm CE|| {{Specs-Link|ussr_t_72b3_2011}}* {{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_80bvm}}
|-
| '''FY-4 ERA''' || 140 mm KE 450 mm CE || {{Specs-Link|cn_ztz_96a}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|cn_ztz_99}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|cn_ztz_99_w}}
|-
| '''ZTZ59D1 ERA''' || 5-120 mm KE 370 mm CE || {{Specs-Link|cn_type_59d}}
|-
| '''T-69 II G ERA''' || 5 mm KE 370 mm CE || {{Specs-Link|cn_type_69_2g}}
|-
| '''"ROMOR-A" ERA''' || 30 mm KE 300 mm CE || {{Specs-Link|it_b1_centauro_romor}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_centurion_mk_5_avre_era}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_challenger_II}}*{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_challenger_2_dorchester}}
|-
|'''"BRENUS" ERA'''||5 mm KE 400 mm CE||{{Specs-Link|fr_amx_30_b2_brenus}}
|-
| '''Integrated ERA''' || 10 mm KE 250 mm CE || {{Specs-Link|fr_leclerc_s1}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|fr_leclerc_s2}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|fr_leclerc_sxxi}}
|-
! colspan="3" | <nowiki>*</nowiki>with add-on armour modification
|-
|}

====History====
The first efforts in discovering this form of protection reach back to 1949 in the Soviet Union at the Nii Stali facility, although nothing much came out of it after failed tests and it was discontinued on the belief that the current armour on their main battle tanks was good enough. The traction did not continue again until German researcher Dr.Manfred Held, a shaped charge (HEAT) specialist, traveled to Israel on the conclusion of their 1967 Six-Day War. Examining several of the destroyed tanks from the conflict, he discovered that the force from exploding ammunition slightly reduced the effect of the shaped charge used. He then developed the first working ERA plate in 1970. Though this was the first effective iteration of the ERA, Held's design required the explosive mesh to be fitted inside empty cavities, integrated into the tank armour. Held improved on the design in the same year which consisted of a tiles formed with the reactive elements. This model would become the fundamental design of modern ERA.<ref name="MM.Era">M.m. 2016</ref>

The majority of the NATO countries did not buy into the explosive reactive armour that Held presented. He did not find anyone interested until he returned back to Israel in 1974, after the 1973 Yom-Kippur War. There, the Israeli government and the Israeli Defense Force were persuaded, perhaps from their combat experiences, to adopt the ERA as a protection for their tanks. The Israelis then produced the ''Blazer ERA'' plates which followed Held's design with reactive elements. The Blazer ERA will first see usage in the 1982 Lebanon War, the tiles attached onto M60 tanks to protect the steel hull against anti-tank weaponry.<ref name="MM.Era" />

The Soviet Union was the next country to use ERA, under the name ''Kontakt ERA''. It was first introduced in 1984 and featured a tile design similar to Blazers, though using one or two reactive elements stacked together for better effectiveness. Like the Blazer, these plates were highly effective against HEAT rounds, but were generally ineffective against kinetic penetrators. Following the Soviets, the reactive armour was soon adopted by many other countries in the 1980s, from mainly Eastern bloc countries such as Czechoslovakia, Ukraine, and Poland. Today the ERA plates are still viable against modern anti-tank weaponry, especially when complemented with other tank defensive measures.<ref name="MM.Era" />

===Composite armour===
''To be filled''

===[[Add-on Armor|Add-on armor]]===
{{main|Add-on Armor}}

Add-on armour is a form of improvisation of the tank armour usually done by the crew or a maintenance unit in the front lines. Due to the rushed nature of tank technology in World War II, armour once considered adequate on tanks can quickly become obsolete with the introduction of a new gun piece in the field or a new equipment, such as the [[KwK 36 (88 mm)]] on the [[Tiger H1|Tiger I]] and the ''Panzerfaust'' anti-tank launcher, both could cut through Sherman and T-34 armour with little resistance. The declining armour effectiveness against these weapons prompted the tank crews to attempt an expedient method to improve the armour quality of their tanks. Troops went and attached logs, sandbags, tracks, concrete, and metal sheets onto their tanks to improve its effective thickness. The usefulness against anti-tank rounds from tank shells and HEAT rounds are controversial. Some tankers swear by it and claim they were saved by their improvised armour while analysts say that the add-on armour has no effect at all in interfering with incoming rounds. What was universally accepted was that these add-on armour helped improve the tank crew morale when fighting the enemy, renewed in confidence with their "improved" tank armour. However, add-on armour increases the weight of the tank due to the add-on of materials and thus can cause a strain on the power train and suspension of tanks, prompting some commanders like General George S. Patton to ban the usage of improvised armour to improve tank reliability. The most useful add-on armour was the welding of additional sheets of metal onto the tank, as seen in the well-received reception of the up-armoured M4 Sherman in the form of the [[M4A3E2|"Jumbos"]].

From Update 1.57, a modification known as the ''Add-on Armour'' was added onto certain vehicles. The modification adds spare track links along the hull and turret of the vehicle. The track links, when added, give an average of 17 - 20 mm of additional armour where they are attached.

= Media =


;Videos
{{Youtube-gallery|mJO2sLI_jwU|'''The Shooting Range #19''' - ''Tactics & Strategy'' section at 04:53 discusses how to angle your armour.|Go91srkTM80|'''Explosive Reactive Armor and Composite Armor''' - ''War Thunder Official Channel''|o24D6yl_VLg|'''The Shooting Range #115''' - ''Tactics & Strategy'' section at 10:14 discusses how to maximize your armour while on the defensive.|B2woWvJK4ew|'''Top 7 most armoured vehicles''' - ''War Thunder Official Channel''|c7NXyv_vD1A|'''How to use the protection analysis tool in War Thunder''' - ''Skreezilla''}}

= External links =


* [[wt:en/news/5569-development-protection-analysis-en|[Development] Protection Analysis]]

==References==
<references />

==Sources==

* Bismarck. "⚜ | Yes, World War 2 Planes Had Armour BUT..." YouTube. YouTube, 17 Aug. 2017. Web. 26 Sept. 2017. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-v5aMayFrRE Video].
* Carruthers, Bob. Tiger I: Official Wartime Crew Manual (the Tigerfibel). Warwickshire: Coda, 2011. Print.
* M.m. "Explosive Reactive Armor - Some History, Some Types." Below The Turret Ring. Blogger, 28 Apr. 2016. Web. 25 Sept. 2017. [https://below-the-turret-ring.blogspot.com/2016/04/explosive-reactive-armor-some-history.html Website].
* M.m. "The Truth about Spaced Armor on Modern Tanks and AFVs." Below The Turret Ring. Blogger, 31 Dec. 2015. Web. 26 Sept. 2017. [https://below-the-turret-ring.blogspot.com/2015/12/the-truth-about-spaced-armor-on-modern.html Website].

[[Category:Game mechanics]]

Armour

2022-02-19T23:31:00Z

U16328860: /* Types of armour in-game */

=Armour=
'''Armour''' is the basic defense an entity has against threats. Armour can be found in both air and ground vehicles in War Thunder and plays a very important role to the vehicle's survivability.

== Types of armour in-game ==

* KE: Kinetic Energy
* CE: Chemical Energy

Armour modifier applies to both types of penetrators, unless specified.

{| class="wikitable"
! Material or Component !! Armour Modifier!! Examples
|-
! colspan="3" | Ground vehicles
|-
| '''Rolled homogeneous armour''' (RHA) || x1.00 ||
|-
| '''Modern RHA''' || x1.01 || {{Specs-Link|cn_ztz_96}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|germ_leopard_1a5}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_chieftain_mk_3}}
|-
| '''Cast homogeneous armour''' (CHA) || x0.94 ||
|-
| '''Modern CHA''' || x0.98 || {{Specs-Link|germ_kpz_70}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_merkava_mk_3d}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_64_b_1984}}
|-
| '''High hardness rolled armour''' (HHRA) || x1.25 || {{Specs-Link|germ_pzkpfw_III_ausf_L}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|it_centauro_mgs_120}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|sw_ikv_91}}
|-
| '''Modern HHRA''' || x1.10 || {{Specs-Link|sw_strv_122}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_m1128_mgs}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_bmp_2}}
|-
| '''Tracks''' || x0.75 ||
|-
| '''Structural steel''' || x0.45 ||{{Specs-Link|us_t26e1-1}}
|-
| '''Structural steel of chassis''' || x0.60 ||
|-
| '''Wheel''' || x0.30 ||
|-
| '''Rubber-fabric screens''' || x0.20 || {{Specs-Link|it_of_40_mk_1}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_m901_itv}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_62m1}}
|-
| '''Composite screen''' || x0.16 KE x2.00 CE || {{Specs-Link|fr_leclerc_s2}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|jp_type_16}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_vickers_mk7}}
|-
| '''Air''' (Spaced armour) || x0.05 KE x0.30 CE || {{Specs-Link|fr_amx_32}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|germ_kpz_70}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_merkava_mk_1}}
|-
| '''Aluminium''' || x0.20 || {{Specs-Link|jp_st_a1}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_chieftain_mk_10}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_bmp_2m}}
|-
| '''Aluminium alloy 5083''' || x0.32 || {{Specs-Link|cn_cm_25}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|it_otobreda_sidam_25}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_m3_bradley}}
|-
| '''Aluminium alloy AA7017''' || x0.50 || {{Specs-Link|uk_fv102_striker}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_stormer_hvm}}
|-
| '''Aluminium alloy 7020''' || x0.50 || {{Specs-Link|it_centauro_mgs_120}}
|-
| '''Aluminium alloy 7039''' || x0.50 || {{Specs-Link|it_oto_r3_t20_fa}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|jp_type_75}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_t114}}
|-
| '''Alloy ABT-101''' || x0.38 || {{Specs-Link|ussr_bmp_2}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_object_685}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_object_906}}
|-
| '''Alloy ABT-102''' || x0.42 || {{Specs-Link|ussr_bmp_3}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_9p157}}
|-
| '''Aluminium alloy AMS 4050A''' || x0.50 || {{Specs-Link|fr_amx_10rc}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|jp_type_87}}
|-
| '''Alloy BT-6''' || x0.70 || {{Specs-Link|ussr_t_80b}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_80u}}
|-
| '''External composite armour with {{Annotation|NERA|Non-Energetic Reactive Armour}} elements''' || x0.10 KE x1.70 CE || {{Specs-Link|germ_leopard_2a6}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|jp_type_90b}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_vickers_mk7}}
|-
| '''Wood''' || x0.05 || {{Specs-Link|cn_ztz_99}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_is_3}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_object_120}}
|-
| '''{{Annotation|MEXAS|Modular Expandable Armour System}} 2''' || x0.16 || {{Specs-Link|us_m1128_mgs}}
|-
| '''MEXAS 2C''' || x0.16 || {{Specs-Link|us_m1128_mgs}}
|-
! colspan="3" | Naval vessels
|-
| '''Rolled homogeneous armour''' || x1.00 ||
|-
| '''Rolled cemented armour''' || x1.10 || Heavy cruisers, battleships
|-
| '''Structural steel''' || x0.45 ||
|-
| '''Coal bunker''' || x0.01 ||
|-
| '''Concrete''' || x0.35 || {{Specs-Link|germ_artilleriefahrprahm_typ_d1}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|germ_artilleriefahrprahm_typ_d3}}
|-
| '''Wood''' || x0.05 KE x0.00 CE ||
|-
| '''Antifragmentation armour''' || x0.90 ||
|-
| '''Hardened armour''' || x0.80 ||
|-
|}

=Aircraft=
Armour on aircraft are often minimum and focused on vital sections rather than on the overall airframe. Armour are often not taken into consideration in the design as armour constitutes more material and thus a heavier aircraft which would inhibit its performance due to weight penalty.<ref name="BismarckArmour">Bismarck 2017</ref>

Armour for pilots are thus usually never beyond the usage of bullet-resistant glass on the cockpit that could provide protection against rifle calibre ammunition. Though some armour plating are present in the back on some planes like the P-47, these were only thick enough for small calibers and serve more to slow down the incoming round so that it has little energy once it punches through. Other important areas that armour could be present on aircraft is around the engine. Important design features that dictate whether an aircraft design is more durable than others was in the airframe build quality, the air frame's ability to take damage, and adequate protections around vital components such as the engine, pilot, and fuel tanks.<ref name="BismarckArmour" />

=Tank=
==History==
===Interwar period===
Armour plays a very important role on tanks as they were conceived by it. The armour on the tanks at its inception made them invulnerable to the basic small arms fire, a trait that broke the stalemate of the trench warfare in World War I. During the interwar period, tank armour was prioritized on protection against firearms and artillery shrapnel. However, experience in the Spanish Civil War showed that this concept leaves the tank vulnerable to heavier guns. This is demonstrated when Italian tankettes and German Panzer I's, armed with only machine guns and simple 13 mm armour, went up against the Soviet [[T-26|T-26]], which had a 45 mm gun on its turret. The tank arms race increased armament and armour, evident on the German [[Pz.IV C|Panzer IV]] when armour increased from the initial 14.5 mm in 1936 to 30 mm in 1938 before World War II broke out.

===Early World War II===
During World War II, tank armour played a huge part in tank design. More armour means more weight on the tank and thus must be sparingly used to the tank mobility in acceptable margins. Tank armour in this period is separated by the three tank categories, light, medium, and heavy tanks. It was in this period that tank armour went through many technological advances. One of the perfect example is the French SOMUA S35 and the Soviet [[T-34 (1940)|T-34]]. The two vehicles made extensive usage of the concept of "sloped armour", which increased the armour effective thickness due to the difference in the line-of-sight thickness (See [[Armour#Sloped_armour|"Concepts"]] section). The Germans, which mainly used vertical-faced armour on their [[Pz.III F|Panzers]], struggled to take these vehicles out due to their strong armour against their inadequate guns. While the Battle of France did not incite Germany to quickly upgrade their armour and armament due to the small quantities of these kinds of tanks, the encounter with the T-34's in Operation Barbarossa came as a great shock due to the large number of T-34's available in Soviet inventory. The Germans, in a stage informally known as a "tank panic", rushed development to complete weapons able to destroy the T-34 and uparmour their tanks to withstand the Soviet 76 mm cannons. The Soviet T-34 and American [[M4A1|M4 Shermans]] caused great headaches in the German armoured forces due to their strong, sloped front armour in 1942, but that all changed in 1943 and beyond.

===Late World War II===
The year 1943 changed everything in the balance of tank power from the Allies with their T-34 and Shermans to the Germans. Germany introduced their newest tanks in large quantities, the [[Panther D|Panther]] and the [[Tiger H1|Tiger I]] tanks. These vehicles introduced powerful cannons and a new redefinition of the term "armour" for tanks. The Tiger I came with an astounding 100 mm armour thickness in front. Though vertical-faced and thus did not have the benefit of "sloped armour", the guns on Shermans and T-34 at the time could not penetrate the front plate at standard combat ranges, forcing the Allied medium tanks to close in for a kill. The Panther had 80 mm of frontal armour, but that armour was sloped at a 55° from vertical and caused the effective armour to instead be ''140 mm'' thick. Thus, the Panther was basically invulnerable in the hull front from any anti-tank weapon in existence in Allied inventory at that time. The Germans also started to extensively used an armour called ''Schürzen'', which is a form of "spaced armour" that provided additional protection to their tank's weak side armour. The two new tanks, plus a new one in the form of the [[Tiger II (H)|Tiger II]] with 150 mm of frontal armour sloped for effective thickness of ~230 mm, caused turmoil in the Allied armoured forces as they find a way to easily destroy the new tanks. They were never able to compete against the German's in terms of armour thickness until after World War II.

===Cold War===
By the end of World War II, sloping armour had become a ubiquitous concept and every tank designed has it from the American [[M60|M60]], British [[Centurion Mk 3|Centurion]], and Soviet [[T-54 (1951)|T-54/55]] tanks. With increasing tank armour equaling to increased weight, countries try to keep their tank weight in manageable ranges while making the armour up to date with current threats. By early 1960s, anti-tank technology such as the [[Anti-tank_guided_missiles|anti-tank guided missiles (ATGM)]] has grown to the point where it requires a large amount of steel to make the armour thick enough to resist the threat, but the amount was prohibitive and made the tank too heavy. Some nations such as Germany tried to solve this by relying on mobility at the expense of armour such as the [[Leopard I]], but it became clear a new type of armour is needed. It came in the form of "composite armour", which used steel combined with a variety of material such as plastic and ceramic that can resist penetration more effectively at a lighter weight. Composite armour soon became the new standard of tank armour throughout the world. Another armour developed in the Cold War was the "explosive reactive armour", which used an explosive to deflect a penetration property. Explosive reactive armour, or ERA, was highly effective against the ubiquitous HEATFS rounds used as anti-tank weapons. These armour technology saved the tanks from becoming obsolete during the Cold War against the new anti-tank missile threat that allows a small infantry crew to destroy a tank as far as 2000 meters away. Composite armour, ERA, and the increasing lethality of tank armament helped revolutionize the tank concept from light, medium, and heavy tanks into the new, universal "main battle tank".

==Concepts==
===Sloped armour===
[[File:T-54 Training Parola Tank Museum.jpg|x200px|thumb|right|A cut-out of a [[T-54 (1951)|T-54]] to show the effectiveness of sloping armour.]]

Sloped armour is effectively angling the armour of a tank on an angle rather than placed for a flat surface.

Slope armour presents the advantage of having a much thicker effective armour on a tanks for a lighter weight due to using a thinner armour plate. The sloped nature also increases the chance of the impacting shell to simply ricochet or deflect off, doing no effect to the armour. The disadvantage of the sloped armour was its more complicated manufacturing process and a reduction in internal space.

====Calculating sloped armour effective thickness====
A simple formula to calculate a tank's effective thickness (Line Of Sight, or LOS) due to sloping armour is with this: 

[LOS Effective Thickness vs Projectile Type] = ([Armour Thickness] × [Armor Modifier vs Projectile Type]) / cos ([Armour Angle]) 
'''Note:''' This formula does '''not''' factor in the possible horizontal '''or''' vertical angle of the target's armor plate relative to the shot's origin '''or''' deviations of the shell's angle of inclination due to bullet drop at longer ranges. We assume the target is placed on an even field and shot at from straight ahead at distance where the shell will hit the armor with 0° of bullet drop. 

For example: A '''Panther''' has an '''80 mm''' (armor thickness) front armour plate, sloped at an angle of '''55°''' (armor angle) and made out of '''RHA''' (armor modifier), being shot at by an AP projectile (armor modifier vs projectile = 1.0 vs KE). Thus, we input the values: 

(80 mm × 1.0) / cos (55°) = 80 mm / cos (55°) = 80 mm / 0.574 = 139.4 mm ≈ 140 mm (vs Kinetic AP) 

Thus, we get the value of how thick the Panther's sloped frontal armour is in a line-of-sight angle.

===Armour angling===
Outside of sloped armour, another way to improve the effective armour thickness on tanks is simply angling the armour towards the opponent. This means instead of sloping the armour in a vertical plane, instead angle sideways.

[[File:TigerIHTank Armour Angling.png|x200px|thumb|left|An example of armour angling with the [[Tiger_H1|Tiger I]], angled towards the opponent in its most optimum degree for best all-around armour.]]

This gives another form of thickness as not only does the round have to pass through a plane of armour, but two plane of the same armour, which would boost the effective thickness. This is best seen in vertical-faced armoured tanks like the [[Tiger H1|Tiger I tank]]. Though their vertical faced 100 mm front plate would only give 100 mm effectiveness, it was recommended in the ''Tigerfibel'' crew manual that a 45 degree diamond angle position would provide a front armour of nearly 130 mm of effective thickness.<ref name="Tigerfibel">Carruthers 2011</ref> This gives tank a chance to improve their effective front armour thickness especially when against enemies that would penetrate their front with little difficulty. However, beware of angling to much towards the enemy that it exposes the weaker side armour to enemy fire, which may have a chance of penetrating.

Some tanks attempt to implement this concept into the designs itself. One example is the Soviet [[IS-3]] with its "pike nose" front armour. Due to the sloping effect not only going back, but sweeping to the sides, this improves the IS-3 front armour effectiveness and ricochet chances.

===Spaced armour===
Spaced armour helps against anti-tank rounds in a form of disruption and denial. Spaced armour was first widely used by the Germans in the form of ''Schürzen'', attaching metal sheets away from the base armour of their Panzers. These metal sheets were intended to disrupt the kinetic energy of the Soviet 14.5 mm anti-tank rifles, which could penetrate the weaker side armour of their tanks. It does this by forcing much of the energy on the rifle round to be expelled on the ''Schürzen'' sheets, passing through and causing negligible damage on the base side armour. The ''Schürzen'' may also disrupt tank rounds as well, but the much greater kinetic energy of tank shells means that its disruption will be ineffective to all but the most sloped shots. Though there is a belief that the ''schürzen'' plates were meant to stop HEAT rounds from shoulder-launched weapons, the plates were not intentionally designed for this task.

Spaced armour was used in various formats in the Cold War tank designs. It was used as a form of protection against HEAT rounds from tank guns and rocket launchers, with the air separating the tank's base armour and the spaced armour acting to dissipate the HEAT's power before it reaches the hull. Spaced armour also works against kinetic penetrators by shattering the round on impact with the first layer. Though early kinetic rounds using brittle materials like tungsten were affected by this armour, better material like depleted uranium made the rounds more durable and proof against this type of armour.<ref name="MM.Spaced">M.m. 2015</ref>

===Explosive reactive armour (ERA)===
Explosive reactive armour (ERA) works by using an explosive force to disrupt an incoming armour-piercing ammunition. The construction of ERA usually takes the form of individual tiles made up of "reactive elements", which are sandwiched explosives in between sheets of metal. These tiles would be used around vulnerable points of a tank to provide protection at these locations.

Though ERA provides good protection against HEAT ammunition, high-velocity kinetic penetrators like APDS and APFSDS penetrates too quickly for the explosive force to be effective against them. This was a problem in early ERA designs, but more modern ERA types have been able to resist these ammunition. Even so, ERA still has drawbacks in that each explosive tile were one-time-use against the incoming round, leaving the exposed tank metal underneath once expended. ERA also has become vulnerable to tandem-charge ammunition, which use a two-stage detonation sequence with the first charge destroying the ERA plate and the second penetrating the armour underneath the plate. Finally, the ERA plates rarely cover the entire tank sections due to contouring and moving parts, so the armour is still exposed in various degrees to be hit and penetrated.

{| class="wikitable"
! ERA Type!! Protection Value !! Vehicles
|-
| '''"Passive" {{Annotation|ERA|Explosive Reactive Armour}}''' || 5 mm {{Annotation|KE|Kinetic Energy (AP rounds)}} 370 mm {{Annotation|CE|Chemical Energy (HEAT rounds)}} || {{Specs-Link|cn_cm11}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_m60a1_rise_passive_era}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_m60a3_tts}}
|-
| '''"Blazer" ERA''' || 5 mm KE 260 mm CE || {{Specs-Link|sw_strv_104}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_centurion_shot_kal_d}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_magach_3}}*
|-
| '''"CONTACT-1" ERA''' || 5 mm KE 400 mm CE || {{Specs-Link|ussr_t_64_b_1984}}*{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_72av_turms}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_72b}}
|-
| '''"CONTACT-5" INTEGRATED ERA''' || 120 mm KE 450 mm CE || {{Specs-Link|ussr_t_72b3_2011}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_80u}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_90a}}
|-
| '''"Relict" ERA''' || 20-250 mm KE 450-600 mm CE|| {{Specs-Link|ussr_t_72b3_2011}}* {{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_80bvm}}
|-
| '''FY-4 ERA''' || 140 mm KE 450 mm CE || {{Specs-Link|cn_ztz_96a}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|cn_ztz_99}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|cn_ztz_99_w}}
|-
| '''ZTZ59D1 ERA''' || 5-120 mm KE 370 mm CE || {{Specs-Link|cn_type_59d}}
|-
| '''T-69 II G ERA''' || 5 mm KE 370 mm CE || {{Specs-Link|cn_type_69_2g}}
|-
| '''"ROMOR-A" ERA''' || 30 mm KE 300 mm CE || {{Specs-Link|it_b1_centauro_romor}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_centurion_mk_5_avre_era}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_challenger_II}}*{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_challenger_2_dorchester}}
|-
|'''"BRENUS" ERA'''||5 mm KE 400 mm CE||{{Specs-Link|fr_amx_30_b2_brenus}}
|-
| '''Integrated ERA''' || 10 mm KE 250 mm CE || {{Specs-Link|fr_leclerc_s1}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|fr_leclerc_s2}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|fr_leclerc_sxxi}}
|-
! colspan="3" | <nowiki>*</nowiki>with add-on armour modification
|-
|}

====History====
The first efforts in discovering this form of protection reach back to 1949 in the Soviet Union at the Nii Stali facility, although nothing much came out of it after failed tests and it was discontinued on the belief that the current armour on their main battle tanks was good enough. The traction did not continue again until German researcher Dr.Manfred Held, a shaped charge (HEAT) specialist, traveled to Israel on the conclusion of their 1967 Six-Day War. Examining several of the destroyed tanks from the conflict, he discovered that the force from exploding ammunition slightly reduced the effect of the shaped charge used. He then developed the first working ERA plate in 1970. Though this was the first effective iteration of the ERA, Held's design required the explosive mesh to be fitted inside empty cavities, integrated into the tank armour. Held improved on the design in the same year which consisted of a tiles formed with the reactive elements. This model would become the fundamental design of modern ERA.<ref name="MM.Era">M.m. 2016</ref>

The majority of the NATO countries did not buy into the explosive reactive armour that Held presented. He did not find anyone interested until he returned back to Israel in 1974, after the 1973 Yom-Kippur War. There, the Israeli government and the Israeli Defense Force were persuaded, perhaps from their combat experiences, to adopt the ERA as a protection for their tanks. The Israelis then produced the ''Blazer ERA'' plates which followed Held's design with reactive elements. The Blazer ERA will first see usage in the 1982 Lebanon War, the tiles attached onto M60 tanks to protect the steel hull against anti-tank weaponry.<ref name="MM.Era" />

The Soviet Union was the next country to use ERA, under the name ''Kontakt ERA''. It was first introduced in 1984 and featured a tile design similar to Blazers, though using one or two reactive elements stacked together for better effectiveness. Like the Blazer, these plates were highly effective against HEAT rounds, but were generally ineffective against kinetic penetrators. Following the Soviets, the reactive armour was soon adopted by many other countries in the 1980s, from mainly Eastern bloc countries such as Czechoslovakia, Ukraine, and Poland. Today the ERA plates are still viable against modern anti-tank weaponry, especially when complemented with other tank defensive measures.<ref name="MM.Era" />

===Composite armour===
''To be filled''

===[[Add-on Armor|Add-on armor]]===
{{main|Add-on Armor}}

Add-on armour is a form of improvisation of the tank armour usually done by the crew or a maintenance unit in the front lines. Due to the rushed nature of tank technology in World War II, armour once considered adequate on tanks can quickly become obsolete with the introduction of a new gun piece in the field or a new equipment, such as the [[KwK 36 (88 mm)]] on the [[Tiger H1|Tiger I]] and the ''Panzerfaust'' anti-tank launcher, both could cut through Sherman and T-34 armour with little resistance. The declining armour effectiveness against these weapons prompted the tank crews to attempt an expedient method to improve the armour quality of their tanks. Troops went and attached logs, sandbags, tracks, concrete, and metal sheets onto their tanks to improve its effective thickness. The usefulness against anti-tank rounds from tank shells and HEAT rounds are controversial. Some tankers swear by it and claim they were saved by their improvised armour while analysts say that the add-on armour has no effect at all in interfering with incoming rounds. What was universally accepted was that these add-on armour helped improve the tank crew morale when fighting the enemy, renewed in confidence with their "improved" tank armour. However, add-on armour increases the weight of the tank due to the add-on of materials and thus can cause a strain on the power train and suspension of tanks, prompting some commanders like General George S. Patton to ban the usage of improvised armour to improve tank reliability. The most useful add-on armour was the welding of additional sheets of metal onto the tank, as seen in the well-received reception of the up-armoured M4 Sherman in the form of the [[M4A3E2|"Jumbos"]].

From Update 1.57, a modification known as the ''Add-on Armour'' was added onto certain vehicles. The modification adds spare track links along the hull and turret of the vehicle. The track links, when added, give an average of 17 - 20 mm of additional armour where they are attached.

= Media =


;Videos
{{Youtube-gallery|mJO2sLI_jwU|'''The Shooting Range #19''' - ''Tactics & Strategy'' section at 04:53 discusses how to angle your armour.|Go91srkTM80|'''Explosive Reactive Armor and Composite Armor''' - ''War Thunder Official Channel''|o24D6yl_VLg|'''The Shooting Range #115''' - ''Tactics & Strategy'' section at 10:14 discusses how to maximize your armour while on the defensive.|B2woWvJK4ew|'''Top 7 most armoured vehicles''' - ''War Thunder Official Channel''|c7NXyv_vD1A|'''How to use the protection analysis tool in War Thunder''' - ''Skreezilla''}}

= External links =


* [[wt:en/news/5569-development-protection-analysis-en|[Development] Protection Analysis]]

==References==
<references />

==Sources==

* Bismarck. "⚜ | Yes, World War 2 Planes Had Armour BUT..." YouTube. YouTube, 17 Aug. 2017. Web. 26 Sept. 2017. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-v5aMayFrRE Video].
* Carruthers, Bob. Tiger I: Official Wartime Crew Manual (the Tigerfibel). Warwickshire: Coda, 2011. Print.
* M.m. "Explosive Reactive Armor - Some History, Some Types." Below The Turret Ring. Blogger, 28 Apr. 2016. Web. 25 Sept. 2017. [https://below-the-turret-ring.blogspot.com/2016/04/explosive-reactive-armor-some-history.html Website].
* M.m. "The Truth about Spaced Armor on Modern Tanks and AFVs." Below The Turret Ring. Blogger, 31 Dec. 2015. Web. 26 Sept. 2017. [https://below-the-turret-ring.blogspot.com/2015/12/the-truth-about-spaced-armor-on-modern.html Website].

[[Category:Game mechanics]]

Armour

2022-02-17T21:04:58Z

U16328860: /* Types of armour in-game */

=Armour=
'''Armour''' is the basic defense an entity has against threats. Armour can be found in both air and ground vehicles in War Thunder and plays a very important role to the vehicle's survivability.

== Types of armour in-game ==

* KE: Kinetic Energy
* CE: Chemical Energy

Armour modifier applies to both types of penetrators, unless specified.

<nowiki>*</nowiki>with add-on armour modification

{| class="wikitable"
! Material or Component !! Armour Modifier !! Examples
|-
! colspan="3" | Ground vehicles
|-
| '''Rolled homogeneous armour''' (RHA) || x1.00 ||
|-
| '''Modern RHA''' || x1.01 || {{Specs-Link|cn_ztz_96}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|germ_leopard_1a5}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_chieftain_mk_3}}
|-
| '''Cast homogeneous armour''' (CHA) || x0.94 ||
|-
| '''Modern CHA''' || x0.98 || {{Specs-Link|germ_kpz_70}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_merkava_mk_3d}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_64_b_1984}}
|-
| '''High hardness rolled armour''' (HHRA) || x1.25 || {{Specs-Link|germ_pzkpfw_III_ausf_L}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|it_centauro_mgs_120}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|sw_ikv_91}}
|-
| '''Modern HHRA''' || x1.10 || {{Specs-Link|sw_strv_122}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_m1128_mgs}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_bmp_2}}
|-
| '''Tracks''' || x0.75 ||
|-
| '''Structural steel''' || x0.45 ||
|-
| '''Structural steel of chassis''' || x0.60 ||
|-
| '''Wheel''' || x0.30 ||
|-
| '''Rubber-fabric screens''' || x0.20 || {{Specs-Link|it_of_40_mk_1}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_m901_itv}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_62m1}}
|-
| '''Composite screen''' || x0.16 KE x2.00 CE || {{Specs-Link|fr_leclerc_s2}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|jp_type_16}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_vickers_mk7}}
|-
| '''Air''' (Spaced armour) || x0.05 KE x0.30 CE || {{Specs-Link|fr_amx_32}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|germ_kpz_70}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_merkava_mk_1}}
|-
| '''Aluminium''' || x0.20 || {{Specs-Link|jp_st_a1}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_chieftain_mk_10}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_bmp_2m}}
|-
| '''Aluminium alloy 5083''' || x0.32 || {{Specs-Link|cn_cm_25}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|it_otobreda_sidam_25}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_m3_bradley}}
|-
| '''Aluminium alloy AA7017''' || x0.50 || {{Specs-Link|uk_fv102_striker}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_stormer_hvm}}
|-
| '''Aluminium alloy 7020''' || x0.50 || {{Specs-Link|it_centauro_mgs_120}}
|-
| '''Aluminium alloy 7039''' || x0.50 || {{Specs-Link|it_oto_r3_t20_fa}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|jp_type_75}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_t114}}
|-
| '''Alloy ABT-101''' || x0.38 || {{Specs-Link|ussr_bmp_2}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_object_685}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_object_906}}
|-
| '''Alloy ABT-102''' || x0.42 || {{Specs-Link|ussr_bmp_3}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_9p157}}
|-
| '''Aluminium alloy AMS 4050A''' || x0.50 || {{Specs-Link|fr_amx_10rc}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|jp_type_87}}
|-
| '''Alloy BT-6''' || x0.70 || {{Specs-Link|ussr_t_80b}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_80u}}
|-
| '''{{Annotation|"Passive" ERA|Explosive Reactive Armour}}''' || x0.10 KE x5.00 CE
5mm KE

370mm CE
| {{Specs-Link|cn_cm11}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_m60a1_rise_passive_era}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_m60a3_tts}}
|-
|'''"BRENUS" ERA'''
|x0.10 KE x5.00 CE
5mm KE

400mm CE
|{{Specs-Link|fr_amx_30_b2_brenus}}
|-
| '''ERA''' || x0.50 KE x3.50 CE
120mm KE 370mm CE
| {{Specs-Link|cn_type_59d}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|cn_type_69_2g}}
|-
| '''"Blazer" ERA''' || x0.10 KE x2.80 CE
5mm KE

260mm CE
| {{Specs-Link|sw_strv_104}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_centurion_shot_kal_d}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_magach_3}}*
|-
| '''"CONTACT-1" ERA''' || x0.10 KE x2.50 CE
5mm KE

400mm CE
| {{Specs-Link|ussr_t_64_b_1984}}*{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_72av_turms}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_72b}}
|-
| '''"CONTACT-5" INTEGRATED ERA''' || 120 mm KE 400 - 450 mm CE || {{Specs-Link|ussr_t_72b3_2011}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_80u}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_90a}}
|-
| '''FY-4 ERA''' || x0.80 KE x2.00 CE
140mm KE

450mm CE
| {{Specs-Link|cn_ztz_96a}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|cn_ztz_99}}
|-
| '''Integrated ERA''' || 10 mm KE 250 mm CE || {{Specs-Link|fr_leclerc_s1}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|fr_leclerc_s2}}
|-
| '''"ROMOR-A" ERA''' || x0.30 KE x3.50 CE
30mm KE

300mm CE
| {{Specs-Link|it_b1_centauro_romor}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_centurion_mk_5_avre_era}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_challenger_II}}
|-
| '''"Relict" ERA''' || 250mm KE

600mm CE
| {{Specs-Link|ussr_t_72b3_2011}}* {{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_80bvm}}
|-
| '''External composite armour with {{Annotation|NERA|Non-Energetic Reactive Armour}} elements''' || x0.10 KE x1.70 CE || {{Specs-Link|germ_leopard_2a6}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|jp_type_90b}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_vickers_mk7}}
|-
| '''Wood''' || x0.05 || {{Specs-Link|cn_ztz_99}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_is_3}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_object_120}}
|-
| '''{{Annotation|MEXAS|Modular Expandable Armour System}} 2''' || x0.16 || {{Specs-Link|us_m1128_mgs}}
|-
| '''MEXAS 2C''' || x0.16 || {{Specs-Link|us_m1128_mgs}}
|-
! colspan="3" | Naval vessels
|-
| '''Rolled homogeneous armour''' || x1.00 ||
|-
| '''Rolled cemented armour''' || x1.10 || Heavy cruisers, battleships
|-
| '''Structural steel''' || x0.45 ||
|-
| '''Coal bunker''' || x0.01 ||
|-
| '''Concrete''' || x0.35 || {{Specs-Link|germ_artilleriefahrprahm_typ_d1}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|germ_artilleriefahrprahm_typ_d3}}
|-
| '''Wood''' || x0.05 KE x0.00 CE ||
|-
| '''Antifragmentation armour''' || x0.90 ||
|-
| '''Hardened armour''' || x0.80 ||
|-
|}

=Aircraft=
Armour on aircraft are often minimum and focused on vital sections rather than on the overall airframe. Armour are often not taken into consideration in the design as armour constitutes more material and thus a heavier aircraft which would inhibit its performance due to weight penalty.<ref name="BismarckArmour">Bismarck 2017</ref>

Armour for pilots are thus usually never beyond the usage of bullet-resistant glass on the cockpit that could provide protection against rifle calibre ammunition. Though some armour plating are present in the back on some planes like the P-47, these were only thick enough for small calibers and serve more to slow down the incoming round so that it has little energy once it punches through. Other important areas that armour could be present on aircraft is around the engine. Important design features that dictate whether an aircraft design is more durable than others was in the airframe build quality, the air frame's ability to take damage, and adequate protections around vital components such as the engine, pilot, and fuel tanks.<ref name="BismarckArmour" />

=Tank=
==History==
===Interwar period===
Armour plays a very important role on tanks as they were conceived by it. The armour on the tanks at its inception made them invulnerable to the basic small arms fire, a trait that broke the stalemate of the trench warfare in World War I. During the interwar period, tank armour was prioritized on protection against firearms and artillery shrapnel. However, experience in the Spanish Civil War showed that this concept leaves the tank vulnerable to heavier guns. This is demonstrated when Italian tankettes and German Panzer I's, armed with only machine guns and simple 13 mm armour, went up against the Soviet [[T-26|T-26]], which had a 45 mm gun on its turret. The tank arms race increased armament and armour, evident on the German [[Pz.IV C|Panzer IV]] when armour increased from the initial 14.5 mm in 1936 to 30 mm in 1938 before World War II broke out.

===Early World War II===
During World War II, tank armour played a huge part in tank design. More armour means more weight on the tank and thus must be sparingly used to the tank mobility in acceptable margins. Tank armour in this period is separated by the three tank categories, light, medium, and heavy tanks. It was in this period that tank armour went through many technological advances. One of the perfect example is the French SOMUA S35 and the Soviet [[T-34 (1940)|T-34]]. The two vehicles made extensive usage of the concept of "sloped armour", which increased the armour effective thickness due to the difference in the line-of-sight thickness (See [[Armour#Sloped_armour|"Concepts"]] section). The Germans, which mainly used vertical-faced armour on their [[Pz.III F|Panzers]], struggled to take these vehicles out due to their strong armour against their inadequate guns. While the Battle of France did not incite Germany to quickly upgrade their armour and armament due to the small quantities of these kinds of tanks, the encounter with the T-34's in Operation Barbarossa came as a great shock due to the large number of T-34's available in Soviet inventory. The Germans, in a stage informally known as a "tank panic", rushed development to complete weapons able to destroy the T-34 and uparmour their tanks to withstand the Soviet 76 mm cannons. The Soviet T-34 and American [[M4A1|M4 Shermans]] caused great headaches in the German armoured forces due to their strong, sloped front armour in 1942, but that all changed in 1943 and beyond.

===Late World War II===
The year 1943 changed everything in the balance of tank power from the Allies with their T-34 and Shermans to the Germans. Germany introduced their newest tanks in large quantities, the [[Panther D|Panther]] and the [[Tiger H1|Tiger I]] tanks. These vehicles introduced powerful cannons and a new redefinition of the term "armour" for tanks. The Tiger I came with an astounding 100 mm armour thickness in front. Though vertical-faced and thus did not have the benefit of "sloped armour", the guns on Shermans and T-34 at the time could not penetrate the front plate at standard combat ranges, forcing the Allied medium tanks to close in for a kill. The Panther had 80 mm of frontal armour, but that armour was sloped at a 55° from vertical and caused the effective armour to instead be ''140 mm'' thick. Thus, the Panther was basically invulnerable in the hull front from any anti-tank weapon in existence in Allied inventory at that time. The Germans also started to extensively used an armour called ''Schürzen'', which is a form of "spaced armour" that provided additional protection to their tank's weak side armour. The two new tanks, plus a new one in the form of the [[Tiger II (H)|Tiger II]] with 150 mm of frontal armour sloped for effective thickness of ~230 mm, caused turmoil in the Allied armoured forces as they find a way to easily destroy the new tanks. They were never able to compete against the German's in terms of armour thickness until after World War II.

===Cold War===
By the end of World War II, sloping armour had become a ubiquitous concept and every tank designed has it from the American [[M60|M60]], British [[Centurion Mk 3|Centurion]], and Soviet [[T-54 (1951)|T-54/55]] tanks. With increasing tank armour equaling to increased weight, countries try to keep their tank weight in manageable ranges while making the armour up to date with current threats. By early 1960s, anti-tank technology such as the [[Anti-tank_guided_missiles|anti-tank guided missiles (ATGM)]] has grown to the point where it requires a large amount of steel to make the armour thick enough to resist the threat, but the amount was prohibitive and made the tank too heavy. Some nations such as Germany tried to solve this by relying on mobility at the expense of armour such as the [[Leopard I]], but it became clear a new type of armour is needed. It came in the form of "composite armour", which used steel combined with a variety of material such as plastic and ceramic that can resist penetration more effectively at a lighter weight. Composite armour soon became the new standard of tank armour throughout the world. Another armour developed in the Cold War was the "explosive reactive armour", which used an explosive to deflect a penetration property. Explosive reactive armour, or ERA, was highly effective against the ubiquitous HEATFS rounds used as anti-tank weapons. These armour technology saved the tanks from becoming obsolete during the Cold War against the new anti-tank missile threat that allows a small infantry crew to destroy a tank as far as 2000 meters away. Composite armour, ERA, and the increasing lethality of tank armament helped revolutionize the tank concept from light, medium, and heavy tanks into the new, universal "main battle tank".

==Concepts==
===Sloped armour===
[[File:T-54 Training Parola Tank Museum.jpg|x200px|thumb|right|A cut-out of a [[T-54 (1951)|T-54]] to show the effectiveness of sloping armour.]]

Sloped armour is effectively angling the armour of a tank on an angle rather than placed for a flat surface.

Slope armour presents the advantage of having a much thicker effective armour on a tanks for a lighter weight due to using a thinner armour plate. The sloped nature also increases the chance of the impacting shell to simply ricochet or deflect off, doing no effect to the armour. The disadvantage of the sloped armour was its more complicated manufacturing process and a reduction in internal space.

====Calculating sloped armour effective thickness====
A simple formula to calculate a tank's effective thickness (Line Of Sight, or LOS) due to sloping armour is with this: 

[LOS Effective Thickness vs Projectile Type] = ([Armour Thickness] × [Armor Modifier vs Projectile Type]) / cos ([Armour Angle]) 
'''Note:''' This formula does '''not''' factor in the possible horizontal '''or''' vertical angle of the target's armor plate relative to the shot's origin '''or''' deviations of the shell's angle of inclination due to bullet drop at longer ranges. We assume the target is placed on an even field and shot at from straight ahead at distance where the shell will hit the armor with 0° of bullet drop. 

For example: A '''Panther''' has an '''80 mm''' (armor thickness) front armour plate, sloped at an angle of '''55°''' (armor angle) and made out of '''RHA''' (armor modifier), being shot at by an AP projectile (armor modifier vs projectile = 1.0 vs KE). Thus, we input the values: 

(80 mm × 1.0) / cos (55°) = 80 mm / cos (55°) = 80 mm / 0.574 = 139.4 mm ≈ 140 mm (vs Kinetic AP) 

Thus, we get the value of how thick the Panther's sloped frontal armour is in a line-of-sight angle.

===Armour angling===
Outside of sloped armour, another way to improve the effective armour thickness on tanks is simply angling the armour towards the opponent. This means instead of sloping the armour in a vertical plane, instead angle sideways.

[[File:TigerIHTank Armour Angling.png|x200px|thumb|left|An example of armour angling with the [[Tiger_H1|Tiger I]], angled towards the opponent in its most optimum degree for best all-around armour.]]

This gives another form of thickness as not only does the round have to pass through a plane of armour, but two plane of the same armour, which would boost the effective thickness. This is best seen in vertical-faced armoured tanks like the [[Tiger H1|Tiger I tank]]. Though their vertical faced 100 mm front plate would only give 100 mm effectiveness, it was recommended in the ''Tigerfibel'' crew manual that a 45 degree diamond angle position would provide a front armour of nearly 130 mm of effective thickness.<ref name="Tigerfibel">Carruthers 2011</ref> This gives tank a chance to improve their effective front armour thickness especially when against enemies that would penetrate their front with little difficulty. However, beware of angling to much towards the enemy that it exposes the weaker side armour to enemy fire, which may have a chance of penetrating.

Some tanks attempt to implement this concept into the designs itself. One example is the Soviet [[IS-3]] with its "pike nose" front armour. Due to the sloping effect not only going back, but sweeping to the sides, this improves the IS-3 front armour effectiveness and ricochet chances.

===Spaced armour===
Spaced armour helps against anti-tank rounds in a form of disruption and denial. Spaced armour was first widely used by the Germans in the form of ''Schürzen'', attaching metal sheets away from the base armour of their Panzers. These metal sheets were intended to disrupt the kinetic energy of the Soviet 14.5 mm anti-tank rifles, which could penetrate the weaker side armour of their tanks. It does this by forcing much of the energy on the rifle round to be expelled on the ''Schürzen'' sheets, passing through and causing negligible damage on the base side armour. The ''Schürzen'' may also disrupt tank rounds as well, but the much greater kinetic energy of tank shells means that its disruption will be ineffective to all but the most sloped shots. Though there is a belief that the ''schürzen'' plates were meant to stop HEAT rounds from shoulder-launched weapons, the plates were not intentionally designed for this task.

Spaced armour was used in various formats in the Cold War tank designs. It was used as a form of protection against HEAT rounds from tank guns and rocket launchers, with the air separating the tank's base armour and the spaced armour acting to dissipate the HEAT's power before it reaches the hull. Spaced armour also works against kinetic penetrators by shattering the round on impact with the first layer. Though early kinetic rounds using brittle materials like tungsten were affected by this armour, better material like depleted uranium made the rounds more durable and proof against this type of armour.<ref name="MM.Spaced">M.m. 2015</ref>

===Explosive reactive armour (ERA)===
Explosive reactive armour (ERA) works by using an explosive force to disrupt an incoming armour-piercing ammunition. The construction of ERA usually takes the form of individual tiles made up of "reactive elements", which are sandwiched explosives in between sheets of metal. These tiles would be used around vulnerable points of a tank to provide protection at these locations.

Though ERA provides good protection against HEAT ammunition, high-velocity kinetic penetrators like APDS and APFSDS penetrates too quickly for the explosive force to be effective against them. This was a problem in early ERA designs, but more modern ERA types have been able to resist these ammunition. Even so, ERA still has drawbacks in that each explosive tile were one-time-use against the incoming round, leaving the exposed tank metal underneath once expended. ERA also has become vulnerable to tandem-charge ammunition, which use a two-stage detonation sequence with the first charge destroying the ERA plate and the second penetrating the armour underneath the plate. Finally, the ERA plates rarely cover the entire tank sections due to contouring and moving parts, so the armour is still exposed in various degrees to be hit and penetrated.

====History====
The first efforts in discovering this form of protection reach back to 1949 in the Soviet Union at the Nii Stali facility, although nothing much came out of it after failed tests and it was discontinued on the belief that the current armour on their main battle tanks was good enough. The traction did not continue again until German researcher Dr.Manfred Held, a shaped charge (HEAT) specialist, traveled to Israel on the conclusion of their 1967 Six-Day War. Examining several of the destroyed tanks from the conflict, he discovered that the force from exploding ammunition slightly reduced the effect of the shaped charge used. He then developed the first working ERA plate in 1970. Though this was the first effective iteration of the ERA, Held's design required the explosive mesh to be fitted inside empty cavities, integrated into the tank armour. Held improved on the design in the same year which consisted of a tiles formed with the reactive elements. This model would become the fundamental design of modern ERA.<ref name="MM.Era">M.m. 2016</ref>

The majority of the NATO countries did not buy into the explosive reactive armour that Held presented. He did not find anyone interested until he returned back to Israel in 1974, after the 1973 Yom-Kippur War. There, the Israeli government and the Israeli Defense Force were persuaded, perhaps from their combat experiences, to adopt the ERA as a protection for their tanks. The Israelis then produced the ''Blazer ERA'' plates which followed Held's design with reactive elements. The Blazer ERA will first see usage in the 1982 Lebanon War, the tiles attached onto M60 tanks to protect the steel hull against anti-tank weaponry.<ref name="MM.Era" />

The Soviet Union was the next country to use ERA, under the name ''Kontakt ERA''. It was first introduced in 1984 and featured a tile design similar to Blazers, though using one or two reactive elements stacked together for better effectiveness. Like the Blazer, these plates were highly effective against HEAT rounds, but were generally ineffective against kinetic penetrators. Following the Soviets, the reactive armour was soon adopted by many other countries in the 1980s, from mainly Eastern bloc countries such as Czechoslovakia, Ukraine, and Poland. Today the ERA plates are still viable against modern anti-tank weaponry, especially when complemented with other tank defensive measures.<ref name="MM.Era" />

===Composite armour===
''To be filled''

===[[Add-on Armor|Add-on armor]]===
{{main|Add-on Armor}}

Add-on armour is a form of improvisation of the tank armour usually done by the crew or a maintenance unit in the front lines. Due to the rushed nature of tank technology in World War II, armour once considered adequate on tanks can quickly become obsolete with the introduction of a new gun piece in the field or a new equipment, such as the [[KwK 36 (88 mm)]] on the [[Tiger H1|Tiger I]] and the ''Panzerfaust'' anti-tank launcher, both could cut through Sherman and T-34 armour with little resistance. The declining armour effectiveness against these weapons prompted the tank crews to attempt an expedient method to improve the armour quality of their tanks. Troops went and attached logs, sandbags, tracks, concrete, and metal sheets onto their tanks to improve its effective thickness. The usefulness against anti-tank rounds from tank shells and HEAT rounds are controversial. Some tankers swear by it and claim they were saved by their improvised armour while analysts say that the add-on armour has no effect at all in interfering with incoming rounds. What was universally accepted was that these add-on armour helped improve the tank crew morale when fighting the enemy, renewed in confidence with their "improved" tank armour. However, add-on armour increases the weight of the tank due to the add-on of materials and thus can cause a strain on the power train and suspension of tanks, prompting some commanders like General George S. Patton to ban the usage of improvised armour to improve tank reliability. The most useful add-on armour was the welding of additional sheets of metal onto the tank, as seen in the well-received reception of the up-armoured M4 Sherman in the form of the [[M4A3E2|"Jumbos"]].

From Update 1.57, a modification known as the ''Add-on Armour'' was added onto certain vehicles. The modification adds spare track links along the hull and turret of the vehicle. The track links, when added, give an average of 17 - 20 mm of additional armour where they are attached.

= Media =


;Videos
{{Youtube-gallery|mJO2sLI_jwU|'''The Shooting Range #19''' - ''Tactics & Strategy'' section at 04:53 discusses how to angle your armour.|Go91srkTM80|'''Explosive Reactive Armor and Composite Armor''' - ''War Thunder Official Channel''|o24D6yl_VLg|'''The Shooting Range #115''' - ''Tactics & Strategy'' section at 10:14 discusses how to maximize your armour while on the defensive.|B2woWvJK4ew|'''Top 7 most armoured vehicles''' - ''War Thunder Official Channel''|c7NXyv_vD1A|'''How to use the protection analysis tool in War Thunder''' - ''Skreezilla''}}

= External links =


* [[wt:en/news/5569-development-protection-analysis-en|[Development] Protection Analysis]]

==References==
<references />

==Sources==

* Bismarck. "⚜ | Yes, World War 2 Planes Had Armour BUT..." YouTube. YouTube, 17 Aug. 2017. Web. 26 Sept. 2017. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-v5aMayFrRE Video].
* Carruthers, Bob. Tiger I: Official Wartime Crew Manual (the Tigerfibel). Warwickshire: Coda, 2011. Print.
* M.m. "Explosive Reactive Armor - Some History, Some Types." Below The Turret Ring. Blogger, 28 Apr. 2016. Web. 25 Sept. 2017. [https://below-the-turret-ring.blogspot.com/2016/04/explosive-reactive-armor-some-history.html Website].
* M.m. "The Truth about Spaced Armor on Modern Tanks and AFVs." Below The Turret Ring. Blogger, 31 Dec. 2015. Web. 26 Sept. 2017. [https://below-the-turret-ring.blogspot.com/2015/12/the-truth-about-spaced-armor-on-modern.html Website].

[[Category:Game mechanics]]

Armour

2022-02-17T20:55:21Z

U16328860: /* Types of armour in-game */

=Armour=
'''Armour''' is the basic defense an entity has against threats. Armour can be found in both air and ground vehicles in War Thunder and plays a very important role to the vehicle's survivability.

== Types of armour in-game ==

* KE: Kinetic Energy
* CE: Chemical Energy

Armour modifier applies to both types of penetrators, unless specified.

<nowiki>*</nowiki>with add-on armour modification

{| class="wikitable"
! Material or Component !! Armour Modifier !! Examples
|-
! colspan="3" | Ground vehicles
|-
| '''Rolled homogeneous armour''' (RHA) || x1.00 ||
|-
| '''Modern RHA''' || x1.01 || {{Specs-Link|cn_ztz_96}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|germ_leopard_1a5}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_chieftain_mk_3}}
|-
| '''Cast homogeneous armour''' (CHA) || x0.94 ||
|-
| '''Modern CHA''' || x0.98 || {{Specs-Link|germ_kpz_70}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_merkava_mk_3d}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_64_b_1984}}
|-
| '''High hardness rolled armour''' (HHRA) || x1.25 || {{Specs-Link|germ_pzkpfw_III_ausf_L}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|it_centauro_mgs_120}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|sw_ikv_91}}
|-
| '''Modern HHRA''' || x1.10 || {{Specs-Link|sw_strv_122}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_m1128_mgs}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_bmp_2}}
|-
| '''Tracks''' || x0.75 ||
|-
| '''Structural steel''' || x0.45 ||
|-
| '''Structural steel of chassis''' || x0.60 ||
|-
| '''Wheel''' || x0.30 ||
|-
| '''Rubber-fabric screens''' || x0.20 || {{Specs-Link|it_of_40_mk_1}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_m901_itv}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_62m1}}
|-
| '''Composite screen''' || x0.16 KE x2.00 CE || {{Specs-Link|fr_leclerc_s2}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|jp_type_16}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_vickers_mk7}}
|-
| '''Air''' (Spaced armour) || x0.05 KE x0.30 CE || {{Specs-Link|fr_amx_32}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|germ_kpz_70}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_merkava_mk_1}}
|-
| '''Aluminium''' || x0.20 || {{Specs-Link|jp_st_a1}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_chieftain_mk_10}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_bmp_2m}}
|-
| '''Aluminium alloy 5083''' || x0.32 || {{Specs-Link|cn_cm_25}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|it_otobreda_sidam_25}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_m3_bradley}}
|-
| '''Aluminium alloy AA7017''' || x0.50 || {{Specs-Link|uk_fv102_striker}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_stormer_hvm}}
|-
| '''Aluminium alloy 7020''' || x0.50 || {{Specs-Link|it_centauro_mgs_120}}
|-
| '''Aluminium alloy 7039''' || x0.50 || {{Specs-Link|it_oto_r3_t20_fa}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|jp_type_75}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_t114}}
|-
| '''Alloy ABT-101''' || x0.38 || {{Specs-Link|ussr_bmp_2}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_object_685}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_object_906}}
|-
| '''Alloy ABT-102''' || x0.42 || {{Specs-Link|ussr_bmp_3}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_9p157}}
|-
| '''Aluminium alloy AMS 4050A''' || x0.50 || {{Specs-Link|fr_amx_10rc}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|jp_type_87}}
|-
| '''Alloy BT-6''' || x0.70 || {{Specs-Link|ussr_t_80b}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_80u}}
|-
| '''{{Annotation|"Passive" ERA|Explosive Reactive Armour}}''' || x0.10 KE x5.00 CE
5mm KE

370mm CE
| {{Specs-Link|cn_cm11}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_m60a1_rise_passive_era}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_m60a3_tts}}
|-
|'''"BRENUS" ERA'''
|x0.10 KE x5.00 CE
5mm KE

400mm CE
|{{Specs-Link|fr_amx_30_b2_brenus}}
|-
| '''ERA''' || x0.50 KE x3.50 CE || {{Specs-Link|cn_type_59d}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|cn_type_69_2g}}
|-
| '''"Blazer" ERA''' || x0.10 KE x2.80 CE
5mm KE

260mm CE
| {{Specs-Link|sw_strv_104}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_centurion_shot_kal_d}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_magach_3}}*
|-
| '''"CONTACT-1" ERA''' || x0.10 KE x2.50 CE
5mm KE

400mm CE
| {{Specs-Link|ussr_t_64_b_1984}}*{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_72av_turms}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_72b}}
|-
| '''"CONTACT-5" INTEGRATED ERA''' || 120 mm KE 400 - 450 mm CE || {{Specs-Link|ussr_t_72b3_2011}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_80u}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_90a}}
|-
| '''FY-4 ERA''' || x0.80 KE x2.00 CE
140mm KE

450mm CE
| {{Specs-Link|cn_ztz_96a}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|cn_ztz_99}}
|-
| '''Integrated ERA''' || 10 mm KE 250 mm CE || {{Specs-Link|fr_leclerc_s1}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|fr_leclerc_s2}}
|-
| '''"ROMOR-A" ERA''' || x0.30 KE x3.50 CE
30mm KE

300mm CE
| {{Specs-Link|it_b1_centauro_romor}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_centurion_mk_5_avre_era}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_challenger_II}}
|-
| '''"Relict" ERA''' || 250mm KE

600mm CE
| {{Specs-Link|ussr_t_72b3_2011}}* {{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_80bvm}}
|-
| '''External composite armour with {{Annotation|NERA|Non-Energetic Reactive Armour}} elements''' || x0.10 KE x1.70 CE || {{Specs-Link|germ_leopard_2a6}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|jp_type_90b}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_vickers_mk7}}
|-
| '''Wood''' || x0.05 || {{Specs-Link|cn_ztz_99}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_is_3}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_object_120}}
|-
| '''{{Annotation|MEXAS|Modular Expandable Armour System}} 2''' || x0.16 || {{Specs-Link|us_m1128_mgs}}
|-
| '''MEXAS 2C''' || x0.16 || {{Specs-Link|us_m1128_mgs}}
|-
! colspan="3" | Naval vessels
|-
| '''Rolled homogeneous armour''' || x1.00 ||
|-
| '''Rolled cemented armour''' || x1.10 || Heavy cruisers, battleships
|-
| '''Structural steel''' || x0.45 ||
|-
| '''Coal bunker''' || x0.01 ||
|-
| '''Concrete''' || x0.35 || {{Specs-Link|germ_artilleriefahrprahm_typ_d1}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|germ_artilleriefahrprahm_typ_d3}}
|-
| '''Wood''' || x0.05 KE x0.00 CE ||
|-
| '''Antifragmentation armour''' || x0.90 ||
|-
| '''Hardened armour''' || x0.80 ||
|-
|}

=Aircraft=
Armour on aircraft are often minimum and focused on vital sections rather than on the overall airframe. Armour are often not taken into consideration in the design as armour constitutes more material and thus a heavier aircraft which would inhibit its performance due to weight penalty.<ref name="BismarckArmour">Bismarck 2017</ref>

Armour for pilots are thus usually never beyond the usage of bullet-resistant glass on the cockpit that could provide protection against rifle calibre ammunition. Though some armour plating are present in the back on some planes like the P-47, these were only thick enough for small calibers and serve more to slow down the incoming round so that it has little energy once it punches through. Other important areas that armour could be present on aircraft is around the engine. Important design features that dictate whether an aircraft design is more durable than others was in the airframe build quality, the air frame's ability to take damage, and adequate protections around vital components such as the engine, pilot, and fuel tanks.<ref name="BismarckArmour" />

=Tank=
==History==
===Interwar period===
Armour plays a very important role on tanks as they were conceived by it. The armour on the tanks at its inception made them invulnerable to the basic small arms fire, a trait that broke the stalemate of the trench warfare in World War I. During the interwar period, tank armour was prioritized on protection against firearms and artillery shrapnel. However, experience in the Spanish Civil War showed that this concept leaves the tank vulnerable to heavier guns. This is demonstrated when Italian tankettes and German Panzer I's, armed with only machine guns and simple 13 mm armour, went up against the Soviet [[T-26|T-26]], which had a 45 mm gun on its turret. The tank arms race increased armament and armour, evident on the German [[Pz.IV C|Panzer IV]] when armour increased from the initial 14.5 mm in 1936 to 30 mm in 1938 before World War II broke out.

===Early World War II===
During World War II, tank armour played a huge part in tank design. More armour means more weight on the tank and thus must be sparingly used to the tank mobility in acceptable margins. Tank armour in this period is separated by the three tank categories, light, medium, and heavy tanks. It was in this period that tank armour went through many technological advances. One of the perfect example is the French SOMUA S35 and the Soviet [[T-34 (1940)|T-34]]. The two vehicles made extensive usage of the concept of "sloped armour", which increased the armour effective thickness due to the difference in the line-of-sight thickness (See [[Armour#Sloped_armour|"Concepts"]] section). The Germans, which mainly used vertical-faced armour on their [[Pz.III F|Panzers]], struggled to take these vehicles out due to their strong armour against their inadequate guns. While the Battle of France did not incite Germany to quickly upgrade their armour and armament due to the small quantities of these kinds of tanks, the encounter with the T-34's in Operation Barbarossa came as a great shock due to the large number of T-34's available in Soviet inventory. The Germans, in a stage informally known as a "tank panic", rushed development to complete weapons able to destroy the T-34 and uparmour their tanks to withstand the Soviet 76 mm cannons. The Soviet T-34 and American [[M4A1|M4 Shermans]] caused great headaches in the German armoured forces due to their strong, sloped front armour in 1942, but that all changed in 1943 and beyond.

===Late World War II===
The year 1943 changed everything in the balance of tank power from the Allies with their T-34 and Shermans to the Germans. Germany introduced their newest tanks in large quantities, the [[Panther D|Panther]] and the [[Tiger H1|Tiger I]] tanks. These vehicles introduced powerful cannons and a new redefinition of the term "armour" for tanks. The Tiger I came with an astounding 100 mm armour thickness in front. Though vertical-faced and thus did not have the benefit of "sloped armour", the guns on Shermans and T-34 at the time could not penetrate the front plate at standard combat ranges, forcing the Allied medium tanks to close in for a kill. The Panther had 80 mm of frontal armour, but that armour was sloped at a 55° from vertical and caused the effective armour to instead be ''140 mm'' thick. Thus, the Panther was basically invulnerable in the hull front from any anti-tank weapon in existence in Allied inventory at that time. The Germans also started to extensively used an armour called ''Schürzen'', which is a form of "spaced armour" that provided additional protection to their tank's weak side armour. The two new tanks, plus a new one in the form of the [[Tiger II (H)|Tiger II]] with 150 mm of frontal armour sloped for effective thickness of ~230 mm, caused turmoil in the Allied armoured forces as they find a way to easily destroy the new tanks. They were never able to compete against the German's in terms of armour thickness until after World War II.

===Cold War===
By the end of World War II, sloping armour had become a ubiquitous concept and every tank designed has it from the American [[M60|M60]], British [[Centurion Mk 3|Centurion]], and Soviet [[T-54 (1951)|T-54/55]] tanks. With increasing tank armour equaling to increased weight, countries try to keep their tank weight in manageable ranges while making the armour up to date with current threats. By early 1960s, anti-tank technology such as the [[Anti-tank_guided_missiles|anti-tank guided missiles (ATGM)]] has grown to the point where it requires a large amount of steel to make the armour thick enough to resist the threat, but the amount was prohibitive and made the tank too heavy. Some nations such as Germany tried to solve this by relying on mobility at the expense of armour such as the [[Leopard I]], but it became clear a new type of armour is needed. It came in the form of "composite armour", which used steel combined with a variety of material such as plastic and ceramic that can resist penetration more effectively at a lighter weight. Composite armour soon became the new standard of tank armour throughout the world. Another armour developed in the Cold War was the "explosive reactive armour", which used an explosive to deflect a penetration property. Explosive reactive armour, or ERA, was highly effective against the ubiquitous HEATFS rounds used as anti-tank weapons. These armour technology saved the tanks from becoming obsolete during the Cold War against the new anti-tank missile threat that allows a small infantry crew to destroy a tank as far as 2000 meters away. Composite armour, ERA, and the increasing lethality of tank armament helped revolutionize the tank concept from light, medium, and heavy tanks into the new, universal "main battle tank".

==Concepts==
===Sloped armour===
[[File:T-54 Training Parola Tank Museum.jpg|x200px|thumb|right|A cut-out of a [[T-54 (1951)|T-54]] to show the effectiveness of sloping armour.]]

Sloped armour is effectively angling the armour of a tank on an angle rather than placed for a flat surface.

Slope armour presents the advantage of having a much thicker effective armour on a tanks for a lighter weight due to using a thinner armour plate. The sloped nature also increases the chance of the impacting shell to simply ricochet or deflect off, doing no effect to the armour. The disadvantage of the sloped armour was its more complicated manufacturing process and a reduction in internal space.

====Calculating sloped armour effective thickness====
A simple formula to calculate a tank's effective thickness (Line Of Sight, or LOS) due to sloping armour is with this: 

[LOS Effective Thickness vs Projectile Type] = ([Armour Thickness] × [Armor Modifier vs Projectile Type]) / cos ([Armour Angle]) 
'''Note:''' This formula does '''not''' factor in the possible horizontal '''or''' vertical angle of the target's armor plate relative to the shot's origin '''or''' deviations of the shell's angle of inclination due to bullet drop at longer ranges. We assume the target is placed on an even field and shot at from straight ahead at distance where the shell will hit the armor with 0° of bullet drop. 

For example: A '''Panther''' has an '''80 mm''' (armor thickness) front armour plate, sloped at an angle of '''55°''' (armor angle) and made out of '''RHA''' (armor modifier), being shot at by an AP projectile (armor modifier vs projectile = 1.0 vs KE). Thus, we input the values: 

(80 mm × 1.0) / cos (55°) = 80 mm / cos (55°) = 80 mm / 0.574 = 139.4 mm ≈ 140 mm (vs Kinetic AP) 

Thus, we get the value of how thick the Panther's sloped frontal armour is in a line-of-sight angle.

===Armour angling===
Outside of sloped armour, another way to improve the effective armour thickness on tanks is simply angling the armour towards the opponent. This means instead of sloping the armour in a vertical plane, instead angle sideways.

[[File:TigerIHTank Armour Angling.png|x200px|thumb|left|An example of armour angling with the [[Tiger_H1|Tiger I]], angled towards the opponent in its most optimum degree for best all-around armour.]]

This gives another form of thickness as not only does the round have to pass through a plane of armour, but two plane of the same armour, which would boost the effective thickness. This is best seen in vertical-faced armoured tanks like the [[Tiger H1|Tiger I tank]]. Though their vertical faced 100 mm front plate would only give 100 mm effectiveness, it was recommended in the ''Tigerfibel'' crew manual that a 45 degree diamond angle position would provide a front armour of nearly 130 mm of effective thickness.<ref name="Tigerfibel">Carruthers 2011</ref> This gives tank a chance to improve their effective front armour thickness especially when against enemies that would penetrate their front with little difficulty. However, beware of angling to much towards the enemy that it exposes the weaker side armour to enemy fire, which may have a chance of penetrating.

Some tanks attempt to implement this concept into the designs itself. One example is the Soviet [[IS-3]] with its "pike nose" front armour. Due to the sloping effect not only going back, but sweeping to the sides, this improves the IS-3 front armour effectiveness and ricochet chances.

===Spaced armour===
Spaced armour helps against anti-tank rounds in a form of disruption and denial. Spaced armour was first widely used by the Germans in the form of ''Schürzen'', attaching metal sheets away from the base armour of their Panzers. These metal sheets were intended to disrupt the kinetic energy of the Soviet 14.5 mm anti-tank rifles, which could penetrate the weaker side armour of their tanks. It does this by forcing much of the energy on the rifle round to be expelled on the ''Schürzen'' sheets, passing through and causing negligible damage on the base side armour. The ''Schürzen'' may also disrupt tank rounds as well, but the much greater kinetic energy of tank shells means that its disruption will be ineffective to all but the most sloped shots. Though there is a belief that the ''schürzen'' plates were meant to stop HEAT rounds from shoulder-launched weapons, the plates were not intentionally designed for this task.

Spaced armour was used in various formats in the Cold War tank designs. It was used as a form of protection against HEAT rounds from tank guns and rocket launchers, with the air separating the tank's base armour and the spaced armour acting to dissipate the HEAT's power before it reaches the hull. Spaced armour also works against kinetic penetrators by shattering the round on impact with the first layer. Though early kinetic rounds using brittle materials like tungsten were affected by this armour, better material like depleted uranium made the rounds more durable and proof against this type of armour.<ref name="MM.Spaced">M.m. 2015</ref>

===Explosive reactive armour (ERA)===
Explosive reactive armour (ERA) works by using an explosive force to disrupt an incoming armour-piercing ammunition. The construction of ERA usually takes the form of individual tiles made up of "reactive elements", which are sandwiched explosives in between sheets of metal. These tiles would be used around vulnerable points of a tank to provide protection at these locations.

Though ERA provides good protection against HEAT ammunition, high-velocity kinetic penetrators like APDS and APFSDS penetrates too quickly for the explosive force to be effective against them. This was a problem in early ERA designs, but more modern ERA types have been able to resist these ammunition. Even so, ERA still has drawbacks in that each explosive tile were one-time-use against the incoming round, leaving the exposed tank metal underneath once expended. ERA also has become vulnerable to tandem-charge ammunition, which use a two-stage detonation sequence with the first charge destroying the ERA plate and the second penetrating the armour underneath the plate. Finally, the ERA plates rarely cover the entire tank sections due to contouring and moving parts, so the armour is still exposed in various degrees to be hit and penetrated.

====History====
The first efforts in discovering this form of protection reach back to 1949 in the Soviet Union at the Nii Stali facility, although nothing much came out of it after failed tests and it was discontinued on the belief that the current armour on their main battle tanks was good enough. The traction did not continue again until German researcher Dr.Manfred Held, a shaped charge (HEAT) specialist, traveled to Israel on the conclusion of their 1967 Six-Day War. Examining several of the destroyed tanks from the conflict, he discovered that the force from exploding ammunition slightly reduced the effect of the shaped charge used. He then developed the first working ERA plate in 1970. Though this was the first effective iteration of the ERA, Held's design required the explosive mesh to be fitted inside empty cavities, integrated into the tank armour. Held improved on the design in the same year which consisted of a tiles formed with the reactive elements. This model would become the fundamental design of modern ERA.<ref name="MM.Era">M.m. 2016</ref>

The majority of the NATO countries did not buy into the explosive reactive armour that Held presented. He did not find anyone interested until he returned back to Israel in 1974, after the 1973 Yom-Kippur War. There, the Israeli government and the Israeli Defense Force were persuaded, perhaps from their combat experiences, to adopt the ERA as a protection for their tanks. The Israelis then produced the ''Blazer ERA'' plates which followed Held's design with reactive elements. The Blazer ERA will first see usage in the 1982 Lebanon War, the tiles attached onto M60 tanks to protect the steel hull against anti-tank weaponry.<ref name="MM.Era" />

The Soviet Union was the next country to use ERA, under the name ''Kontakt ERA''. It was first introduced in 1984 and featured a tile design similar to Blazers, though using one or two reactive elements stacked together for better effectiveness. Like the Blazer, these plates were highly effective against HEAT rounds, but were generally ineffective against kinetic penetrators. Following the Soviets, the reactive armour was soon adopted by many other countries in the 1980s, from mainly Eastern bloc countries such as Czechoslovakia, Ukraine, and Poland. Today the ERA plates are still viable against modern anti-tank weaponry, especially when complemented with other tank defensive measures.<ref name="MM.Era" />

===Composite armour===
''To be filled''

===[[Add-on Armor|Add-on armor]]===
{{main|Add-on Armor}}

Add-on armour is a form of improvisation of the tank armour usually done by the crew or a maintenance unit in the front lines. Due to the rushed nature of tank technology in World War II, armour once considered adequate on tanks can quickly become obsolete with the introduction of a new gun piece in the field or a new equipment, such as the [[KwK 36 (88 mm)]] on the [[Tiger H1|Tiger I]] and the ''Panzerfaust'' anti-tank launcher, both could cut through Sherman and T-34 armour with little resistance. The declining armour effectiveness against these weapons prompted the tank crews to attempt an expedient method to improve the armour quality of their tanks. Troops went and attached logs, sandbags, tracks, concrete, and metal sheets onto their tanks to improve its effective thickness. The usefulness against anti-tank rounds from tank shells and HEAT rounds are controversial. Some tankers swear by it and claim they were saved by their improvised armour while analysts say that the add-on armour has no effect at all in interfering with incoming rounds. What was universally accepted was that these add-on armour helped improve the tank crew morale when fighting the enemy, renewed in confidence with their "improved" tank armour. However, add-on armour increases the weight of the tank due to the add-on of materials and thus can cause a strain on the power train and suspension of tanks, prompting some commanders like General George S. Patton to ban the usage of improvised armour to improve tank reliability. The most useful add-on armour was the welding of additional sheets of metal onto the tank, as seen in the well-received reception of the up-armoured M4 Sherman in the form of the [[M4A3E2|"Jumbos"]].

From Update 1.57, a modification known as the ''Add-on Armour'' was added onto certain vehicles. The modification adds spare track links along the hull and turret of the vehicle. The track links, when added, give an average of 17 - 20 mm of additional armour where they are attached.

= Media =


;Videos
{{Youtube-gallery|mJO2sLI_jwU|'''The Shooting Range #19''' - ''Tactics & Strategy'' section at 04:53 discusses how to angle your armour.|Go91srkTM80|'''Explosive Reactive Armor and Composite Armor''' - ''War Thunder Official Channel''|o24D6yl_VLg|'''The Shooting Range #115''' - ''Tactics & Strategy'' section at 10:14 discusses how to maximize your armour while on the defensive.|B2woWvJK4ew|'''Top 7 most armoured vehicles''' - ''War Thunder Official Channel''|c7NXyv_vD1A|'''How to use the protection analysis tool in War Thunder''' - ''Skreezilla''}}

= External links =


* [[wt:en/news/5569-development-protection-analysis-en|[Development] Protection Analysis]]

==References==
<references />

==Sources==

* Bismarck. "⚜ | Yes, World War 2 Planes Had Armour BUT..." YouTube. YouTube, 17 Aug. 2017. Web. 26 Sept. 2017. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-v5aMayFrRE Video].
* Carruthers, Bob. Tiger I: Official Wartime Crew Manual (the Tigerfibel). Warwickshire: Coda, 2011. Print.
* M.m. "Explosive Reactive Armor - Some History, Some Types." Below The Turret Ring. Blogger, 28 Apr. 2016. Web. 25 Sept. 2017. [https://below-the-turret-ring.blogspot.com/2016/04/explosive-reactive-armor-some-history.html Website].
* M.m. "The Truth about Spaced Armor on Modern Tanks and AFVs." Below The Turret Ring. Blogger, 31 Dec. 2015. Web. 26 Sept. 2017. [https://below-the-turret-ring.blogspot.com/2015/12/the-truth-about-spaced-armor-on-modern.html Website].

[[Category:Game mechanics]]

Armour

2022-02-17T20:54:56Z

U16328860: /* Types of armour in-game */

=Armour=
'''Armour''' is the basic defense an entity has against threats. Armour can be found in both air and ground vehicles in War Thunder and plays a very important role to the vehicle's survivability.

== Types of armour in-game ==

* KE: Kinetic Energy
* CE: Chemical Energy

Armour modifier applies to both types of penetrators, unless specified.

<nowiki>*</nowiki>with add-on armour modification

{| class="wikitable"
! Material or Component !! Armour Modifier !! Examples
|-
! colspan="3" | Ground vehicles
|-
| '''Rolled homogeneous armour''' (RHA) || x1.00 ||
|-
| '''Modern RHA''' || x1.01 || {{Specs-Link|cn_ztz_96}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|germ_leopard_1a5}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_chieftain_mk_3}}
|-
| '''Cast homogeneous armour''' (CHA) || x0.94 ||
|-
| '''Modern CHA''' || x0.98 || {{Specs-Link|germ_kpz_70}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_merkava_mk_3d}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_64_b_1984}}
|-
| '''High hardness rolled armour''' (HHRA) || x1.25 || {{Specs-Link|germ_pzkpfw_III_ausf_L}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|it_centauro_mgs_120}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|sw_ikv_91}}
|-
| '''Modern HHRA''' || x1.10 || {{Specs-Link|sw_strv_122}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_m1128_mgs}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_bmp_2}}
|-
| '''Tracks''' || x0.75 ||
|-
| '''Structural steel''' || x0.45 ||
|-
| '''Structural steel of chassis''' || x0.60 ||
|-
| '''Wheel''' || x0.30 ||
|-
| '''Rubber-fabric screens''' || x0.20 || {{Specs-Link|it_of_40_mk_1}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_m901_itv}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_62m1}}
|-
| '''Composite screen''' || x0.16 KE x2.00 CE || {{Specs-Link|fr_leclerc_s2}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|jp_type_16}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_vickers_mk7}}
|-
| '''Air''' (Spaced armour) || x0.05 KE x0.30 CE || {{Specs-Link|fr_amx_32}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|germ_kpz_70}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_merkava_mk_1}}
|-
| '''Aluminium''' || x0.20 || {{Specs-Link|jp_st_a1}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_chieftain_mk_10}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_bmp_2m}}
|-
| '''Aluminium alloy 5083''' || x0.32 || {{Specs-Link|cn_cm_25}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|it_otobreda_sidam_25}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_m3_bradley}}
|-
| '''Aluminium alloy AA7017''' || x0.50 || {{Specs-Link|uk_fv102_striker}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_stormer_hvm}}
|-
| '''Aluminium alloy 7020''' || x0.50 || {{Specs-Link|it_centauro_mgs_120}}
|-
| '''Aluminium alloy 7039''' || x0.50 || {{Specs-Link|it_oto_r3_t20_fa}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|jp_type_75}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_t114}}
|-
| '''Alloy ABT-101''' || x0.38 || {{Specs-Link|ussr_bmp_2}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_object_685}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_object_906}}
|-
| '''Alloy ABT-102''' || x0.42 || {{Specs-Link|ussr_bmp_3}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_9p157}}
|-
| '''Aluminium alloy AMS 4050A''' || x0.50 || {{Specs-Link|fr_amx_10rc}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|jp_type_87}}
|-
| '''Alloy BT-6''' || x0.70 || {{Specs-Link|ussr_t_80b}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_80u}}
|-
| '''{{Annotation|"Passive" ERA|Explosive Reactive Armour}}''' || x0.10 KE x5.00 CE
5mm KE 370mm CE
| {{Specs-Link|cn_cm11}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_m60a1_rise_passive_era}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_m60a3_tts}}
|-
|'''"BRENUS" ERA'''
|x0.10 KE x5.00 CE
5mm KE

400mm CE
|{{Specs-Link|fr_amx_30_b2_brenus}}
|-
| '''ERA''' || x0.50 KE x3.50 CE || {{Specs-Link|cn_type_59d}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|cn_type_69_2g}}
|-
| '''"Blazer" ERA''' || x0.10 KE x2.80 CE
5mm KE

260mm CE
| {{Specs-Link|sw_strv_104}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_centurion_shot_kal_d}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_magach_3}}*
|-
| '''"CONTACT-1" ERA''' || x0.10 KE x2.50 CE
5mm KE

400mm CE
| {{Specs-Link|ussr_t_64_b_1984}}*{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_72av_turms}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_72b}}
|-
| '''"CONTACT-5" INTEGRATED ERA''' || 120 mm KE 400 - 450 mm CE || {{Specs-Link|ussr_t_72b3_2011}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_80u}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_90a}}
|-
| '''FY-4 ERA''' || x0.80 KE x2.00 CE
140mm KE

450mm CE
| {{Specs-Link|cn_ztz_96a}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|cn_ztz_99}}
|-
| '''Integrated ERA''' || 10 mm KE 250 mm CE || {{Specs-Link|fr_leclerc_s1}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|fr_leclerc_s2}}
|-
| '''"ROMOR-A" ERA''' || x0.30 KE x3.50 CE
30mm KE

300mm CE
| {{Specs-Link|it_b1_centauro_romor}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_centurion_mk_5_avre_era}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_challenger_II}}
|-
| '''"Relict" ERA''' || 250mm KE

600mm CE
| {{Specs-Link|ussr_t_72b3_2011}}* {{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_80bvm}}
|-
| '''External composite armour with {{Annotation|NERA|Non-Energetic Reactive Armour}} elements''' || x0.10 KE x1.70 CE || {{Specs-Link|germ_leopard_2a6}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|jp_type_90b}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_vickers_mk7}}
|-
| '''Wood''' || x0.05 || {{Specs-Link|cn_ztz_99}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_is_3}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_object_120}}
|-
| '''{{Annotation|MEXAS|Modular Expandable Armour System}} 2''' || x0.16 || {{Specs-Link|us_m1128_mgs}}
|-
| '''MEXAS 2C''' || x0.16 || {{Specs-Link|us_m1128_mgs}}
|-
! colspan="3" | Naval vessels
|-
| '''Rolled homogeneous armour''' || x1.00 ||
|-
| '''Rolled cemented armour''' || x1.10 || Heavy cruisers, battleships
|-
| '''Structural steel''' || x0.45 ||
|-
| '''Coal bunker''' || x0.01 ||
|-
| '''Concrete''' || x0.35 || {{Specs-Link|germ_artilleriefahrprahm_typ_d1}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|germ_artilleriefahrprahm_typ_d3}}
|-
| '''Wood''' || x0.05 KE x0.00 CE ||
|-
| '''Antifragmentation armour''' || x0.90 ||
|-
| '''Hardened armour''' || x0.80 ||
|-
|}

=Aircraft=
Armour on aircraft are often minimum and focused on vital sections rather than on the overall airframe. Armour are often not taken into consideration in the design as armour constitutes more material and thus a heavier aircraft which would inhibit its performance due to weight penalty.<ref name="BismarckArmour">Bismarck 2017</ref>

Armour for pilots are thus usually never beyond the usage of bullet-resistant glass on the cockpit that could provide protection against rifle calibre ammunition. Though some armour plating are present in the back on some planes like the P-47, these were only thick enough for small calibers and serve more to slow down the incoming round so that it has little energy once it punches through. Other important areas that armour could be present on aircraft is around the engine. Important design features that dictate whether an aircraft design is more durable than others was in the airframe build quality, the air frame's ability to take damage, and adequate protections around vital components such as the engine, pilot, and fuel tanks.<ref name="BismarckArmour" />

=Tank=
==History==
===Interwar period===
Armour plays a very important role on tanks as they were conceived by it. The armour on the tanks at its inception made them invulnerable to the basic small arms fire, a trait that broke the stalemate of the trench warfare in World War I. During the interwar period, tank armour was prioritized on protection against firearms and artillery shrapnel. However, experience in the Spanish Civil War showed that this concept leaves the tank vulnerable to heavier guns. This is demonstrated when Italian tankettes and German Panzer I's, armed with only machine guns and simple 13 mm armour, went up against the Soviet [[T-26|T-26]], which had a 45 mm gun on its turret. The tank arms race increased armament and armour, evident on the German [[Pz.IV C|Panzer IV]] when armour increased from the initial 14.5 mm in 1936 to 30 mm in 1938 before World War II broke out.

===Early World War II===
During World War II, tank armour played a huge part in tank design. More armour means more weight on the tank and thus must be sparingly used to the tank mobility in acceptable margins. Tank armour in this period is separated by the three tank categories, light, medium, and heavy tanks. It was in this period that tank armour went through many technological advances. One of the perfect example is the French SOMUA S35 and the Soviet [[T-34 (1940)|T-34]]. The two vehicles made extensive usage of the concept of "sloped armour", which increased the armour effective thickness due to the difference in the line-of-sight thickness (See [[Armour#Sloped_armour|"Concepts"]] section). The Germans, which mainly used vertical-faced armour on their [[Pz.III F|Panzers]], struggled to take these vehicles out due to their strong armour against their inadequate guns. While the Battle of France did not incite Germany to quickly upgrade their armour and armament due to the small quantities of these kinds of tanks, the encounter with the T-34's in Operation Barbarossa came as a great shock due to the large number of T-34's available in Soviet inventory. The Germans, in a stage informally known as a "tank panic", rushed development to complete weapons able to destroy the T-34 and uparmour their tanks to withstand the Soviet 76 mm cannons. The Soviet T-34 and American [[M4A1|M4 Shermans]] caused great headaches in the German armoured forces due to their strong, sloped front armour in 1942, but that all changed in 1943 and beyond.

===Late World War II===
The year 1943 changed everything in the balance of tank power from the Allies with their T-34 and Shermans to the Germans. Germany introduced their newest tanks in large quantities, the [[Panther D|Panther]] and the [[Tiger H1|Tiger I]] tanks. These vehicles introduced powerful cannons and a new redefinition of the term "armour" for tanks. The Tiger I came with an astounding 100 mm armour thickness in front. Though vertical-faced and thus did not have the benefit of "sloped armour", the guns on Shermans and T-34 at the time could not penetrate the front plate at standard combat ranges, forcing the Allied medium tanks to close in for a kill. The Panther had 80 mm of frontal armour, but that armour was sloped at a 55° from vertical and caused the effective armour to instead be ''140 mm'' thick. Thus, the Panther was basically invulnerable in the hull front from any anti-tank weapon in existence in Allied inventory at that time. The Germans also started to extensively used an armour called ''Schürzen'', which is a form of "spaced armour" that provided additional protection to their tank's weak side armour. The two new tanks, plus a new one in the form of the [[Tiger II (H)|Tiger II]] with 150 mm of frontal armour sloped for effective thickness of ~230 mm, caused turmoil in the Allied armoured forces as they find a way to easily destroy the new tanks. They were never able to compete against the German's in terms of armour thickness until after World War II.

===Cold War===
By the end of World War II, sloping armour had become a ubiquitous concept and every tank designed has it from the American [[M60|M60]], British [[Centurion Mk 3|Centurion]], and Soviet [[T-54 (1951)|T-54/55]] tanks. With increasing tank armour equaling to increased weight, countries try to keep their tank weight in manageable ranges while making the armour up to date with current threats. By early 1960s, anti-tank technology such as the [[Anti-tank_guided_missiles|anti-tank guided missiles (ATGM)]] has grown to the point where it requires a large amount of steel to make the armour thick enough to resist the threat, but the amount was prohibitive and made the tank too heavy. Some nations such as Germany tried to solve this by relying on mobility at the expense of armour such as the [[Leopard I]], but it became clear a new type of armour is needed. It came in the form of "composite armour", which used steel combined with a variety of material such as plastic and ceramic that can resist penetration more effectively at a lighter weight. Composite armour soon became the new standard of tank armour throughout the world. Another armour developed in the Cold War was the "explosive reactive armour", which used an explosive to deflect a penetration property. Explosive reactive armour, or ERA, was highly effective against the ubiquitous HEATFS rounds used as anti-tank weapons. These armour technology saved the tanks from becoming obsolete during the Cold War against the new anti-tank missile threat that allows a small infantry crew to destroy a tank as far as 2000 meters away. Composite armour, ERA, and the increasing lethality of tank armament helped revolutionize the tank concept from light, medium, and heavy tanks into the new, universal "main battle tank".

==Concepts==
===Sloped armour===
[[File:T-54 Training Parola Tank Museum.jpg|x200px|thumb|right|A cut-out of a [[T-54 (1951)|T-54]] to show the effectiveness of sloping armour.]]

Sloped armour is effectively angling the armour of a tank on an angle rather than placed for a flat surface.

Slope armour presents the advantage of having a much thicker effective armour on a tanks for a lighter weight due to using a thinner armour plate. The sloped nature also increases the chance of the impacting shell to simply ricochet or deflect off, doing no effect to the armour. The disadvantage of the sloped armour was its more complicated manufacturing process and a reduction in internal space.

====Calculating sloped armour effective thickness====
A simple formula to calculate a tank's effective thickness (Line Of Sight, or LOS) due to sloping armour is with this: 

[LOS Effective Thickness vs Projectile Type] = ([Armour Thickness] × [Armor Modifier vs Projectile Type]) / cos ([Armour Angle]) 
'''Note:''' This formula does '''not''' factor in the possible horizontal '''or''' vertical angle of the target's armor plate relative to the shot's origin '''or''' deviations of the shell's angle of inclination due to bullet drop at longer ranges. We assume the target is placed on an even field and shot at from straight ahead at distance where the shell will hit the armor with 0° of bullet drop. 

For example: A '''Panther''' has an '''80 mm''' (armor thickness) front armour plate, sloped at an angle of '''55°''' (armor angle) and made out of '''RHA''' (armor modifier), being shot at by an AP projectile (armor modifier vs projectile = 1.0 vs KE). Thus, we input the values: 

(80 mm × 1.0) / cos (55°) = 80 mm / cos (55°) = 80 mm / 0.574 = 139.4 mm ≈ 140 mm (vs Kinetic AP) 

Thus, we get the value of how thick the Panther's sloped frontal armour is in a line-of-sight angle.

===Armour angling===
Outside of sloped armour, another way to improve the effective armour thickness on tanks is simply angling the armour towards the opponent. This means instead of sloping the armour in a vertical plane, instead angle sideways.

[[File:TigerIHTank Armour Angling.png|x200px|thumb|left|An example of armour angling with the [[Tiger_H1|Tiger I]], angled towards the opponent in its most optimum degree for best all-around armour.]]

This gives another form of thickness as not only does the round have to pass through a plane of armour, but two plane of the same armour, which would boost the effective thickness. This is best seen in vertical-faced armoured tanks like the [[Tiger H1|Tiger I tank]]. Though their vertical faced 100 mm front plate would only give 100 mm effectiveness, it was recommended in the ''Tigerfibel'' crew manual that a 45 degree diamond angle position would provide a front armour of nearly 130 mm of effective thickness.<ref name="Tigerfibel">Carruthers 2011</ref> This gives tank a chance to improve their effective front armour thickness especially when against enemies that would penetrate their front with little difficulty. However, beware of angling to much towards the enemy that it exposes the weaker side armour to enemy fire, which may have a chance of penetrating.

Some tanks attempt to implement this concept into the designs itself. One example is the Soviet [[IS-3]] with its "pike nose" front armour. Due to the sloping effect not only going back, but sweeping to the sides, this improves the IS-3 front armour effectiveness and ricochet chances.

===Spaced armour===
Spaced armour helps against anti-tank rounds in a form of disruption and denial. Spaced armour was first widely used by the Germans in the form of ''Schürzen'', attaching metal sheets away from the base armour of their Panzers. These metal sheets were intended to disrupt the kinetic energy of the Soviet 14.5 mm anti-tank rifles, which could penetrate the weaker side armour of their tanks. It does this by forcing much of the energy on the rifle round to be expelled on the ''Schürzen'' sheets, passing through and causing negligible damage on the base side armour. The ''Schürzen'' may also disrupt tank rounds as well, but the much greater kinetic energy of tank shells means that its disruption will be ineffective to all but the most sloped shots. Though there is a belief that the ''schürzen'' plates were meant to stop HEAT rounds from shoulder-launched weapons, the plates were not intentionally designed for this task.

Spaced armour was used in various formats in the Cold War tank designs. It was used as a form of protection against HEAT rounds from tank guns and rocket launchers, with the air separating the tank's base armour and the spaced armour acting to dissipate the HEAT's power before it reaches the hull. Spaced armour also works against kinetic penetrators by shattering the round on impact with the first layer. Though early kinetic rounds using brittle materials like tungsten were affected by this armour, better material like depleted uranium made the rounds more durable and proof against this type of armour.<ref name="MM.Spaced">M.m. 2015</ref>

===Explosive reactive armour (ERA)===
Explosive reactive armour (ERA) works by using an explosive force to disrupt an incoming armour-piercing ammunition. The construction of ERA usually takes the form of individual tiles made up of "reactive elements", which are sandwiched explosives in between sheets of metal. These tiles would be used around vulnerable points of a tank to provide protection at these locations.

Though ERA provides good protection against HEAT ammunition, high-velocity kinetic penetrators like APDS and APFSDS penetrates too quickly for the explosive force to be effective against them. This was a problem in early ERA designs, but more modern ERA types have been able to resist these ammunition. Even so, ERA still has drawbacks in that each explosive tile were one-time-use against the incoming round, leaving the exposed tank metal underneath once expended. ERA also has become vulnerable to tandem-charge ammunition, which use a two-stage detonation sequence with the first charge destroying the ERA plate and the second penetrating the armour underneath the plate. Finally, the ERA plates rarely cover the entire tank sections due to contouring and moving parts, so the armour is still exposed in various degrees to be hit and penetrated.

====History====
The first efforts in discovering this form of protection reach back to 1949 in the Soviet Union at the Nii Stali facility, although nothing much came out of it after failed tests and it was discontinued on the belief that the current armour on their main battle tanks was good enough. The traction did not continue again until German researcher Dr.Manfred Held, a shaped charge (HEAT) specialist, traveled to Israel on the conclusion of their 1967 Six-Day War. Examining several of the destroyed tanks from the conflict, he discovered that the force from exploding ammunition slightly reduced the effect of the shaped charge used. He then developed the first working ERA plate in 1970. Though this was the first effective iteration of the ERA, Held's design required the explosive mesh to be fitted inside empty cavities, integrated into the tank armour. Held improved on the design in the same year which consisted of a tiles formed with the reactive elements. This model would become the fundamental design of modern ERA.<ref name="MM.Era">M.m. 2016</ref>

The majority of the NATO countries did not buy into the explosive reactive armour that Held presented. He did not find anyone interested until he returned back to Israel in 1974, after the 1973 Yom-Kippur War. There, the Israeli government and the Israeli Defense Force were persuaded, perhaps from their combat experiences, to adopt the ERA as a protection for their tanks. The Israelis then produced the ''Blazer ERA'' plates which followed Held's design with reactive elements. The Blazer ERA will first see usage in the 1982 Lebanon War, the tiles attached onto M60 tanks to protect the steel hull against anti-tank weaponry.<ref name="MM.Era" />

The Soviet Union was the next country to use ERA, under the name ''Kontakt ERA''. It was first introduced in 1984 and featured a tile design similar to Blazers, though using one or two reactive elements stacked together for better effectiveness. Like the Blazer, these plates were highly effective against HEAT rounds, but were generally ineffective against kinetic penetrators. Following the Soviets, the reactive armour was soon adopted by many other countries in the 1980s, from mainly Eastern bloc countries such as Czechoslovakia, Ukraine, and Poland. Today the ERA plates are still viable against modern anti-tank weaponry, especially when complemented with other tank defensive measures.<ref name="MM.Era" />

===Composite armour===
''To be filled''

===[[Add-on Armor|Add-on armor]]===
{{main|Add-on Armor}}

Add-on armour is a form of improvisation of the tank armour usually done by the crew or a maintenance unit in the front lines. Due to the rushed nature of tank technology in World War II, armour once considered adequate on tanks can quickly become obsolete with the introduction of a new gun piece in the field or a new equipment, such as the [[KwK 36 (88 mm)]] on the [[Tiger H1|Tiger I]] and the ''Panzerfaust'' anti-tank launcher, both could cut through Sherman and T-34 armour with little resistance. The declining armour effectiveness against these weapons prompted the tank crews to attempt an expedient method to improve the armour quality of their tanks. Troops went and attached logs, sandbags, tracks, concrete, and metal sheets onto their tanks to improve its effective thickness. The usefulness against anti-tank rounds from tank shells and HEAT rounds are controversial. Some tankers swear by it and claim they were saved by their improvised armour while analysts say that the add-on armour has no effect at all in interfering with incoming rounds. What was universally accepted was that these add-on armour helped improve the tank crew morale when fighting the enemy, renewed in confidence with their "improved" tank armour. However, add-on armour increases the weight of the tank due to the add-on of materials and thus can cause a strain on the power train and suspension of tanks, prompting some commanders like General George S. Patton to ban the usage of improvised armour to improve tank reliability. The most useful add-on armour was the welding of additional sheets of metal onto the tank, as seen in the well-received reception of the up-armoured M4 Sherman in the form of the [[M4A3E2|"Jumbos"]].

From Update 1.57, a modification known as the ''Add-on Armour'' was added onto certain vehicles. The modification adds spare track links along the hull and turret of the vehicle. The track links, when added, give an average of 17 - 20 mm of additional armour where they are attached.

= Media =


;Videos
{{Youtube-gallery|mJO2sLI_jwU|'''The Shooting Range #19''' - ''Tactics & Strategy'' section at 04:53 discusses how to angle your armour.|Go91srkTM80|'''Explosive Reactive Armor and Composite Armor''' - ''War Thunder Official Channel''|o24D6yl_VLg|'''The Shooting Range #115''' - ''Tactics & Strategy'' section at 10:14 discusses how to maximize your armour while on the defensive.|B2woWvJK4ew|'''Top 7 most armoured vehicles''' - ''War Thunder Official Channel''|c7NXyv_vD1A|'''How to use the protection analysis tool in War Thunder''' - ''Skreezilla''}}

= External links =


* [[wt:en/news/5569-development-protection-analysis-en|[Development] Protection Analysis]]

==References==
<references />

==Sources==

* Bismarck. "⚜ | Yes, World War 2 Planes Had Armour BUT..." YouTube. YouTube, 17 Aug. 2017. Web. 26 Sept. 2017. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-v5aMayFrRE Video].
* Carruthers, Bob. Tiger I: Official Wartime Crew Manual (the Tigerfibel). Warwickshire: Coda, 2011. Print.
* M.m. "Explosive Reactive Armor - Some History, Some Types." Below The Turret Ring. Blogger, 28 Apr. 2016. Web. 25 Sept. 2017. [https://below-the-turret-ring.blogspot.com/2016/04/explosive-reactive-armor-some-history.html Website].
* M.m. "The Truth about Spaced Armor on Modern Tanks and AFVs." Below The Turret Ring. Blogger, 31 Dec. 2015. Web. 26 Sept. 2017. [https://below-the-turret-ring.blogspot.com/2015/12/the-truth-about-spaced-armor-on-modern.html Website].

[[Category:Game mechanics]]

Armour

2022-02-17T20:48:55Z

U16328860: /* Types of armour in-game */

=Armour=
'''Armour''' is the basic defense an entity has against threats. Armour can be found in both air and ground vehicles in War Thunder and plays a very important role to the vehicle's survivability.

== Types of armour in-game ==

* KE: Kinetic Energy
* CE: Chemical Energy

Armour modifier applies to both types of penetrators, unless specified.

<nowiki>*</nowiki>with add-on armour modification

{| class="wikitable"
! Material or Component !! Armour Modifier !! Examples
|-
! colspan="3" | Ground vehicles
|-
| '''Rolled homogeneous armour''' (RHA) || x1.00 ||
|-
| '''Modern RHA''' || x1.01 || {{Specs-Link|cn_ztz_96}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|germ_leopard_1a5}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_chieftain_mk_3}}
|-
| '''Cast homogeneous armour''' (CHA) || x0.94 ||
|-
| '''Modern CHA''' || x0.98 || {{Specs-Link|germ_kpz_70}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_merkava_mk_3d}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_64_b_1984}}
|-
| '''High hardness rolled armour''' (HHRA) || x1.25 || {{Specs-Link|germ_pzkpfw_III_ausf_L}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|it_centauro_mgs_120}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|sw_ikv_91}}
|-
| '''Modern HHRA''' || x1.10 || {{Specs-Link|sw_strv_122}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_m1128_mgs}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_bmp_2}}
|-
| '''Tracks''' || x0.75 ||
|-
| '''Structural steel''' || x0.45 ||
|-
| '''Structural steel of chassis''' || x0.60 ||
|-
| '''Wheel''' || x0.30 ||
|-
| '''Rubber-fabric screens''' || x0.20 || {{Specs-Link|it_of_40_mk_1}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_m901_itv}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_62m1}}
|-
| '''Composite screen''' || x0.16 KE x2.00 CE || {{Specs-Link|fr_leclerc_s2}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|jp_type_16}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_vickers_mk7}}
|-
| '''Air''' (Spaced armour) || x0.05 KE x0.30 CE || {{Specs-Link|fr_amx_32}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|germ_kpz_70}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_merkava_mk_1}}
|-
| '''Aluminium''' || x0.20 || {{Specs-Link|jp_st_a1}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_chieftain_mk_10}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_bmp_2m}}
|-
| '''Aluminium alloy 5083''' || x0.32 || {{Specs-Link|cn_cm_25}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|it_otobreda_sidam_25}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_m3_bradley}}
|-
| '''Aluminium alloy AA7017''' || x0.50 || {{Specs-Link|uk_fv102_striker}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_stormer_hvm}}
|-
| '''Aluminium alloy 7020''' || x0.50 || {{Specs-Link|it_centauro_mgs_120}}
|-
| '''Aluminium alloy 7039''' || x0.50 || {{Specs-Link|it_oto_r3_t20_fa}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|jp_type_75}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_t114}}
|-
| '''Alloy ABT-101''' || x0.38 || {{Specs-Link|ussr_bmp_2}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_object_685}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_object_906}}
|-
| '''Alloy ABT-102''' || x0.42 || {{Specs-Link|ussr_bmp_3}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_9p157}}
|-
| '''Aluminium alloy AMS 4050A''' || x0.50 || {{Specs-Link|fr_amx_10rc}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|jp_type_87}}
|-
| '''Alloy BT-6''' || x0.70 || {{Specs-Link|ussr_t_80b}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_80u}}
|-
| '''{{Annotation|ERA|Explosive Reactive Armour}}''' || x0.10 KE x5.00 CE || {{Specs-Link|cn_cm11}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_m60a1_rise_passive_era}}
|-
|'''"BRENUS" ERA'''
|x0.10 KE x5.00 CE
5mm KE

400mm CE
|{{Specs-Link|fr_amx_30_b2_brenus}}
|-
| '''ERA''' || x0.50 KE x3.50 CE || {{Specs-Link|cn_type_59d}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|cn_type_69_2g}}
|-
| '''"Blazer" ERA''' || x0.10 KE x2.80 CE
5mm KE

260mm CE
| {{Specs-Link|sw_strv_104}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_centurion_shot_kal_d}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_magach_3}}*
|-
| '''"CONTACT-1" ERA''' || x0.10 KE x2.50 CE
5mm KE

400mm CE
| {{Specs-Link|ussr_t_64_b_1984}}*{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_72av_turms}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_72b}}
|-
| '''"CONTACT-5" INTEGRATED ERA''' || 120 mm KE 400 - 450 mm CE || {{Specs-Link|ussr_t_72b3_2011}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_80u}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_90a}}
|-
| '''FY-4 ERA''' || x0.80 KE x2.00 CE
140mm KE

450mm CE
| {{Specs-Link|cn_ztz_96a}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|cn_ztz_99}}
|-
| '''Integrated ERA''' || 10 mm KE 250 mm CE || {{Specs-Link|fr_leclerc_s1}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|fr_leclerc_s2}}
|-
| '''"ROMOR-A" ERA''' || x0.30 KE x3.50 CE
30mm KE

300mm CE
| {{Specs-Link|it_b1_centauro_romor}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_centurion_mk_5_avre_era}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_challenger_II}}
|-
| '''"Relict" ERA''' || 250mm KE

600mm CE
| {{Specs-Link|ussr_t_72b3_2011}}* {{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_80bvm}}
|-
| '''External composite armour with {{Annotation|NERA|Non-Energetic Reactive Armour}} elements''' || x0.10 KE x1.70 CE || {{Specs-Link|germ_leopard_2a6}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|jp_type_90b}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_vickers_mk7}}
|-
| '''Wood''' || x0.05 || {{Specs-Link|cn_ztz_99}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_is_3}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_object_120}}
|-
| '''{{Annotation|MEXAS|Modular Expandable Armour System}} 2''' || x0.16 || {{Specs-Link|us_m1128_mgs}}
|-
| '''MEXAS 2C''' || x0.16 || {{Specs-Link|us_m1128_mgs}}
|-
! colspan="3" | Naval vessels
|-
| '''Rolled homogeneous armour''' || x1.00 ||
|-
| '''Rolled cemented armour''' || x1.10 || Heavy cruisers, battleships
|-
| '''Structural steel''' || x0.45 ||
|-
| '''Coal bunker''' || x0.01 ||
|-
| '''Concrete''' || x0.35 || {{Specs-Link|germ_artilleriefahrprahm_typ_d1}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|germ_artilleriefahrprahm_typ_d3}}
|-
| '''Wood''' || x0.05 KE x0.00 CE ||
|-
| '''Antifragmentation armour''' || x0.90 ||
|-
| '''Hardened armour''' || x0.80 ||
|-
|}

=Aircraft=
Armour on aircraft are often minimum and focused on vital sections rather than on the overall airframe. Armour are often not taken into consideration in the design as armour constitutes more material and thus a heavier aircraft which would inhibit its performance due to weight penalty.<ref name="BismarckArmour">Bismarck 2017</ref>

Armour for pilots are thus usually never beyond the usage of bullet-resistant glass on the cockpit that could provide protection against rifle calibre ammunition. Though some armour plating are present in the back on some planes like the P-47, these were only thick enough for small calibers and serve more to slow down the incoming round so that it has little energy once it punches through. Other important areas that armour could be present on aircraft is around the engine. Important design features that dictate whether an aircraft design is more durable than others was in the airframe build quality, the air frame's ability to take damage, and adequate protections around vital components such as the engine, pilot, and fuel tanks.<ref name="BismarckArmour" />

=Tank=
==History==
===Interwar period===
Armour plays a very important role on tanks as they were conceived by it. The armour on the tanks at its inception made them invulnerable to the basic small arms fire, a trait that broke the stalemate of the trench warfare in World War I. During the interwar period, tank armour was prioritized on protection against firearms and artillery shrapnel. However, experience in the Spanish Civil War showed that this concept leaves the tank vulnerable to heavier guns. This is demonstrated when Italian tankettes and German Panzer I's, armed with only machine guns and simple 13 mm armour, went up against the Soviet [[T-26|T-26]], which had a 45 mm gun on its turret. The tank arms race increased armament and armour, evident on the German [[Pz.IV C|Panzer IV]] when armour increased from the initial 14.5 mm in 1936 to 30 mm in 1938 before World War II broke out.

===Early World War II===
During World War II, tank armour played a huge part in tank design. More armour means more weight on the tank and thus must be sparingly used to the tank mobility in acceptable margins. Tank armour in this period is separated by the three tank categories, light, medium, and heavy tanks. It was in this period that tank armour went through many technological advances. One of the perfect example is the French SOMUA S35 and the Soviet [[T-34 (1940)|T-34]]. The two vehicles made extensive usage of the concept of "sloped armour", which increased the armour effective thickness due to the difference in the line-of-sight thickness (See [[Armour#Sloped_armour|"Concepts"]] section). The Germans, which mainly used vertical-faced armour on their [[Pz.III F|Panzers]], struggled to take these vehicles out due to their strong armour against their inadequate guns. While the Battle of France did not incite Germany to quickly upgrade their armour and armament due to the small quantities of these kinds of tanks, the encounter with the T-34's in Operation Barbarossa came as a great shock due to the large number of T-34's available in Soviet inventory. The Germans, in a stage informally known as a "tank panic", rushed development to complete weapons able to destroy the T-34 and uparmour their tanks to withstand the Soviet 76 mm cannons. The Soviet T-34 and American [[M4A1|M4 Shermans]] caused great headaches in the German armoured forces due to their strong, sloped front armour in 1942, but that all changed in 1943 and beyond.

===Late World War II===
The year 1943 changed everything in the balance of tank power from the Allies with their T-34 and Shermans to the Germans. Germany introduced their newest tanks in large quantities, the [[Panther D|Panther]] and the [[Tiger H1|Tiger I]] tanks. These vehicles introduced powerful cannons and a new redefinition of the term "armour" for tanks. The Tiger I came with an astounding 100 mm armour thickness in front. Though vertical-faced and thus did not have the benefit of "sloped armour", the guns on Shermans and T-34 at the time could not penetrate the front plate at standard combat ranges, forcing the Allied medium tanks to close in for a kill. The Panther had 80 mm of frontal armour, but that armour was sloped at a 55° from vertical and caused the effective armour to instead be ''140 mm'' thick. Thus, the Panther was basically invulnerable in the hull front from any anti-tank weapon in existence in Allied inventory at that time. The Germans also started to extensively used an armour called ''Schürzen'', which is a form of "spaced armour" that provided additional protection to their tank's weak side armour. The two new tanks, plus a new one in the form of the [[Tiger II (H)|Tiger II]] with 150 mm of frontal armour sloped for effective thickness of ~230 mm, caused turmoil in the Allied armoured forces as they find a way to easily destroy the new tanks. They were never able to compete against the German's in terms of armour thickness until after World War II.

===Cold War===
By the end of World War II, sloping armour had become a ubiquitous concept and every tank designed has it from the American [[M60|M60]], British [[Centurion Mk 3|Centurion]], and Soviet [[T-54 (1951)|T-54/55]] tanks. With increasing tank armour equaling to increased weight, countries try to keep their tank weight in manageable ranges while making the armour up to date with current threats. By early 1960s, anti-tank technology such as the [[Anti-tank_guided_missiles|anti-tank guided missiles (ATGM)]] has grown to the point where it requires a large amount of steel to make the armour thick enough to resist the threat, but the amount was prohibitive and made the tank too heavy. Some nations such as Germany tried to solve this by relying on mobility at the expense of armour such as the [[Leopard I]], but it became clear a new type of armour is needed. It came in the form of "composite armour", which used steel combined with a variety of material such as plastic and ceramic that can resist penetration more effectively at a lighter weight. Composite armour soon became the new standard of tank armour throughout the world. Another armour developed in the Cold War was the "explosive reactive armour", which used an explosive to deflect a penetration property. Explosive reactive armour, or ERA, was highly effective against the ubiquitous HEATFS rounds used as anti-tank weapons. These armour technology saved the tanks from becoming obsolete during the Cold War against the new anti-tank missile threat that allows a small infantry crew to destroy a tank as far as 2000 meters away. Composite armour, ERA, and the increasing lethality of tank armament helped revolutionize the tank concept from light, medium, and heavy tanks into the new, universal "main battle tank".

==Concepts==
===Sloped armour===
[[File:T-54 Training Parola Tank Museum.jpg|x200px|thumb|right|A cut-out of a [[T-54 (1951)|T-54]] to show the effectiveness of sloping armour.]]

Sloped armour is effectively angling the armour of a tank on an angle rather than placed for a flat surface.

Slope armour presents the advantage of having a much thicker effective armour on a tanks for a lighter weight due to using a thinner armour plate. The sloped nature also increases the chance of the impacting shell to simply ricochet or deflect off, doing no effect to the armour. The disadvantage of the sloped armour was its more complicated manufacturing process and a reduction in internal space.

====Calculating sloped armour effective thickness====
A simple formula to calculate a tank's effective thickness (Line Of Sight, or LOS) due to sloping armour is with this: 

[LOS Effective Thickness vs Projectile Type] = ([Armour Thickness] × [Armor Modifier vs Projectile Type]) / cos ([Armour Angle]) 
'''Note:''' This formula does '''not''' factor in the possible horizontal '''or''' vertical angle of the target's armor plate relative to the shot's origin '''or''' deviations of the shell's angle of inclination due to bullet drop at longer ranges. We assume the target is placed on an even field and shot at from straight ahead at distance where the shell will hit the armor with 0° of bullet drop. 

For example: A '''Panther''' has an '''80 mm''' (armor thickness) front armour plate, sloped at an angle of '''55°''' (armor angle) and made out of '''RHA''' (armor modifier), being shot at by an AP projectile (armor modifier vs projectile = 1.0 vs KE). Thus, we input the values: 

(80 mm × 1.0) / cos (55°) = 80 mm / cos (55°) = 80 mm / 0.574 = 139.4 mm ≈ 140 mm (vs Kinetic AP) 

Thus, we get the value of how thick the Panther's sloped frontal armour is in a line-of-sight angle.

===Armour angling===
Outside of sloped armour, another way to improve the effective armour thickness on tanks is simply angling the armour towards the opponent. This means instead of sloping the armour in a vertical plane, instead angle sideways.

[[File:TigerIHTank Armour Angling.png|x200px|thumb|left|An example of armour angling with the [[Tiger_H1|Tiger I]], angled towards the opponent in its most optimum degree for best all-around armour.]]

This gives another form of thickness as not only does the round have to pass through a plane of armour, but two plane of the same armour, which would boost the effective thickness. This is best seen in vertical-faced armoured tanks like the [[Tiger H1|Tiger I tank]]. Though their vertical faced 100 mm front plate would only give 100 mm effectiveness, it was recommended in the ''Tigerfibel'' crew manual that a 45 degree diamond angle position would provide a front armour of nearly 130 mm of effective thickness.<ref name="Tigerfibel">Carruthers 2011</ref> This gives tank a chance to improve their effective front armour thickness especially when against enemies that would penetrate their front with little difficulty. However, beware of angling to much towards the enemy that it exposes the weaker side armour to enemy fire, which may have a chance of penetrating.

Some tanks attempt to implement this concept into the designs itself. One example is the Soviet [[IS-3]] with its "pike nose" front armour. Due to the sloping effect not only going back, but sweeping to the sides, this improves the IS-3 front armour effectiveness and ricochet chances.

===Spaced armour===
Spaced armour helps against anti-tank rounds in a form of disruption and denial. Spaced armour was first widely used by the Germans in the form of ''Schürzen'', attaching metal sheets away from the base armour of their Panzers. These metal sheets were intended to disrupt the kinetic energy of the Soviet 14.5 mm anti-tank rifles, which could penetrate the weaker side armour of their tanks. It does this by forcing much of the energy on the rifle round to be expelled on the ''Schürzen'' sheets, passing through and causing negligible damage on the base side armour. The ''Schürzen'' may also disrupt tank rounds as well, but the much greater kinetic energy of tank shells means that its disruption will be ineffective to all but the most sloped shots. Though there is a belief that the ''schürzen'' plates were meant to stop HEAT rounds from shoulder-launched weapons, the plates were not intentionally designed for this task.

Spaced armour was used in various formats in the Cold War tank designs. It was used as a form of protection against HEAT rounds from tank guns and rocket launchers, with the air separating the tank's base armour and the spaced armour acting to dissipate the HEAT's power before it reaches the hull. Spaced armour also works against kinetic penetrators by shattering the round on impact with the first layer. Though early kinetic rounds using brittle materials like tungsten were affected by this armour, better material like depleted uranium made the rounds more durable and proof against this type of armour.<ref name="MM.Spaced">M.m. 2015</ref>

===Explosive reactive armour (ERA)===
Explosive reactive armour (ERA) works by using an explosive force to disrupt an incoming armour-piercing ammunition. The construction of ERA usually takes the form of individual tiles made up of "reactive elements", which are sandwiched explosives in between sheets of metal. These tiles would be used around vulnerable points of a tank to provide protection at these locations.

Though ERA provides good protection against HEAT ammunition, high-velocity kinetic penetrators like APDS and APFSDS penetrates too quickly for the explosive force to be effective against them. This was a problem in early ERA designs, but more modern ERA types have been able to resist these ammunition. Even so, ERA still has drawbacks in that each explosive tile were one-time-use against the incoming round, leaving the exposed tank metal underneath once expended. ERA also has become vulnerable to tandem-charge ammunition, which use a two-stage detonation sequence with the first charge destroying the ERA plate and the second penetrating the armour underneath the plate. Finally, the ERA plates rarely cover the entire tank sections due to contouring and moving parts, so the armour is still exposed in various degrees to be hit and penetrated.

====History====
The first efforts in discovering this form of protection reach back to 1949 in the Soviet Union at the Nii Stali facility, although nothing much came out of it after failed tests and it was discontinued on the belief that the current armour on their main battle tanks was good enough. The traction did not continue again until German researcher Dr.Manfred Held, a shaped charge (HEAT) specialist, traveled to Israel on the conclusion of their 1967 Six-Day War. Examining several of the destroyed tanks from the conflict, he discovered that the force from exploding ammunition slightly reduced the effect of the shaped charge used. He then developed the first working ERA plate in 1970. Though this was the first effective iteration of the ERA, Held's design required the explosive mesh to be fitted inside empty cavities, integrated into the tank armour. Held improved on the design in the same year which consisted of a tiles formed with the reactive elements. This model would become the fundamental design of modern ERA.<ref name="MM.Era">M.m. 2016</ref>

The majority of the NATO countries did not buy into the explosive reactive armour that Held presented. He did not find anyone interested until he returned back to Israel in 1974, after the 1973 Yom-Kippur War. There, the Israeli government and the Israeli Defense Force were persuaded, perhaps from their combat experiences, to adopt the ERA as a protection for their tanks. The Israelis then produced the ''Blazer ERA'' plates which followed Held's design with reactive elements. The Blazer ERA will first see usage in the 1982 Lebanon War, the tiles attached onto M60 tanks to protect the steel hull against anti-tank weaponry.<ref name="MM.Era" />

The Soviet Union was the next country to use ERA, under the name ''Kontakt ERA''. It was first introduced in 1984 and featured a tile design similar to Blazers, though using one or two reactive elements stacked together for better effectiveness. Like the Blazer, these plates were highly effective against HEAT rounds, but were generally ineffective against kinetic penetrators. Following the Soviets, the reactive armour was soon adopted by many other countries in the 1980s, from mainly Eastern bloc countries such as Czechoslovakia, Ukraine, and Poland. Today the ERA plates are still viable against modern anti-tank weaponry, especially when complemented with other tank defensive measures.<ref name="MM.Era" />

===Composite armour===
''To be filled''

===[[Add-on Armor|Add-on armor]]===
{{main|Add-on Armor}}

Add-on armour is a form of improvisation of the tank armour usually done by the crew or a maintenance unit in the front lines. Due to the rushed nature of tank technology in World War II, armour once considered adequate on tanks can quickly become obsolete with the introduction of a new gun piece in the field or a new equipment, such as the [[KwK 36 (88 mm)]] on the [[Tiger H1|Tiger I]] and the ''Panzerfaust'' anti-tank launcher, both could cut through Sherman and T-34 armour with little resistance. The declining armour effectiveness against these weapons prompted the tank crews to attempt an expedient method to improve the armour quality of their tanks. Troops went and attached logs, sandbags, tracks, concrete, and metal sheets onto their tanks to improve its effective thickness. The usefulness against anti-tank rounds from tank shells and HEAT rounds are controversial. Some tankers swear by it and claim they were saved by their improvised armour while analysts say that the add-on armour has no effect at all in interfering with incoming rounds. What was universally accepted was that these add-on armour helped improve the tank crew morale when fighting the enemy, renewed in confidence with their "improved" tank armour. However, add-on armour increases the weight of the tank due to the add-on of materials and thus can cause a strain on the power train and suspension of tanks, prompting some commanders like General George S. Patton to ban the usage of improvised armour to improve tank reliability. The most useful add-on armour was the welding of additional sheets of metal onto the tank, as seen in the well-received reception of the up-armoured M4 Sherman in the form of the [[M4A3E2|"Jumbos"]].

From Update 1.57, a modification known as the ''Add-on Armour'' was added onto certain vehicles. The modification adds spare track links along the hull and turret of the vehicle. The track links, when added, give an average of 17 - 20 mm of additional armour where they are attached.

= Media =


;Videos
{{Youtube-gallery|mJO2sLI_jwU|'''The Shooting Range #19''' - ''Tactics & Strategy'' section at 04:53 discusses how to angle your armour.|Go91srkTM80|'''Explosive Reactive Armor and Composite Armor''' - ''War Thunder Official Channel''|o24D6yl_VLg|'''The Shooting Range #115''' - ''Tactics & Strategy'' section at 10:14 discusses how to maximize your armour while on the defensive.|B2woWvJK4ew|'''Top 7 most armoured vehicles''' - ''War Thunder Official Channel''|c7NXyv_vD1A|'''How to use the protection analysis tool in War Thunder''' - ''Skreezilla''}}

= External links =


* [[wt:en/news/5569-development-protection-analysis-en|[Development] Protection Analysis]]

==References==
<references />

==Sources==

* Bismarck. "⚜ | Yes, World War 2 Planes Had Armour BUT..." YouTube. YouTube, 17 Aug. 2017. Web. 26 Sept. 2017. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-v5aMayFrRE Video].
* Carruthers, Bob. Tiger I: Official Wartime Crew Manual (the Tigerfibel). Warwickshire: Coda, 2011. Print.
* M.m. "Explosive Reactive Armor - Some History, Some Types." Below The Turret Ring. Blogger, 28 Apr. 2016. Web. 25 Sept. 2017. [https://below-the-turret-ring.blogspot.com/2016/04/explosive-reactive-armor-some-history.html Website].
* M.m. "The Truth about Spaced Armor on Modern Tanks and AFVs." Below The Turret Ring. Blogger, 31 Dec. 2015. Web. 26 Sept. 2017. [https://below-the-turret-ring.blogspot.com/2015/12/the-truth-about-spaced-armor-on-modern.html Website].

[[Category:Game mechanics]]

Armour

2022-02-17T20:47:34Z

U16328860: /* Types of armour in-game */

=Armour=
'''Armour''' is the basic defense an entity has against threats. Armour can be found in both air and ground vehicles in War Thunder and plays a very important role to the vehicle's survivability.

== Types of armour in-game ==

* KE: Kinetic Energy
* CE: Chemical Energy

Armour modifier applies to both types of penetrators, unless specified.

<nowiki>*</nowiki>with add-on armour modification

{| class="wikitable"
! Material or Component !! Armour Modifier !! Examples
|-
! colspan="3" | Ground vehicles
|-
| '''Rolled homogeneous armour''' (RHA) || x1.00 ||
|-
| '''Modern RHA''' || x1.01 || {{Specs-Link|cn_ztz_96}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|germ_leopard_1a5}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_chieftain_mk_3}}
|-
| '''Cast homogeneous armour''' (CHA) || x0.94 ||
|-
| '''Modern CHA''' || x0.98 || {{Specs-Link|germ_kpz_70}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_merkava_mk_3d}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_64_b_1984}}
|-
| '''High hardness rolled armour''' (HHRA) || x1.25 || {{Specs-Link|germ_pzkpfw_III_ausf_L}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|it_centauro_mgs_120}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|sw_ikv_91}}
|-
| '''Modern HHRA''' || x1.10 || {{Specs-Link|sw_strv_122}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_m1128_mgs}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_bmp_2}}
|-
| '''Tracks''' || x0.75 ||
|-
| '''Structural steel''' || x0.45 ||
|-
| '''Structural steel of chassis''' || x0.60 ||
|-
| '''Wheel''' || x0.30 ||
|-
| '''Rubber-fabric screens''' || x0.20 || {{Specs-Link|it_of_40_mk_1}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_m901_itv}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_62m1}}
|-
| '''Composite screen''' || x0.16 KE x2.00 CE || {{Specs-Link|fr_leclerc_s2}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|jp_type_16}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_vickers_mk7}}
|-
| '''Air''' (Spaced armour) || x0.05 KE x0.30 CE || {{Specs-Link|fr_amx_32}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|germ_kpz_70}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_merkava_mk_1}}
|-
| '''Aluminium''' || x0.20 || {{Specs-Link|jp_st_a1}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_chieftain_mk_10}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_bmp_2m}}
|-
| '''Aluminium alloy 5083''' || x0.32 || {{Specs-Link|cn_cm_25}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|it_otobreda_sidam_25}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_m3_bradley}}
|-
| '''Aluminium alloy AA7017''' || x0.50 || {{Specs-Link|uk_fv102_striker}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_stormer_hvm}}
|-
| '''Aluminium alloy 7020''' || x0.50 || {{Specs-Link|it_centauro_mgs_120}}
|-
| '''Aluminium alloy 7039''' || x0.50 || {{Specs-Link|it_oto_r3_t20_fa}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|jp_type_75}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_t114}}
|-
| '''Alloy ABT-101''' || x0.38 || {{Specs-Link|ussr_bmp_2}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_object_685}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_object_906}}
|-
| '''Alloy ABT-102''' || x0.42 || {{Specs-Link|ussr_bmp_3}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_9p157}}
|-
| '''Aluminium alloy AMS 4050A''' || x0.50 || {{Specs-Link|fr_amx_10rc}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|jp_type_87}}
|-
| '''Alloy BT-6''' || x0.70 || {{Specs-Link|ussr_t_80b}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_80u}}
|-
| '''{{Annotation|ERA|Explosive Reactive Armour}}''' || x0.10 KE x5.00 CE || {{Specs-Link|cn_cm11}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_m60a1_rise_passive_era}}
|-
|'''"BRENUS" ERA'''
|x0.10 KE x5.00 CE
5mm KE

400mm CE
|{{Specs-Link|fr_amx_30_b2_brenus}}
|-
| '''ERA''' || x0.50 KE x3.50 CE || {{Specs-Link|cn_type_59d}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|cn_type_69_2g}}
|-
| '''"Blazer" ERA''' || x0.10 KE x2.80 CE
5mm KE

260mm CE
| {{Specs-Link|sw_strv_104}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_centurion_shot_kal_d}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_magach_3}}*
|-
| '''"CONTACT-1" ERA''' || x0.10 KE x2.50 CE
5mm KE

400mm CE
| {{Specs-Link|ussr_t_64_b_1984}}*{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_72av_turms}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_72b}}
|-
| '''"CONTACT-5" INTEGRATED ERA''' || 120 mm KE 400 - 450 mm CE || {{Specs-Link|ussr_t_72b3_2011}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_80u}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_90a}}
|-
| '''FY-4 ERA''' || x0.80 KE x2.00 CE
140mm KE

450mm CE
| {{Specs-Link|cn_ztz_96a}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|cn_ztz_99}}
|-
| '''Integrated ERA''' || 10 mm KE 250 mm CE || {{Specs-Link|fr_leclerc_s1}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|fr_leclerc_s2}}
|-
| '''"ROMOR-A" ERA''' || x0.30 KE x3.50 CE
30mm KE

300mm CE
| {{Specs-Link|it_b1_centauro_romor}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_centurion_mk_5_avre_era}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_challenger_II}}
|-
| '''"Relict" ERA''' || 250mm KE

600mm CE
| {{Specs-Link|ussr_t_72b3_2011}}*
|-
| '''External composite armour with {{Annotation|NERA|Non-Energetic Reactive Armour}} elements''' || x0.10 KE x1.70 CE || {{Specs-Link|germ_leopard_2a6}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|jp_type_90b}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_vickers_mk7}}
|-
| '''Wood''' || x0.05 || {{Specs-Link|cn_ztz_99}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_is_3}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_object_120}}
|-
| '''{{Annotation|MEXAS|Modular Expandable Armour System}} 2''' || x0.16 || {{Specs-Link|us_m1128_mgs}}
|-
| '''MEXAS 2C''' || x0.16 || {{Specs-Link|us_m1128_mgs}}
|-
! colspan="3" | Naval vessels
|-
| '''Rolled homogeneous armour''' || x1.00 ||
|-
| '''Rolled cemented armour''' || x1.10 || Heavy cruisers, battleships
|-
| '''Structural steel''' || x0.45 ||
|-
| '''Coal bunker''' || x0.01 ||
|-
| '''Concrete''' || x0.35 || {{Specs-Link|germ_artilleriefahrprahm_typ_d1}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|germ_artilleriefahrprahm_typ_d3}}
|-
| '''Wood''' || x0.05 KE x0.00 CE ||
|-
| '''Antifragmentation armour''' || x0.90 ||
|-
| '''Hardened armour''' || x0.80 ||
|-
|}

=Aircraft=
Armour on aircraft are often minimum and focused on vital sections rather than on the overall airframe. Armour are often not taken into consideration in the design as armour constitutes more material and thus a heavier aircraft which would inhibit its performance due to weight penalty.<ref name="BismarckArmour">Bismarck 2017</ref>

Armour for pilots are thus usually never beyond the usage of bullet-resistant glass on the cockpit that could provide protection against rifle calibre ammunition. Though some armour plating are present in the back on some planes like the P-47, these were only thick enough for small calibers and serve more to slow down the incoming round so that it has little energy once it punches through. Other important areas that armour could be present on aircraft is around the engine. Important design features that dictate whether an aircraft design is more durable than others was in the airframe build quality, the air frame's ability to take damage, and adequate protections around vital components such as the engine, pilot, and fuel tanks.<ref name="BismarckArmour" />

=Tank=
==History==
===Interwar period===
Armour plays a very important role on tanks as they were conceived by it. The armour on the tanks at its inception made them invulnerable to the basic small arms fire, a trait that broke the stalemate of the trench warfare in World War I. During the interwar period, tank armour was prioritized on protection against firearms and artillery shrapnel. However, experience in the Spanish Civil War showed that this concept leaves the tank vulnerable to heavier guns. This is demonstrated when Italian tankettes and German Panzer I's, armed with only machine guns and simple 13 mm armour, went up against the Soviet [[T-26|T-26]], which had a 45 mm gun on its turret. The tank arms race increased armament and armour, evident on the German [[Pz.IV C|Panzer IV]] when armour increased from the initial 14.5 mm in 1936 to 30 mm in 1938 before World War II broke out.

===Early World War II===
During World War II, tank armour played a huge part in tank design. More armour means more weight on the tank and thus must be sparingly used to the tank mobility in acceptable margins. Tank armour in this period is separated by the three tank categories, light, medium, and heavy tanks. It was in this period that tank armour went through many technological advances. One of the perfect example is the French SOMUA S35 and the Soviet [[T-34 (1940)|T-34]]. The two vehicles made extensive usage of the concept of "sloped armour", which increased the armour effective thickness due to the difference in the line-of-sight thickness (See [[Armour#Sloped_armour|"Concepts"]] section). The Germans, which mainly used vertical-faced armour on their [[Pz.III F|Panzers]], struggled to take these vehicles out due to their strong armour against their inadequate guns. While the Battle of France did not incite Germany to quickly upgrade their armour and armament due to the small quantities of these kinds of tanks, the encounter with the T-34's in Operation Barbarossa came as a great shock due to the large number of T-34's available in Soviet inventory. The Germans, in a stage informally known as a "tank panic", rushed development to complete weapons able to destroy the T-34 and uparmour their tanks to withstand the Soviet 76 mm cannons. The Soviet T-34 and American [[M4A1|M4 Shermans]] caused great headaches in the German armoured forces due to their strong, sloped front armour in 1942, but that all changed in 1943 and beyond.

===Late World War II===
The year 1943 changed everything in the balance of tank power from the Allies with their T-34 and Shermans to the Germans. Germany introduced their newest tanks in large quantities, the [[Panther D|Panther]] and the [[Tiger H1|Tiger I]] tanks. These vehicles introduced powerful cannons and a new redefinition of the term "armour" for tanks. The Tiger I came with an astounding 100 mm armour thickness in front. Though vertical-faced and thus did not have the benefit of "sloped armour", the guns on Shermans and T-34 at the time could not penetrate the front plate at standard combat ranges, forcing the Allied medium tanks to close in for a kill. The Panther had 80 mm of frontal armour, but that armour was sloped at a 55° from vertical and caused the effective armour to instead be ''140 mm'' thick. Thus, the Panther was basically invulnerable in the hull front from any anti-tank weapon in existence in Allied inventory at that time. The Germans also started to extensively used an armour called ''Schürzen'', which is a form of "spaced armour" that provided additional protection to their tank's weak side armour. The two new tanks, plus a new one in the form of the [[Tiger II (H)|Tiger II]] with 150 mm of frontal armour sloped for effective thickness of ~230 mm, caused turmoil in the Allied armoured forces as they find a way to easily destroy the new tanks. They were never able to compete against the German's in terms of armour thickness until after World War II.

===Cold War===
By the end of World War II, sloping armour had become a ubiquitous concept and every tank designed has it from the American [[M60|M60]], British [[Centurion Mk 3|Centurion]], and Soviet [[T-54 (1951)|T-54/55]] tanks. With increasing tank armour equaling to increased weight, countries try to keep their tank weight in manageable ranges while making the armour up to date with current threats. By early 1960s, anti-tank technology such as the [[Anti-tank_guided_missiles|anti-tank guided missiles (ATGM)]] has grown to the point where it requires a large amount of steel to make the armour thick enough to resist the threat, but the amount was prohibitive and made the tank too heavy. Some nations such as Germany tried to solve this by relying on mobility at the expense of armour such as the [[Leopard I]], but it became clear a new type of armour is needed. It came in the form of "composite armour", which used steel combined with a variety of material such as plastic and ceramic that can resist penetration more effectively at a lighter weight. Composite armour soon became the new standard of tank armour throughout the world. Another armour developed in the Cold War was the "explosive reactive armour", which used an explosive to deflect a penetration property. Explosive reactive armour, or ERA, was highly effective against the ubiquitous HEATFS rounds used as anti-tank weapons. These armour technology saved the tanks from becoming obsolete during the Cold War against the new anti-tank missile threat that allows a small infantry crew to destroy a tank as far as 2000 meters away. Composite armour, ERA, and the increasing lethality of tank armament helped revolutionize the tank concept from light, medium, and heavy tanks into the new, universal "main battle tank".

==Concepts==
===Sloped armour===
[[File:T-54 Training Parola Tank Museum.jpg|x200px|thumb|right|A cut-out of a [[T-54 (1951)|T-54]] to show the effectiveness of sloping armour.]]

Sloped armour is effectively angling the armour of a tank on an angle rather than placed for a flat surface.

Slope armour presents the advantage of having a much thicker effective armour on a tanks for a lighter weight due to using a thinner armour plate. The sloped nature also increases the chance of the impacting shell to simply ricochet or deflect off, doing no effect to the armour. The disadvantage of the sloped armour was its more complicated manufacturing process and a reduction in internal space.

====Calculating sloped armour effective thickness====
A simple formula to calculate a tank's effective thickness (Line Of Sight, or LOS) due to sloping armour is with this: 

[LOS Effective Thickness vs Projectile Type] = ([Armour Thickness] × [Armor Modifier vs Projectile Type]) / cos ([Armour Angle]) 
'''Note:''' This formula does '''not''' factor in the possible horizontal '''or''' vertical angle of the target's armor plate relative to the shot's origin '''or''' deviations of the shell's angle of inclination due to bullet drop at longer ranges. We assume the target is placed on an even field and shot at from straight ahead at distance where the shell will hit the armor with 0° of bullet drop. 

For example: A '''Panther''' has an '''80 mm''' (armor thickness) front armour plate, sloped at an angle of '''55°''' (armor angle) and made out of '''RHA''' (armor modifier), being shot at by an AP projectile (armor modifier vs projectile = 1.0 vs KE). Thus, we input the values: 

(80 mm × 1.0) / cos (55°) = 80 mm / cos (55°) = 80 mm / 0.574 = 139.4 mm ≈ 140 mm (vs Kinetic AP) 

Thus, we get the value of how thick the Panther's sloped frontal armour is in a line-of-sight angle.

===Armour angling===
Outside of sloped armour, another way to improve the effective armour thickness on tanks is simply angling the armour towards the opponent. This means instead of sloping the armour in a vertical plane, instead angle sideways.

[[File:TigerIHTank Armour Angling.png|x200px|thumb|left|An example of armour angling with the [[Tiger_H1|Tiger I]], angled towards the opponent in its most optimum degree for best all-around armour.]]

This gives another form of thickness as not only does the round have to pass through a plane of armour, but two plane of the same armour, which would boost the effective thickness. This is best seen in vertical-faced armoured tanks like the [[Tiger H1|Tiger I tank]]. Though their vertical faced 100 mm front plate would only give 100 mm effectiveness, it was recommended in the ''Tigerfibel'' crew manual that a 45 degree diamond angle position would provide a front armour of nearly 130 mm of effective thickness.<ref name="Tigerfibel">Carruthers 2011</ref> This gives tank a chance to improve their effective front armour thickness especially when against enemies that would penetrate their front with little difficulty. However, beware of angling to much towards the enemy that it exposes the weaker side armour to enemy fire, which may have a chance of penetrating.

Some tanks attempt to implement this concept into the designs itself. One example is the Soviet [[IS-3]] with its "pike nose" front armour. Due to the sloping effect not only going back, but sweeping to the sides, this improves the IS-3 front armour effectiveness and ricochet chances.

===Spaced armour===
Spaced armour helps against anti-tank rounds in a form of disruption and denial. Spaced armour was first widely used by the Germans in the form of ''Schürzen'', attaching metal sheets away from the base armour of their Panzers. These metal sheets were intended to disrupt the kinetic energy of the Soviet 14.5 mm anti-tank rifles, which could penetrate the weaker side armour of their tanks. It does this by forcing much of the energy on the rifle round to be expelled on the ''Schürzen'' sheets, passing through and causing negligible damage on the base side armour. The ''Schürzen'' may also disrupt tank rounds as well, but the much greater kinetic energy of tank shells means that its disruption will be ineffective to all but the most sloped shots. Though there is a belief that the ''schürzen'' plates were meant to stop HEAT rounds from shoulder-launched weapons, the plates were not intentionally designed for this task.

Spaced armour was used in various formats in the Cold War tank designs. It was used as a form of protection against HEAT rounds from tank guns and rocket launchers, with the air separating the tank's base armour and the spaced armour acting to dissipate the HEAT's power before it reaches the hull. Spaced armour also works against kinetic penetrators by shattering the round on impact with the first layer. Though early kinetic rounds using brittle materials like tungsten were affected by this armour, better material like depleted uranium made the rounds more durable and proof against this type of armour.<ref name="MM.Spaced">M.m. 2015</ref>

===Explosive reactive armour (ERA)===
Explosive reactive armour (ERA) works by using an explosive force to disrupt an incoming armour-piercing ammunition. The construction of ERA usually takes the form of individual tiles made up of "reactive elements", which are sandwiched explosives in between sheets of metal. These tiles would be used around vulnerable points of a tank to provide protection at these locations.

Though ERA provides good protection against HEAT ammunition, high-velocity kinetic penetrators like APDS and APFSDS penetrates too quickly for the explosive force to be effective against them. This was a problem in early ERA designs, but more modern ERA types have been able to resist these ammunition. Even so, ERA still has drawbacks in that each explosive tile were one-time-use against the incoming round, leaving the exposed tank metal underneath once expended. ERA also has become vulnerable to tandem-charge ammunition, which use a two-stage detonation sequence with the first charge destroying the ERA plate and the second penetrating the armour underneath the plate. Finally, the ERA plates rarely cover the entire tank sections due to contouring and moving parts, so the armour is still exposed in various degrees to be hit and penetrated.

====History====
The first efforts in discovering this form of protection reach back to 1949 in the Soviet Union at the Nii Stali facility, although nothing much came out of it after failed tests and it was discontinued on the belief that the current armour on their main battle tanks was good enough. The traction did not continue again until German researcher Dr.Manfred Held, a shaped charge (HEAT) specialist, traveled to Israel on the conclusion of their 1967 Six-Day War. Examining several of the destroyed tanks from the conflict, he discovered that the force from exploding ammunition slightly reduced the effect of the shaped charge used. He then developed the first working ERA plate in 1970. Though this was the first effective iteration of the ERA, Held's design required the explosive mesh to be fitted inside empty cavities, integrated into the tank armour. Held improved on the design in the same year which consisted of a tiles formed with the reactive elements. This model would become the fundamental design of modern ERA.<ref name="MM.Era">M.m. 2016</ref>

The majority of the NATO countries did not buy into the explosive reactive armour that Held presented. He did not find anyone interested until he returned back to Israel in 1974, after the 1973 Yom-Kippur War. There, the Israeli government and the Israeli Defense Force were persuaded, perhaps from their combat experiences, to adopt the ERA as a protection for their tanks. The Israelis then produced the ''Blazer ERA'' plates which followed Held's design with reactive elements. The Blazer ERA will first see usage in the 1982 Lebanon War, the tiles attached onto M60 tanks to protect the steel hull against anti-tank weaponry.<ref name="MM.Era" />

The Soviet Union was the next country to use ERA, under the name ''Kontakt ERA''. It was first introduced in 1984 and featured a tile design similar to Blazers, though using one or two reactive elements stacked together for better effectiveness. Like the Blazer, these plates were highly effective against HEAT rounds, but were generally ineffective against kinetic penetrators. Following the Soviets, the reactive armour was soon adopted by many other countries in the 1980s, from mainly Eastern bloc countries such as Czechoslovakia, Ukraine, and Poland. Today the ERA plates are still viable against modern anti-tank weaponry, especially when complemented with other tank defensive measures.<ref name="MM.Era" />

===Composite armour===
''To be filled''

===[[Add-on Armor|Add-on armor]]===
{{main|Add-on Armor}}

Add-on armour is a form of improvisation of the tank armour usually done by the crew or a maintenance unit in the front lines. Due to the rushed nature of tank technology in World War II, armour once considered adequate on tanks can quickly become obsolete with the introduction of a new gun piece in the field or a new equipment, such as the [[KwK 36 (88 mm)]] on the [[Tiger H1|Tiger I]] and the ''Panzerfaust'' anti-tank launcher, both could cut through Sherman and T-34 armour with little resistance. The declining armour effectiveness against these weapons prompted the tank crews to attempt an expedient method to improve the armour quality of their tanks. Troops went and attached logs, sandbags, tracks, concrete, and metal sheets onto their tanks to improve its effective thickness. The usefulness against anti-tank rounds from tank shells and HEAT rounds are controversial. Some tankers swear by it and claim they were saved by their improvised armour while analysts say that the add-on armour has no effect at all in interfering with incoming rounds. What was universally accepted was that these add-on armour helped improve the tank crew morale when fighting the enemy, renewed in confidence with their "improved" tank armour. However, add-on armour increases the weight of the tank due to the add-on of materials and thus can cause a strain on the power train and suspension of tanks, prompting some commanders like General George S. Patton to ban the usage of improvised armour to improve tank reliability. The most useful add-on armour was the welding of additional sheets of metal onto the tank, as seen in the well-received reception of the up-armoured M4 Sherman in the form of the [[M4A3E2|"Jumbos"]].

From Update 1.57, a modification known as the ''Add-on Armour'' was added onto certain vehicles. The modification adds spare track links along the hull and turret of the vehicle. The track links, when added, give an average of 17 - 20 mm of additional armour where they are attached.

= Media =


;Videos
{{Youtube-gallery|mJO2sLI_jwU|'''The Shooting Range #19''' - ''Tactics & Strategy'' section at 04:53 discusses how to angle your armour.|Go91srkTM80|'''Explosive Reactive Armor and Composite Armor''' - ''War Thunder Official Channel''|o24D6yl_VLg|'''The Shooting Range #115''' - ''Tactics & Strategy'' section at 10:14 discusses how to maximize your armour while on the defensive.|B2woWvJK4ew|'''Top 7 most armoured vehicles''' - ''War Thunder Official Channel''|c7NXyv_vD1A|'''How to use the protection analysis tool in War Thunder''' - ''Skreezilla''}}

= External links =


* [[wt:en/news/5569-development-protection-analysis-en|[Development] Protection Analysis]]

==References==
<references />

==Sources==

* Bismarck. "⚜ | Yes, World War 2 Planes Had Armour BUT..." YouTube. YouTube, 17 Aug. 2017. Web. 26 Sept. 2017. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-v5aMayFrRE Video].
* Carruthers, Bob. Tiger I: Official Wartime Crew Manual (the Tigerfibel). Warwickshire: Coda, 2011. Print.
* M.m. "Explosive Reactive Armor - Some History, Some Types." Below The Turret Ring. Blogger, 28 Apr. 2016. Web. 25 Sept. 2017. [https://below-the-turret-ring.blogspot.com/2016/04/explosive-reactive-armor-some-history.html Website].
* M.m. "The Truth about Spaced Armor on Modern Tanks and AFVs." Below The Turret Ring. Blogger, 31 Dec. 2015. Web. 26 Sept. 2017. [https://below-the-turret-ring.blogspot.com/2015/12/the-truth-about-spaced-armor-on-modern.html Website].

[[Category:Game mechanics]]

Armour

2022-02-17T20:47:08Z

U16328860: /* Types of armour in-game */

=Armour=
'''Armour''' is the basic defense an entity has against threats. Armour can be found in both air and ground vehicles in War Thunder and plays a very important role to the vehicle's survivability.

== Types of armour in-game ==

* KE: Kinetic Energy
* CE: Chemical Energy

Armour modifier applies to both types of penetrators, unless specified.

<nowiki>*</nowiki>with add-on armour modification

{| class="wikitable"
! Material or Component !! Armour Modifier !! Examples
|-
! colspan="3" | Ground vehicles
|-
| '''Rolled homogeneous armour''' (RHA) || x1.00 ||
|-
| '''Modern RHA''' || x1.01 || {{Specs-Link|cn_ztz_96}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|germ_leopard_1a5}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_chieftain_mk_3}}
|-
| '''Cast homogeneous armour''' (CHA) || x0.94 ||
|-
| '''Modern CHA''' || x0.98 || {{Specs-Link|germ_kpz_70}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_merkava_mk_3d}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_64_b_1984}}
|-
| '''High hardness rolled armour''' (HHRA) || x1.25 || {{Specs-Link|germ_pzkpfw_III_ausf_L}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|it_centauro_mgs_120}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|sw_ikv_91}}
|-
| '''Modern HHRA''' || x1.10 || {{Specs-Link|sw_strv_122}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_m1128_mgs}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_bmp_2}}
|-
| '''Tracks''' || x0.75 ||
|-
| '''Structural steel''' || x0.45 ||
|-
| '''Structural steel of chassis''' || x0.60 ||
|-
| '''Wheel''' || x0.30 ||
|-
| '''Rubber-fabric screens''' || x0.20 || {{Specs-Link|it_of_40_mk_1}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_m901_itv}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_62m1}}
|-
| '''Composite screen''' || x0.16 KE x2.00 CE || {{Specs-Link|fr_leclerc_s2}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|jp_type_16}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_vickers_mk7}}
|-
| '''Air''' (Spaced armour) || x0.05 KE x0.30 CE || {{Specs-Link|fr_amx_32}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|germ_kpz_70}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_merkava_mk_1}}
|-
| '''Aluminium''' || x0.20 || {{Specs-Link|jp_st_a1}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_chieftain_mk_10}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_bmp_2m}}
|-
| '''Aluminium alloy 5083''' || x0.32 || {{Specs-Link|cn_cm_25}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|it_otobreda_sidam_25}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_m3_bradley}}
|-
| '''Aluminium alloy AA7017''' || x0.50 || {{Specs-Link|uk_fv102_striker}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_stormer_hvm}}
|-
| '''Aluminium alloy 7020''' || x0.50 || {{Specs-Link|it_centauro_mgs_120}}
|-
| '''Aluminium alloy 7039''' || x0.50 || {{Specs-Link|it_oto_r3_t20_fa}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|jp_type_75}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_t114}}
|-
| '''Alloy ABT-101''' || x0.38 || {{Specs-Link|ussr_bmp_2}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_object_685}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_object_906}}
|-
| '''Alloy ABT-102''' || x0.42 || {{Specs-Link|ussr_bmp_3}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_9p157}}
|-
| '''Aluminium alloy AMS 4050A''' || x0.50 || {{Specs-Link|fr_amx_10rc}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|jp_type_87}}
|-
| '''Alloy BT-6''' || x0.70 || {{Specs-Link|ussr_t_80b}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_80u}}
|-
| '''{{Annotation|ERA|Explosive Reactive Armour}}''' || x0.10 KE x5.00 CE || {{Specs-Link|cn_cm11}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_m60a1_rise_passive_era}}
|-
|'''"BRENUS" ERA'''
|x0.10 KE x5.00 CE
5mm KE

400mm CE
|{{Specs-Link|fr_amx_30_b2_brenus}}
|-
| '''ERA''' || x0.50 KE x3.50 CE || {{Specs-Link|cn_type_59d}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|cn_type_69_2g}}
|-
| '''"Blazer" ERA''' || x0.10 KE x2.80 CE
5mm KE

260mm CE
| {{Specs-Link|sw_strv_104}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_centurion_shot_kal_d}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_magach_3}}*
|-
| '''"CONTACT-1" ERA''' || x0.10 KE x2.50 CE
5mm KE

400mm CE
| {{Specs-Link|ussr_t_64_b_1984}}*{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_72av_turms}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_72b}}
|-
| '''"CONTACT-5" INTEGRATED ERA''' || 120 mm KE 400 - 450 mm CE || {{Specs-Link|ussr_t_72b3_2011}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_80u}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_90a}}
|-
| '''FY-4 ERA''' || x0.80 KE x2.00 CE
140mm KE 450mm CE
| {{Specs-Link|cn_ztz_96a}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|cn_ztz_99}}
|-
| '''Integrated ERA''' || 10 mm KE 250 mm CE || {{Specs-Link|fr_leclerc_s1}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|fr_leclerc_s2}}
|-
| '''"ROMOR-A" ERA''' || x0.30 KE x3.50 CE
30mm KE

300mm CE
| {{Specs-Link|it_b1_centauro_romor}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_centurion_mk_5_avre_era}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_challenger_II}}
|-
| '''"Relict" ERA''' || 250mm KE

600mm CE
| {{Specs-Link|ussr_t_72b3_2011}}*
|-
| '''External composite armour with {{Annotation|NERA|Non-Energetic Reactive Armour}} elements''' || x0.10 KE x1.70 CE || {{Specs-Link|germ_leopard_2a6}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|jp_type_90b}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_vickers_mk7}}
|-
| '''Wood''' || x0.05 || {{Specs-Link|cn_ztz_99}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_is_3}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_object_120}}
|-
| '''{{Annotation|MEXAS|Modular Expandable Armour System}} 2''' || x0.16 || {{Specs-Link|us_m1128_mgs}}
|-
| '''MEXAS 2C''' || x0.16 || {{Specs-Link|us_m1128_mgs}}
|-
! colspan="3" | Naval vessels
|-
| '''Rolled homogeneous armour''' || x1.00 ||
|-
| '''Rolled cemented armour''' || x1.10 || Heavy cruisers, battleships
|-
| '''Structural steel''' || x0.45 ||
|-
| '''Coal bunker''' || x0.01 ||
|-
| '''Concrete''' || x0.35 || {{Specs-Link|germ_artilleriefahrprahm_typ_d1}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|germ_artilleriefahrprahm_typ_d3}}
|-
| '''Wood''' || x0.05 KE x0.00 CE ||
|-
| '''Antifragmentation armour''' || x0.90 ||
|-
| '''Hardened armour''' || x0.80 ||
|-
|}

=Aircraft=
Armour on aircraft are often minimum and focused on vital sections rather than on the overall airframe. Armour are often not taken into consideration in the design as armour constitutes more material and thus a heavier aircraft which would inhibit its performance due to weight penalty.<ref name="BismarckArmour">Bismarck 2017</ref>

Armour for pilots are thus usually never beyond the usage of bullet-resistant glass on the cockpit that could provide protection against rifle calibre ammunition. Though some armour plating are present in the back on some planes like the P-47, these were only thick enough for small calibers and serve more to slow down the incoming round so that it has little energy once it punches through. Other important areas that armour could be present on aircraft is around the engine. Important design features that dictate whether an aircraft design is more durable than others was in the airframe build quality, the air frame's ability to take damage, and adequate protections around vital components such as the engine, pilot, and fuel tanks.<ref name="BismarckArmour" />

=Tank=
==History==
===Interwar period===
Armour plays a very important role on tanks as they were conceived by it. The armour on the tanks at its inception made them invulnerable to the basic small arms fire, a trait that broke the stalemate of the trench warfare in World War I. During the interwar period, tank armour was prioritized on protection against firearms and artillery shrapnel. However, experience in the Spanish Civil War showed that this concept leaves the tank vulnerable to heavier guns. This is demonstrated when Italian tankettes and German Panzer I's, armed with only machine guns and simple 13 mm armour, went up against the Soviet [[T-26|T-26]], which had a 45 mm gun on its turret. The tank arms race increased armament and armour, evident on the German [[Pz.IV C|Panzer IV]] when armour increased from the initial 14.5 mm in 1936 to 30 mm in 1938 before World War II broke out.

===Early World War II===
During World War II, tank armour played a huge part in tank design. More armour means more weight on the tank and thus must be sparingly used to the tank mobility in acceptable margins. Tank armour in this period is separated by the three tank categories, light, medium, and heavy tanks. It was in this period that tank armour went through many technological advances. One of the perfect example is the French SOMUA S35 and the Soviet [[T-34 (1940)|T-34]]. The two vehicles made extensive usage of the concept of "sloped armour", which increased the armour effective thickness due to the difference in the line-of-sight thickness (See [[Armour#Sloped_armour|"Concepts"]] section). The Germans, which mainly used vertical-faced armour on their [[Pz.III F|Panzers]], struggled to take these vehicles out due to their strong armour against their inadequate guns. While the Battle of France did not incite Germany to quickly upgrade their armour and armament due to the small quantities of these kinds of tanks, the encounter with the T-34's in Operation Barbarossa came as a great shock due to the large number of T-34's available in Soviet inventory. The Germans, in a stage informally known as a "tank panic", rushed development to complete weapons able to destroy the T-34 and uparmour their tanks to withstand the Soviet 76 mm cannons. The Soviet T-34 and American [[M4A1|M4 Shermans]] caused great headaches in the German armoured forces due to their strong, sloped front armour in 1942, but that all changed in 1943 and beyond.

===Late World War II===
The year 1943 changed everything in the balance of tank power from the Allies with their T-34 and Shermans to the Germans. Germany introduced their newest tanks in large quantities, the [[Panther D|Panther]] and the [[Tiger H1|Tiger I]] tanks. These vehicles introduced powerful cannons and a new redefinition of the term "armour" for tanks. The Tiger I came with an astounding 100 mm armour thickness in front. Though vertical-faced and thus did not have the benefit of "sloped armour", the guns on Shermans and T-34 at the time could not penetrate the front plate at standard combat ranges, forcing the Allied medium tanks to close in for a kill. The Panther had 80 mm of frontal armour, but that armour was sloped at a 55° from vertical and caused the effective armour to instead be ''140 mm'' thick. Thus, the Panther was basically invulnerable in the hull front from any anti-tank weapon in existence in Allied inventory at that time. The Germans also started to extensively used an armour called ''Schürzen'', which is a form of "spaced armour" that provided additional protection to their tank's weak side armour. The two new tanks, plus a new one in the form of the [[Tiger II (H)|Tiger II]] with 150 mm of frontal armour sloped for effective thickness of ~230 mm, caused turmoil in the Allied armoured forces as they find a way to easily destroy the new tanks. They were never able to compete against the German's in terms of armour thickness until after World War II.

===Cold War===
By the end of World War II, sloping armour had become a ubiquitous concept and every tank designed has it from the American [[M60|M60]], British [[Centurion Mk 3|Centurion]], and Soviet [[T-54 (1951)|T-54/55]] tanks. With increasing tank armour equaling to increased weight, countries try to keep their tank weight in manageable ranges while making the armour up to date with current threats. By early 1960s, anti-tank technology such as the [[Anti-tank_guided_missiles|anti-tank guided missiles (ATGM)]] has grown to the point where it requires a large amount of steel to make the armour thick enough to resist the threat, but the amount was prohibitive and made the tank too heavy. Some nations such as Germany tried to solve this by relying on mobility at the expense of armour such as the [[Leopard I]], but it became clear a new type of armour is needed. It came in the form of "composite armour", which used steel combined with a variety of material such as plastic and ceramic that can resist penetration more effectively at a lighter weight. Composite armour soon became the new standard of tank armour throughout the world. Another armour developed in the Cold War was the "explosive reactive armour", which used an explosive to deflect a penetration property. Explosive reactive armour, or ERA, was highly effective against the ubiquitous HEATFS rounds used as anti-tank weapons. These armour technology saved the tanks from becoming obsolete during the Cold War against the new anti-tank missile threat that allows a small infantry crew to destroy a tank as far as 2000 meters away. Composite armour, ERA, and the increasing lethality of tank armament helped revolutionize the tank concept from light, medium, and heavy tanks into the new, universal "main battle tank".

==Concepts==
===Sloped armour===
[[File:T-54 Training Parola Tank Museum.jpg|x200px|thumb|right|A cut-out of a [[T-54 (1951)|T-54]] to show the effectiveness of sloping armour.]]

Sloped armour is effectively angling the armour of a tank on an angle rather than placed for a flat surface.

Slope armour presents the advantage of having a much thicker effective armour on a tanks for a lighter weight due to using a thinner armour plate. The sloped nature also increases the chance of the impacting shell to simply ricochet or deflect off, doing no effect to the armour. The disadvantage of the sloped armour was its more complicated manufacturing process and a reduction in internal space.

====Calculating sloped armour effective thickness====
A simple formula to calculate a tank's effective thickness (Line Of Sight, or LOS) due to sloping armour is with this: 

[LOS Effective Thickness vs Projectile Type] = ([Armour Thickness] × [Armor Modifier vs Projectile Type]) / cos ([Armour Angle]) 
'''Note:''' This formula does '''not''' factor in the possible horizontal '''or''' vertical angle of the target's armor plate relative to the shot's origin '''or''' deviations of the shell's angle of inclination due to bullet drop at longer ranges. We assume the target is placed on an even field and shot at from straight ahead at distance where the shell will hit the armor with 0° of bullet drop. 

For example: A '''Panther''' has an '''80 mm''' (armor thickness) front armour plate, sloped at an angle of '''55°''' (armor angle) and made out of '''RHA''' (armor modifier), being shot at by an AP projectile (armor modifier vs projectile = 1.0 vs KE). Thus, we input the values: 

(80 mm × 1.0) / cos (55°) = 80 mm / cos (55°) = 80 mm / 0.574 = 139.4 mm ≈ 140 mm (vs Kinetic AP) 

Thus, we get the value of how thick the Panther's sloped frontal armour is in a line-of-sight angle.

===Armour angling===
Outside of sloped armour, another way to improve the effective armour thickness on tanks is simply angling the armour towards the opponent. This means instead of sloping the armour in a vertical plane, instead angle sideways.

[[File:TigerIHTank Armour Angling.png|x200px|thumb|left|An example of armour angling with the [[Tiger_H1|Tiger I]], angled towards the opponent in its most optimum degree for best all-around armour.]]

This gives another form of thickness as not only does the round have to pass through a plane of armour, but two plane of the same armour, which would boost the effective thickness. This is best seen in vertical-faced armoured tanks like the [[Tiger H1|Tiger I tank]]. Though their vertical faced 100 mm front plate would only give 100 mm effectiveness, it was recommended in the ''Tigerfibel'' crew manual that a 45 degree diamond angle position would provide a front armour of nearly 130 mm of effective thickness.<ref name="Tigerfibel">Carruthers 2011</ref> This gives tank a chance to improve their effective front armour thickness especially when against enemies that would penetrate their front with little difficulty. However, beware of angling to much towards the enemy that it exposes the weaker side armour to enemy fire, which may have a chance of penetrating.

Some tanks attempt to implement this concept into the designs itself. One example is the Soviet [[IS-3]] with its "pike nose" front armour. Due to the sloping effect not only going back, but sweeping to the sides, this improves the IS-3 front armour effectiveness and ricochet chances.

===Spaced armour===
Spaced armour helps against anti-tank rounds in a form of disruption and denial. Spaced armour was first widely used by the Germans in the form of ''Schürzen'', attaching metal sheets away from the base armour of their Panzers. These metal sheets were intended to disrupt the kinetic energy of the Soviet 14.5 mm anti-tank rifles, which could penetrate the weaker side armour of their tanks. It does this by forcing much of the energy on the rifle round to be expelled on the ''Schürzen'' sheets, passing through and causing negligible damage on the base side armour. The ''Schürzen'' may also disrupt tank rounds as well, but the much greater kinetic energy of tank shells means that its disruption will be ineffective to all but the most sloped shots. Though there is a belief that the ''schürzen'' plates were meant to stop HEAT rounds from shoulder-launched weapons, the plates were not intentionally designed for this task.

Spaced armour was used in various formats in the Cold War tank designs. It was used as a form of protection against HEAT rounds from tank guns and rocket launchers, with the air separating the tank's base armour and the spaced armour acting to dissipate the HEAT's power before it reaches the hull. Spaced armour also works against kinetic penetrators by shattering the round on impact with the first layer. Though early kinetic rounds using brittle materials like tungsten were affected by this armour, better material like depleted uranium made the rounds more durable and proof against this type of armour.<ref name="MM.Spaced">M.m. 2015</ref>

===Explosive reactive armour (ERA)===
Explosive reactive armour (ERA) works by using an explosive force to disrupt an incoming armour-piercing ammunition. The construction of ERA usually takes the form of individual tiles made up of "reactive elements", which are sandwiched explosives in between sheets of metal. These tiles would be used around vulnerable points of a tank to provide protection at these locations.

Though ERA provides good protection against HEAT ammunition, high-velocity kinetic penetrators like APDS and APFSDS penetrates too quickly for the explosive force to be effective against them. This was a problem in early ERA designs, but more modern ERA types have been able to resist these ammunition. Even so, ERA still has drawbacks in that each explosive tile were one-time-use against the incoming round, leaving the exposed tank metal underneath once expended. ERA also has become vulnerable to tandem-charge ammunition, which use a two-stage detonation sequence with the first charge destroying the ERA plate and the second penetrating the armour underneath the plate. Finally, the ERA plates rarely cover the entire tank sections due to contouring and moving parts, so the armour is still exposed in various degrees to be hit and penetrated.

====History====
The first efforts in discovering this form of protection reach back to 1949 in the Soviet Union at the Nii Stali facility, although nothing much came out of it after failed tests and it was discontinued on the belief that the current armour on their main battle tanks was good enough. The traction did not continue again until German researcher Dr.Manfred Held, a shaped charge (HEAT) specialist, traveled to Israel on the conclusion of their 1967 Six-Day War. Examining several of the destroyed tanks from the conflict, he discovered that the force from exploding ammunition slightly reduced the effect of the shaped charge used. He then developed the first working ERA plate in 1970. Though this was the first effective iteration of the ERA, Held's design required the explosive mesh to be fitted inside empty cavities, integrated into the tank armour. Held improved on the design in the same year which consisted of a tiles formed with the reactive elements. This model would become the fundamental design of modern ERA.<ref name="MM.Era">M.m. 2016</ref>

The majority of the NATO countries did not buy into the explosive reactive armour that Held presented. He did not find anyone interested until he returned back to Israel in 1974, after the 1973 Yom-Kippur War. There, the Israeli government and the Israeli Defense Force were persuaded, perhaps from their combat experiences, to adopt the ERA as a protection for their tanks. The Israelis then produced the ''Blazer ERA'' plates which followed Held's design with reactive elements. The Blazer ERA will first see usage in the 1982 Lebanon War, the tiles attached onto M60 tanks to protect the steel hull against anti-tank weaponry.<ref name="MM.Era" />

The Soviet Union was the next country to use ERA, under the name ''Kontakt ERA''. It was first introduced in 1984 and featured a tile design similar to Blazers, though using one or two reactive elements stacked together for better effectiveness. Like the Blazer, these plates were highly effective against HEAT rounds, but were generally ineffective against kinetic penetrators. Following the Soviets, the reactive armour was soon adopted by many other countries in the 1980s, from mainly Eastern bloc countries such as Czechoslovakia, Ukraine, and Poland. Today the ERA plates are still viable against modern anti-tank weaponry, especially when complemented with other tank defensive measures.<ref name="MM.Era" />

===Composite armour===
''To be filled''

===[[Add-on Armor|Add-on armor]]===
{{main|Add-on Armor}}

Add-on armour is a form of improvisation of the tank armour usually done by the crew or a maintenance unit in the front lines. Due to the rushed nature of tank technology in World War II, armour once considered adequate on tanks can quickly become obsolete with the introduction of a new gun piece in the field or a new equipment, such as the [[KwK 36 (88 mm)]] on the [[Tiger H1|Tiger I]] and the ''Panzerfaust'' anti-tank launcher, both could cut through Sherman and T-34 armour with little resistance. The declining armour effectiveness against these weapons prompted the tank crews to attempt an expedient method to improve the armour quality of their tanks. Troops went and attached logs, sandbags, tracks, concrete, and metal sheets onto their tanks to improve its effective thickness. The usefulness against anti-tank rounds from tank shells and HEAT rounds are controversial. Some tankers swear by it and claim they were saved by their improvised armour while analysts say that the add-on armour has no effect at all in interfering with incoming rounds. What was universally accepted was that these add-on armour helped improve the tank crew morale when fighting the enemy, renewed in confidence with their "improved" tank armour. However, add-on armour increases the weight of the tank due to the add-on of materials and thus can cause a strain on the power train and suspension of tanks, prompting some commanders like General George S. Patton to ban the usage of improvised armour to improve tank reliability. The most useful add-on armour was the welding of additional sheets of metal onto the tank, as seen in the well-received reception of the up-armoured M4 Sherman in the form of the [[M4A3E2|"Jumbos"]].

From Update 1.57, a modification known as the ''Add-on Armour'' was added onto certain vehicles. The modification adds spare track links along the hull and turret of the vehicle. The track links, when added, give an average of 17 - 20 mm of additional armour where they are attached.

= Media =


;Videos
{{Youtube-gallery|mJO2sLI_jwU|'''The Shooting Range #19''' - ''Tactics & Strategy'' section at 04:53 discusses how to angle your armour.|Go91srkTM80|'''Explosive Reactive Armor and Composite Armor''' - ''War Thunder Official Channel''|o24D6yl_VLg|'''The Shooting Range #115''' - ''Tactics & Strategy'' section at 10:14 discusses how to maximize your armour while on the defensive.|B2woWvJK4ew|'''Top 7 most armoured vehicles''' - ''War Thunder Official Channel''|c7NXyv_vD1A|'''How to use the protection analysis tool in War Thunder''' - ''Skreezilla''}}

= External links =


* [[wt:en/news/5569-development-protection-analysis-en|[Development] Protection Analysis]]

==References==
<references />

==Sources==

* Bismarck. "⚜ | Yes, World War 2 Planes Had Armour BUT..." YouTube. YouTube, 17 Aug. 2017. Web. 26 Sept. 2017. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-v5aMayFrRE Video].
* Carruthers, Bob. Tiger I: Official Wartime Crew Manual (the Tigerfibel). Warwickshire: Coda, 2011. Print.
* M.m. "Explosive Reactive Armor - Some History, Some Types." Below The Turret Ring. Blogger, 28 Apr. 2016. Web. 25 Sept. 2017. [https://below-the-turret-ring.blogspot.com/2016/04/explosive-reactive-armor-some-history.html Website].
* M.m. "The Truth about Spaced Armor on Modern Tanks and AFVs." Below The Turret Ring. Blogger, 31 Dec. 2015. Web. 26 Sept. 2017. [https://below-the-turret-ring.blogspot.com/2015/12/the-truth-about-spaced-armor-on-modern.html Website].

[[Category:Game mechanics]]

Armour

2022-02-17T20:45:48Z

U16328860: /* Types of armour in-game */

=Armour=
'''Armour''' is the basic defense an entity has against threats. Armour can be found in both air and ground vehicles in War Thunder and plays a very important role to the vehicle's survivability.

== Types of armour in-game ==

* KE: Kinetic Energy
* CE: Chemical Energy

Armour modifier applies to both types of penetrators, unless specified.

<nowiki>*</nowiki>with add-on armour modification

{| class="wikitable"
! Material or Component !! Armour Modifier !! Examples
|-
! colspan="3" | Ground vehicles
|-
| '''Rolled homogeneous armour''' (RHA) || x1.00 ||
|-
| '''Modern RHA''' || x1.01 || {{Specs-Link|cn_ztz_96}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|germ_leopard_1a5}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_chieftain_mk_3}}
|-
| '''Cast homogeneous armour''' (CHA) || x0.94 ||
|-
| '''Modern CHA''' || x0.98 || {{Specs-Link|germ_kpz_70}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_merkava_mk_3d}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_64_b_1984}}
|-
| '''High hardness rolled armour''' (HHRA) || x1.25 || {{Specs-Link|germ_pzkpfw_III_ausf_L}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|it_centauro_mgs_120}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|sw_ikv_91}}
|-
| '''Modern HHRA''' || x1.10 || {{Specs-Link|sw_strv_122}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_m1128_mgs}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_bmp_2}}
|-
| '''Tracks''' || x0.75 ||
|-
| '''Structural steel''' || x0.45 ||
|-
| '''Structural steel of chassis''' || x0.60 ||
|-
| '''Wheel''' || x0.30 ||
|-
| '''Rubber-fabric screens''' || x0.20 || {{Specs-Link|it_of_40_mk_1}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_m901_itv}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_62m1}}
|-
| '''Composite screen''' || x0.16 KE x2.00 CE || {{Specs-Link|fr_leclerc_s2}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|jp_type_16}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_vickers_mk7}}
|-
| '''Air''' (Spaced armour) || x0.05 KE x0.30 CE || {{Specs-Link|fr_amx_32}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|germ_kpz_70}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_merkava_mk_1}}
|-
| '''Aluminium''' || x0.20 || {{Specs-Link|jp_st_a1}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_chieftain_mk_10}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_bmp_2m}}
|-
| '''Aluminium alloy 5083''' || x0.32 || {{Specs-Link|cn_cm_25}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|it_otobreda_sidam_25}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_m3_bradley}}
|-
| '''Aluminium alloy AA7017''' || x0.50 || {{Specs-Link|uk_fv102_striker}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_stormer_hvm}}
|-
| '''Aluminium alloy 7020''' || x0.50 || {{Specs-Link|it_centauro_mgs_120}}
|-
| '''Aluminium alloy 7039''' || x0.50 || {{Specs-Link|it_oto_r3_t20_fa}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|jp_type_75}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_t114}}
|-
| '''Alloy ABT-101''' || x0.38 || {{Specs-Link|ussr_bmp_2}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_object_685}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_object_906}}
|-
| '''Alloy ABT-102''' || x0.42 || {{Specs-Link|ussr_bmp_3}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_9p157}}
|-
| '''Aluminium alloy AMS 4050A''' || x0.50 || {{Specs-Link|fr_amx_10rc}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|jp_type_87}}
|-
| '''Alloy BT-6''' || x0.70 || {{Specs-Link|ussr_t_80b}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_80u}}
|-
| '''{{Annotation|ERA|Explosive Reactive Armour}}''' || x0.10 KE x5.00 CE || {{Specs-Link|cn_cm11}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_m60a1_rise_passive_era}}
|-
|'''"BRENUS" ERA'''
|x0.10 KE x5.00 CE
5mm KE

400mm CE
|{{Specs-Link|fr_amx_30_b2_brenus}}
|-
| '''ERA''' || x0.50 KE x3.50 CE || {{Specs-Link|cn_type_59d}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|cn_type_69_2g}}
|-
| '''"Blazer" ERA''' || x0.10 KE x2.80 CE
5mm KE

260mm CE
| {{Specs-Link|sw_strv_104}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_centurion_shot_kal_d}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_magach_3}}*
|-
| '''"CONTACT-1" ERA''' || x0.10 KE x2.50 CE
5mm KE

400mm CE
| {{Specs-Link|ussr_t_64_b_1984}}*{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_72av_turms}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_72b}}
|-
| '''"CONTACT-5" INTEGRATED ERA''' || 120 mm KE 400 - 450 mm CE || {{Specs-Link|ussr_t_72b3_2011}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_80u}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_90a}}
|-
| '''FY-4 ERA''' || x0.80 KE x2.00 CE || {{Specs-Link|cn_ztz_96a}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|cn_ztz_99}}
|-
| '''Integrated ERA''' || 10 mm KE 250 mm CE || {{Specs-Link|fr_leclerc_s1}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|fr_leclerc_s2}}
|-
| '''"ROMOR-A" ERA''' || x0.30 KE x3.50 CE
30mm KE

300mm CE
| {{Specs-Link|it_b1_centauro_romor}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_centurion_mk_5_avre_era}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_challenger_II}}
|-
| '''"Relict" ERA''' || 250mm KE

600mm CE
| {{Specs-Link|ussr_t_72b3_2011}}*
|-
| '''External composite armour with {{Annotation|NERA|Non-Energetic Reactive Armour}} elements''' || x0.10 KE x1.70 CE || {{Specs-Link|germ_leopard_2a6}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|jp_type_90b}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_vickers_mk7}}
|-
| '''Wood''' || x0.05 || {{Specs-Link|cn_ztz_99}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_is_3}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_object_120}}
|-
| '''{{Annotation|MEXAS|Modular Expandable Armour System}} 2''' || x0.16 || {{Specs-Link|us_m1128_mgs}}
|-
| '''MEXAS 2C''' || x0.16 || {{Specs-Link|us_m1128_mgs}}
|-
! colspan="3" | Naval vessels
|-
| '''Rolled homogeneous armour''' || x1.00 ||
|-
| '''Rolled cemented armour''' || x1.10 || Heavy cruisers, battleships
|-
| '''Structural steel''' || x0.45 ||
|-
| '''Coal bunker''' || x0.01 ||
|-
| '''Concrete''' || x0.35 || {{Specs-Link|germ_artilleriefahrprahm_typ_d1}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|germ_artilleriefahrprahm_typ_d3}}
|-
| '''Wood''' || x0.05 KE x0.00 CE ||
|-
| '''Antifragmentation armour''' || x0.90 ||
|-
| '''Hardened armour''' || x0.80 ||
|-
|}

=Aircraft=
Armour on aircraft are often minimum and focused on vital sections rather than on the overall airframe. Armour are often not taken into consideration in the design as armour constitutes more material and thus a heavier aircraft which would inhibit its performance due to weight penalty.<ref name="BismarckArmour">Bismarck 2017</ref>

Armour for pilots are thus usually never beyond the usage of bullet-resistant glass on the cockpit that could provide protection against rifle calibre ammunition. Though some armour plating are present in the back on some planes like the P-47, these were only thick enough for small calibers and serve more to slow down the incoming round so that it has little energy once it punches through. Other important areas that armour could be present on aircraft is around the engine. Important design features that dictate whether an aircraft design is more durable than others was in the airframe build quality, the air frame's ability to take damage, and adequate protections around vital components such as the engine, pilot, and fuel tanks.<ref name="BismarckArmour" />

=Tank=
==History==
===Interwar period===
Armour plays a very important role on tanks as they were conceived by it. The armour on the tanks at its inception made them invulnerable to the basic small arms fire, a trait that broke the stalemate of the trench warfare in World War I. During the interwar period, tank armour was prioritized on protection against firearms and artillery shrapnel. However, experience in the Spanish Civil War showed that this concept leaves the tank vulnerable to heavier guns. This is demonstrated when Italian tankettes and German Panzer I's, armed with only machine guns and simple 13 mm armour, went up against the Soviet [[T-26|T-26]], which had a 45 mm gun on its turret. The tank arms race increased armament and armour, evident on the German [[Pz.IV C|Panzer IV]] when armour increased from the initial 14.5 mm in 1936 to 30 mm in 1938 before World War II broke out.

===Early World War II===
During World War II, tank armour played a huge part in tank design. More armour means more weight on the tank and thus must be sparingly used to the tank mobility in acceptable margins. Tank armour in this period is separated by the three tank categories, light, medium, and heavy tanks. It was in this period that tank armour went through many technological advances. One of the perfect example is the French SOMUA S35 and the Soviet [[T-34 (1940)|T-34]]. The two vehicles made extensive usage of the concept of "sloped armour", which increased the armour effective thickness due to the difference in the line-of-sight thickness (See [[Armour#Sloped_armour|"Concepts"]] section). The Germans, which mainly used vertical-faced armour on their [[Pz.III F|Panzers]], struggled to take these vehicles out due to their strong armour against their inadequate guns. While the Battle of France did not incite Germany to quickly upgrade their armour and armament due to the small quantities of these kinds of tanks, the encounter with the T-34's in Operation Barbarossa came as a great shock due to the large number of T-34's available in Soviet inventory. The Germans, in a stage informally known as a "tank panic", rushed development to complete weapons able to destroy the T-34 and uparmour their tanks to withstand the Soviet 76 mm cannons. The Soviet T-34 and American [[M4A1|M4 Shermans]] caused great headaches in the German armoured forces due to their strong, sloped front armour in 1942, but that all changed in 1943 and beyond.

===Late World War II===
The year 1943 changed everything in the balance of tank power from the Allies with their T-34 and Shermans to the Germans. Germany introduced their newest tanks in large quantities, the [[Panther D|Panther]] and the [[Tiger H1|Tiger I]] tanks. These vehicles introduced powerful cannons and a new redefinition of the term "armour" for tanks. The Tiger I came with an astounding 100 mm armour thickness in front. Though vertical-faced and thus did not have the benefit of "sloped armour", the guns on Shermans and T-34 at the time could not penetrate the front plate at standard combat ranges, forcing the Allied medium tanks to close in for a kill. The Panther had 80 mm of frontal armour, but that armour was sloped at a 55° from vertical and caused the effective armour to instead be ''140 mm'' thick. Thus, the Panther was basically invulnerable in the hull front from any anti-tank weapon in existence in Allied inventory at that time. The Germans also started to extensively used an armour called ''Schürzen'', which is a form of "spaced armour" that provided additional protection to their tank's weak side armour. The two new tanks, plus a new one in the form of the [[Tiger II (H)|Tiger II]] with 150 mm of frontal armour sloped for effective thickness of ~230 mm, caused turmoil in the Allied armoured forces as they find a way to easily destroy the new tanks. They were never able to compete against the German's in terms of armour thickness until after World War II.

===Cold War===
By the end of World War II, sloping armour had become a ubiquitous concept and every tank designed has it from the American [[M60|M60]], British [[Centurion Mk 3|Centurion]], and Soviet [[T-54 (1951)|T-54/55]] tanks. With increasing tank armour equaling to increased weight, countries try to keep their tank weight in manageable ranges while making the armour up to date with current threats. By early 1960s, anti-tank technology such as the [[Anti-tank_guided_missiles|anti-tank guided missiles (ATGM)]] has grown to the point where it requires a large amount of steel to make the armour thick enough to resist the threat, but the amount was prohibitive and made the tank too heavy. Some nations such as Germany tried to solve this by relying on mobility at the expense of armour such as the [[Leopard I]], but it became clear a new type of armour is needed. It came in the form of "composite armour", which used steel combined with a variety of material such as plastic and ceramic that can resist penetration more effectively at a lighter weight. Composite armour soon became the new standard of tank armour throughout the world. Another armour developed in the Cold War was the "explosive reactive armour", which used an explosive to deflect a penetration property. Explosive reactive armour, or ERA, was highly effective against the ubiquitous HEATFS rounds used as anti-tank weapons. These armour technology saved the tanks from becoming obsolete during the Cold War against the new anti-tank missile threat that allows a small infantry crew to destroy a tank as far as 2000 meters away. Composite armour, ERA, and the increasing lethality of tank armament helped revolutionize the tank concept from light, medium, and heavy tanks into the new, universal "main battle tank".

==Concepts==
===Sloped armour===
[[File:T-54 Training Parola Tank Museum.jpg|x200px|thumb|right|A cut-out of a [[T-54 (1951)|T-54]] to show the effectiveness of sloping armour.]]

Sloped armour is effectively angling the armour of a tank on an angle rather than placed for a flat surface.

Slope armour presents the advantage of having a much thicker effective armour on a tanks for a lighter weight due to using a thinner armour plate. The sloped nature also increases the chance of the impacting shell to simply ricochet or deflect off, doing no effect to the armour. The disadvantage of the sloped armour was its more complicated manufacturing process and a reduction in internal space.

====Calculating sloped armour effective thickness====
A simple formula to calculate a tank's effective thickness (Line Of Sight, or LOS) due to sloping armour is with this: 

[LOS Effective Thickness vs Projectile Type] = ([Armour Thickness] × [Armor Modifier vs Projectile Type]) / cos ([Armour Angle]) 
'''Note:''' This formula does '''not''' factor in the possible horizontal '''or''' vertical angle of the target's armor plate relative to the shot's origin '''or''' deviations of the shell's angle of inclination due to bullet drop at longer ranges. We assume the target is placed on an even field and shot at from straight ahead at distance where the shell will hit the armor with 0° of bullet drop. 

For example: A '''Panther''' has an '''80 mm''' (armor thickness) front armour plate, sloped at an angle of '''55°''' (armor angle) and made out of '''RHA''' (armor modifier), being shot at by an AP projectile (armor modifier vs projectile = 1.0 vs KE). Thus, we input the values: 

(80 mm × 1.0) / cos (55°) = 80 mm / cos (55°) = 80 mm / 0.574 = 139.4 mm ≈ 140 mm (vs Kinetic AP) 

Thus, we get the value of how thick the Panther's sloped frontal armour is in a line-of-sight angle.

===Armour angling===
Outside of sloped armour, another way to improve the effective armour thickness on tanks is simply angling the armour towards the opponent. This means instead of sloping the armour in a vertical plane, instead angle sideways.

[[File:TigerIHTank Armour Angling.png|x200px|thumb|left|An example of armour angling with the [[Tiger_H1|Tiger I]], angled towards the opponent in its most optimum degree for best all-around armour.]]

This gives another form of thickness as not only does the round have to pass through a plane of armour, but two plane of the same armour, which would boost the effective thickness. This is best seen in vertical-faced armoured tanks like the [[Tiger H1|Tiger I tank]]. Though their vertical faced 100 mm front plate would only give 100 mm effectiveness, it was recommended in the ''Tigerfibel'' crew manual that a 45 degree diamond angle position would provide a front armour of nearly 130 mm of effective thickness.<ref name="Tigerfibel">Carruthers 2011</ref> This gives tank a chance to improve their effective front armour thickness especially when against enemies that would penetrate their front with little difficulty. However, beware of angling to much towards the enemy that it exposes the weaker side armour to enemy fire, which may have a chance of penetrating.

Some tanks attempt to implement this concept into the designs itself. One example is the Soviet [[IS-3]] with its "pike nose" front armour. Due to the sloping effect not only going back, but sweeping to the sides, this improves the IS-3 front armour effectiveness and ricochet chances.

===Spaced armour===
Spaced armour helps against anti-tank rounds in a form of disruption and denial. Spaced armour was first widely used by the Germans in the form of ''Schürzen'', attaching metal sheets away from the base armour of their Panzers. These metal sheets were intended to disrupt the kinetic energy of the Soviet 14.5 mm anti-tank rifles, which could penetrate the weaker side armour of their tanks. It does this by forcing much of the energy on the rifle round to be expelled on the ''Schürzen'' sheets, passing through and causing negligible damage on the base side armour. The ''Schürzen'' may also disrupt tank rounds as well, but the much greater kinetic energy of tank shells means that its disruption will be ineffective to all but the most sloped shots. Though there is a belief that the ''schürzen'' plates were meant to stop HEAT rounds from shoulder-launched weapons, the plates were not intentionally designed for this task.

Spaced armour was used in various formats in the Cold War tank designs. It was used as a form of protection against HEAT rounds from tank guns and rocket launchers, with the air separating the tank's base armour and the spaced armour acting to dissipate the HEAT's power before it reaches the hull. Spaced armour also works against kinetic penetrators by shattering the round on impact with the first layer. Though early kinetic rounds using brittle materials like tungsten were affected by this armour, better material like depleted uranium made the rounds more durable and proof against this type of armour.<ref name="MM.Spaced">M.m. 2015</ref>

===Explosive reactive armour (ERA)===
Explosive reactive armour (ERA) works by using an explosive force to disrupt an incoming armour-piercing ammunition. The construction of ERA usually takes the form of individual tiles made up of "reactive elements", which are sandwiched explosives in between sheets of metal. These tiles would be used around vulnerable points of a tank to provide protection at these locations.

Though ERA provides good protection against HEAT ammunition, high-velocity kinetic penetrators like APDS and APFSDS penetrates too quickly for the explosive force to be effective against them. This was a problem in early ERA designs, but more modern ERA types have been able to resist these ammunition. Even so, ERA still has drawbacks in that each explosive tile were one-time-use against the incoming round, leaving the exposed tank metal underneath once expended. ERA also has become vulnerable to tandem-charge ammunition, which use a two-stage detonation sequence with the first charge destroying the ERA plate and the second penetrating the armour underneath the plate. Finally, the ERA plates rarely cover the entire tank sections due to contouring and moving parts, so the armour is still exposed in various degrees to be hit and penetrated.

====History====
The first efforts in discovering this form of protection reach back to 1949 in the Soviet Union at the Nii Stali facility, although nothing much came out of it after failed tests and it was discontinued on the belief that the current armour on their main battle tanks was good enough. The traction did not continue again until German researcher Dr.Manfred Held, a shaped charge (HEAT) specialist, traveled to Israel on the conclusion of their 1967 Six-Day War. Examining several of the destroyed tanks from the conflict, he discovered that the force from exploding ammunition slightly reduced the effect of the shaped charge used. He then developed the first working ERA plate in 1970. Though this was the first effective iteration of the ERA, Held's design required the explosive mesh to be fitted inside empty cavities, integrated into the tank armour. Held improved on the design in the same year which consisted of a tiles formed with the reactive elements. This model would become the fundamental design of modern ERA.<ref name="MM.Era">M.m. 2016</ref>

The majority of the NATO countries did not buy into the explosive reactive armour that Held presented. He did not find anyone interested until he returned back to Israel in 1974, after the 1973 Yom-Kippur War. There, the Israeli government and the Israeli Defense Force were persuaded, perhaps from their combat experiences, to adopt the ERA as a protection for their tanks. The Israelis then produced the ''Blazer ERA'' plates which followed Held's design with reactive elements. The Blazer ERA will first see usage in the 1982 Lebanon War, the tiles attached onto M60 tanks to protect the steel hull against anti-tank weaponry.<ref name="MM.Era" />

The Soviet Union was the next country to use ERA, under the name ''Kontakt ERA''. It was first introduced in 1984 and featured a tile design similar to Blazers, though using one or two reactive elements stacked together for better effectiveness. Like the Blazer, these plates were highly effective against HEAT rounds, but were generally ineffective against kinetic penetrators. Following the Soviets, the reactive armour was soon adopted by many other countries in the 1980s, from mainly Eastern bloc countries such as Czechoslovakia, Ukraine, and Poland. Today the ERA plates are still viable against modern anti-tank weaponry, especially when complemented with other tank defensive measures.<ref name="MM.Era" />

===Composite armour===
''To be filled''

===[[Add-on Armor|Add-on armor]]===
{{main|Add-on Armor}}

Add-on armour is a form of improvisation of the tank armour usually done by the crew or a maintenance unit in the front lines. Due to the rushed nature of tank technology in World War II, armour once considered adequate on tanks can quickly become obsolete with the introduction of a new gun piece in the field or a new equipment, such as the [[KwK 36 (88 mm)]] on the [[Tiger H1|Tiger I]] and the ''Panzerfaust'' anti-tank launcher, both could cut through Sherman and T-34 armour with little resistance. The declining armour effectiveness against these weapons prompted the tank crews to attempt an expedient method to improve the armour quality of their tanks. Troops went and attached logs, sandbags, tracks, concrete, and metal sheets onto their tanks to improve its effective thickness. The usefulness against anti-tank rounds from tank shells and HEAT rounds are controversial. Some tankers swear by it and claim they were saved by their improvised armour while analysts say that the add-on armour has no effect at all in interfering with incoming rounds. What was universally accepted was that these add-on armour helped improve the tank crew morale when fighting the enemy, renewed in confidence with their "improved" tank armour. However, add-on armour increases the weight of the tank due to the add-on of materials and thus can cause a strain on the power train and suspension of tanks, prompting some commanders like General George S. Patton to ban the usage of improvised armour to improve tank reliability. The most useful add-on armour was the welding of additional sheets of metal onto the tank, as seen in the well-received reception of the up-armoured M4 Sherman in the form of the [[M4A3E2|"Jumbos"]].

From Update 1.57, a modification known as the ''Add-on Armour'' was added onto certain vehicles. The modification adds spare track links along the hull and turret of the vehicle. The track links, when added, give an average of 17 - 20 mm of additional armour where they are attached.

= Media =


;Videos
{{Youtube-gallery|mJO2sLI_jwU|'''The Shooting Range #19''' - ''Tactics & Strategy'' section at 04:53 discusses how to angle your armour.|Go91srkTM80|'''Explosive Reactive Armor and Composite Armor''' - ''War Thunder Official Channel''|o24D6yl_VLg|'''The Shooting Range #115''' - ''Tactics & Strategy'' section at 10:14 discusses how to maximize your armour while on the defensive.|B2woWvJK4ew|'''Top 7 most armoured vehicles''' - ''War Thunder Official Channel''|c7NXyv_vD1A|'''How to use the protection analysis tool in War Thunder''' - ''Skreezilla''}}

= External links =


* [[wt:en/news/5569-development-protection-analysis-en|[Development] Protection Analysis]]

==References==
<references />

==Sources==

* Bismarck. "⚜ | Yes, World War 2 Planes Had Armour BUT..." YouTube. YouTube, 17 Aug. 2017. Web. 26 Sept. 2017. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-v5aMayFrRE Video].
* Carruthers, Bob. Tiger I: Official Wartime Crew Manual (the Tigerfibel). Warwickshire: Coda, 2011. Print.
* M.m. "Explosive Reactive Armor - Some History, Some Types." Below The Turret Ring. Blogger, 28 Apr. 2016. Web. 25 Sept. 2017. [https://below-the-turret-ring.blogspot.com/2016/04/explosive-reactive-armor-some-history.html Website].
* M.m. "The Truth about Spaced Armor on Modern Tanks and AFVs." Below The Turret Ring. Blogger, 31 Dec. 2015. Web. 26 Sept. 2017. [https://below-the-turret-ring.blogspot.com/2015/12/the-truth-about-spaced-armor-on-modern.html Website].

[[Category:Game mechanics]]

Armour

2022-02-17T20:45:00Z

U16328860: /* Types of armour in-game */

=Armour=
'''Armour''' is the basic defense an entity has against threats. Armour can be found in both air and ground vehicles in War Thunder and plays a very important role to the vehicle's survivability.

== Types of armour in-game ==

* KE: Kinetic Energy
* CE: Chemical Energy

Armour modifier applies to both types of penetrators, unless specified.

<nowiki>*</nowiki>with add-on armour modification

{| class="wikitable"
! Material or Component !! Armour Modifier !! Examples
|-
! colspan="3" | Ground vehicles
|-
| '''Rolled homogeneous armour''' (RHA) || x1.00 ||
|-
| '''Modern RHA''' || x1.01 || {{Specs-Link|cn_ztz_96}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|germ_leopard_1a5}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_chieftain_mk_3}}
|-
| '''Cast homogeneous armour''' (CHA) || x0.94 ||
|-
| '''Modern CHA''' || x0.98 || {{Specs-Link|germ_kpz_70}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_merkava_mk_3d}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_64_b_1984}}
|-
| '''High hardness rolled armour''' (HHRA) || x1.25 || {{Specs-Link|germ_pzkpfw_III_ausf_L}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|it_centauro_mgs_120}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|sw_ikv_91}}
|-
| '''Modern HHRA''' || x1.10 || {{Specs-Link|sw_strv_122}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_m1128_mgs}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_bmp_2}}
|-
| '''Tracks''' || x0.75 ||
|-
| '''Structural steel''' || x0.45 ||
|-
| '''Structural steel of chassis''' || x0.60 ||
|-
| '''Wheel''' || x0.30 ||
|-
| '''Rubber-fabric screens''' || x0.20 || {{Specs-Link|it_of_40_mk_1}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_m901_itv}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_62m1}}
|-
| '''Composite screen''' || x0.16 KE x2.00 CE || {{Specs-Link|fr_leclerc_s2}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|jp_type_16}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_vickers_mk7}}
|-
| '''Air''' (Spaced armour) || x0.05 KE x0.30 CE || {{Specs-Link|fr_amx_32}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|germ_kpz_70}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_merkava_mk_1}}
|-
| '''Aluminium''' || x0.20 || {{Specs-Link|jp_st_a1}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_chieftain_mk_10}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_bmp_2m}}
|-
| '''Aluminium alloy 5083''' || x0.32 || {{Specs-Link|cn_cm_25}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|it_otobreda_sidam_25}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_m3_bradley}}
|-
| '''Aluminium alloy AA7017''' || x0.50 || {{Specs-Link|uk_fv102_striker}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_stormer_hvm}}
|-
| '''Aluminium alloy 7020''' || x0.50 || {{Specs-Link|it_centauro_mgs_120}}
|-
| '''Aluminium alloy 7039''' || x0.50 || {{Specs-Link|it_oto_r3_t20_fa}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|jp_type_75}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_t114}}
|-
| '''Alloy ABT-101''' || x0.38 || {{Specs-Link|ussr_bmp_2}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_object_685}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_object_906}}
|-
| '''Alloy ABT-102''' || x0.42 || {{Specs-Link|ussr_bmp_3}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_9p157}}
|-
| '''Aluminium alloy AMS 4050A''' || x0.50 || {{Specs-Link|fr_amx_10rc}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|jp_type_87}}
|-
| '''Alloy BT-6''' || x0.70 || {{Specs-Link|ussr_t_80b}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_80u}}
|-
| '''{{Annotation|ERA|Explosive Reactive Armour}}''' || x0.10 KE x5.00 CE || {{Specs-Link|cn_cm11}}{{-}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_m60a1_rise_passive_era}}
|-
|'''"BRENUS" ERA'''
|x0.10 KE x5.00 CE
5mm KE

400mm CE
|{{Specs-Link|fr_amx_30_b2_brenus}}
|-
| '''ERA''' || x0.50 KE x3.50 CE || {{Specs-Link|cn_type_59d}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|cn_type_69_2g}}
|-
| '''"Blazer" ERA''' || x0.10 KE x2.80 CE
5mm KE

260mm CE
| {{Specs-Link|sw_strv_104}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_centurion_shot_kal_d}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_magach_3}}*
|-
| '''"CONTACT-1" ERA''' || x0.10 KE x2.50 CE
5mm KE

400mm CE
| {{Specs-Link|ussr_t_64_b_1984}}*{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_72av_turms}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_72b}}
|-
| '''"CONTACT-5" INTEGRATED ERA''' || 120 mm KE 400 - 450 mm CE || {{Specs-Link|ussr_t_72b3_2011}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_80u}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_90a}}
|-
| '''FY-4 ERA''' || x0.80 KE x2.00 CE || {{Specs-Link|cn_ztz_96a}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|cn_ztz_99}}
|-
| '''Integrated ERA''' || 10 mm KE 250 mm CE || {{Specs-Link|fr_leclerc_s1}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|fr_leclerc_s2}}
|-
| '''"ROMOR-A" ERA''' || x0.30 KE x3.50 CE
30mm KE

300mm CE
| {{Specs-Link|it_b1_centauro_romor}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_centurion_mk_5_avre_era}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_challenger_II}}
|-
| '''"Relict" ERA''' || 250mm KE

600mm CE
| {{Specs-Link|ussr_t_72b3_2011}}*
|-
| '''External composite armour with {{Annotation|NERA|Non-Energetic Reactive Armour}} elements''' || x0.10 KE x1.70 CE || {{Specs-Link|germ_leopard_2a6}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|jp_type_90b}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_vickers_mk7}}
|-
| '''Wood''' || x0.05 || {{Specs-Link|cn_ztz_99}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_is_3}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_object_120}}
|-
| '''{{Annotation|MEXAS|Modular Expandable Armour System}} 2''' || x0.16 || {{Specs-Link|us_m1128_mgs}}
|-
| '''MEXAS 2C''' || x0.16 || {{Specs-Link|us_m1128_mgs}}
|-
! colspan="3" | Naval vessels
|-
| '''Rolled homogeneous armour''' || x1.00 ||
|-
| '''Rolled cemented armour''' || x1.10 || Heavy cruisers, battleships
|-
| '''Structural steel''' || x0.45 ||
|-
| '''Coal bunker''' || x0.01 ||
|-
| '''Concrete''' || x0.35 || {{Specs-Link|germ_artilleriefahrprahm_typ_d1}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|germ_artilleriefahrprahm_typ_d3}}
|-
| '''Wood''' || x0.05 KE x0.00 CE ||
|-
| '''Antifragmentation armour''' || x0.90 ||
|-
| '''Hardened armour''' || x0.80 ||
|-
|}

=Aircraft=
Armour on aircraft are often minimum and focused on vital sections rather than on the overall airframe. Armour are often not taken into consideration in the design as armour constitutes more material and thus a heavier aircraft which would inhibit its performance due to weight penalty.<ref name="BismarckArmour">Bismarck 2017</ref>

Armour for pilots are thus usually never beyond the usage of bullet-resistant glass on the cockpit that could provide protection against rifle calibre ammunition. Though some armour plating are present in the back on some planes like the P-47, these were only thick enough for small calibers and serve more to slow down the incoming round so that it has little energy once it punches through. Other important areas that armour could be present on aircraft is around the engine. Important design features that dictate whether an aircraft design is more durable than others was in the airframe build quality, the air frame's ability to take damage, and adequate protections around vital components such as the engine, pilot, and fuel tanks.<ref name="BismarckArmour" />

=Tank=
==History==
===Interwar period===
Armour plays a very important role on tanks as they were conceived by it. The armour on the tanks at its inception made them invulnerable to the basic small arms fire, a trait that broke the stalemate of the trench warfare in World War I. During the interwar period, tank armour was prioritized on protection against firearms and artillery shrapnel. However, experience in the Spanish Civil War showed that this concept leaves the tank vulnerable to heavier guns. This is demonstrated when Italian tankettes and German Panzer I's, armed with only machine guns and simple 13 mm armour, went up against the Soviet [[T-26|T-26]], which had a 45 mm gun on its turret. The tank arms race increased armament and armour, evident on the German [[Pz.IV C|Panzer IV]] when armour increased from the initial 14.5 mm in 1936 to 30 mm in 1938 before World War II broke out.

===Early World War II===
During World War II, tank armour played a huge part in tank design. More armour means more weight on the tank and thus must be sparingly used to the tank mobility in acceptable margins. Tank armour in this period is separated by the three tank categories, light, medium, and heavy tanks. It was in this period that tank armour went through many technological advances. One of the perfect example is the French SOMUA S35 and the Soviet [[T-34 (1940)|T-34]]. The two vehicles made extensive usage of the concept of "sloped armour", which increased the armour effective thickness due to the difference in the line-of-sight thickness (See [[Armour#Sloped_armour|"Concepts"]] section). The Germans, which mainly used vertical-faced armour on their [[Pz.III F|Panzers]], struggled to take these vehicles out due to their strong armour against their inadequate guns. While the Battle of France did not incite Germany to quickly upgrade their armour and armament due to the small quantities of these kinds of tanks, the encounter with the T-34's in Operation Barbarossa came as a great shock due to the large number of T-34's available in Soviet inventory. The Germans, in a stage informally known as a "tank panic", rushed development to complete weapons able to destroy the T-34 and uparmour their tanks to withstand the Soviet 76 mm cannons. The Soviet T-34 and American [[M4A1|M4 Shermans]] caused great headaches in the German armoured forces due to their strong, sloped front armour in 1942, but that all changed in 1943 and beyond.

===Late World War II===
The year 1943 changed everything in the balance of tank power from the Allies with their T-34 and Shermans to the Germans. Germany introduced their newest tanks in large quantities, the [[Panther D|Panther]] and the [[Tiger H1|Tiger I]] tanks. These vehicles introduced powerful cannons and a new redefinition of the term "armour" for tanks. The Tiger I came with an astounding 100 mm armour thickness in front. Though vertical-faced and thus did not have the benefit of "sloped armour", the guns on Shermans and T-34 at the time could not penetrate the front plate at standard combat ranges, forcing the Allied medium tanks to close in for a kill. The Panther had 80 mm of frontal armour, but that armour was sloped at a 55° from vertical and caused the effective armour to instead be ''140 mm'' thick. Thus, the Panther was basically invulnerable in the hull front from any anti-tank weapon in existence in Allied inventory at that time. The Germans also started to extensively used an armour called ''Schürzen'', which is a form of "spaced armour" that provided additional protection to their tank's weak side armour. The two new tanks, plus a new one in the form of the [[Tiger II (H)|Tiger II]] with 150 mm of frontal armour sloped for effective thickness of ~230 mm, caused turmoil in the Allied armoured forces as they find a way to easily destroy the new tanks. They were never able to compete against the German's in terms of armour thickness until after World War II.

===Cold War===
By the end of World War II, sloping armour had become a ubiquitous concept and every tank designed has it from the American [[M60|M60]], British [[Centurion Mk 3|Centurion]], and Soviet [[T-54 (1951)|T-54/55]] tanks. With increasing tank armour equaling to increased weight, countries try to keep their tank weight in manageable ranges while making the armour up to date with current threats. By early 1960s, anti-tank technology such as the [[Anti-tank_guided_missiles|anti-tank guided missiles (ATGM)]] has grown to the point where it requires a large amount of steel to make the armour thick enough to resist the threat, but the amount was prohibitive and made the tank too heavy. Some nations such as Germany tried to solve this by relying on mobility at the expense of armour such as the [[Leopard I]], but it became clear a new type of armour is needed. It came in the form of "composite armour", which used steel combined with a variety of material such as plastic and ceramic that can resist penetration more effectively at a lighter weight. Composite armour soon became the new standard of tank armour throughout the world. Another armour developed in the Cold War was the "explosive reactive armour", which used an explosive to deflect a penetration property. Explosive reactive armour, or ERA, was highly effective against the ubiquitous HEATFS rounds used as anti-tank weapons. These armour technology saved the tanks from becoming obsolete during the Cold War against the new anti-tank missile threat that allows a small infantry crew to destroy a tank as far as 2000 meters away. Composite armour, ERA, and the increasing lethality of tank armament helped revolutionize the tank concept from light, medium, and heavy tanks into the new, universal "main battle tank".

==Concepts==
===Sloped armour===
[[File:T-54 Training Parola Tank Museum.jpg|x200px|thumb|right|A cut-out of a [[T-54 (1951)|T-54]] to show the effectiveness of sloping armour.]]

Sloped armour is effectively angling the armour of a tank on an angle rather than placed for a flat surface.

Slope armour presents the advantage of having a much thicker effective armour on a tanks for a lighter weight due to using a thinner armour plate. The sloped nature also increases the chance of the impacting shell to simply ricochet or deflect off, doing no effect to the armour. The disadvantage of the sloped armour was its more complicated manufacturing process and a reduction in internal space.

====Calculating sloped armour effective thickness====
A simple formula to calculate a tank's effective thickness (Line Of Sight, or LOS) due to sloping armour is with this: 

[LOS Effective Thickness vs Projectile Type] = ([Armour Thickness] × [Armor Modifier vs Projectile Type]) / cos ([Armour Angle]) 
'''Note:''' This formula does '''not''' factor in the possible horizontal '''or''' vertical angle of the target's armor plate relative to the shot's origin '''or''' deviations of the shell's angle of inclination due to bullet drop at longer ranges. We assume the target is placed on an even field and shot at from straight ahead at distance where the shell will hit the armor with 0° of bullet drop. 

For example: A '''Panther''' has an '''80 mm''' (armor thickness) front armour plate, sloped at an angle of '''55°''' (armor angle) and made out of '''RHA''' (armor modifier), being shot at by an AP projectile (armor modifier vs projectile = 1.0 vs KE). Thus, we input the values: 

(80 mm × 1.0) / cos (55°) = 80 mm / cos (55°) = 80 mm / 0.574 = 139.4 mm ≈ 140 mm (vs Kinetic AP) 

Thus, we get the value of how thick the Panther's sloped frontal armour is in a line-of-sight angle.

===Armour angling===
Outside of sloped armour, another way to improve the effective armour thickness on tanks is simply angling the armour towards the opponent. This means instead of sloping the armour in a vertical plane, instead angle sideways.

[[File:TigerIHTank Armour Angling.png|x200px|thumb|left|An example of armour angling with the [[Tiger_H1|Tiger I]], angled towards the opponent in its most optimum degree for best all-around armour.]]

This gives another form of thickness as not only does the round have to pass through a plane of armour, but two plane of the same armour, which would boost the effective thickness. This is best seen in vertical-faced armoured tanks like the [[Tiger H1|Tiger I tank]]. Though their vertical faced 100 mm front plate would only give 100 mm effectiveness, it was recommended in the ''Tigerfibel'' crew manual that a 45 degree diamond angle position would provide a front armour of nearly 130 mm of effective thickness.<ref name="Tigerfibel">Carruthers 2011</ref> This gives tank a chance to improve their effective front armour thickness especially when against enemies that would penetrate their front with little difficulty. However, beware of angling to much towards the enemy that it exposes the weaker side armour to enemy fire, which may have a chance of penetrating.

Some tanks attempt to implement this concept into the designs itself. One example is the Soviet [[IS-3]] with its "pike nose" front armour. Due to the sloping effect not only going back, but sweeping to the sides, this improves the IS-3 front armour effectiveness and ricochet chances.

===Spaced armour===
Spaced armour helps against anti-tank rounds in a form of disruption and denial. Spaced armour was first widely used by the Germans in the form of ''Schürzen'', attaching metal sheets away from the base armour of their Panzers. These metal sheets were intended to disrupt the kinetic energy of the Soviet 14.5 mm anti-tank rifles, which could penetrate the weaker side armour of their tanks. It does this by forcing much of the energy on the rifle round to be expelled on the ''Schürzen'' sheets, passing through and causing negligible damage on the base side armour. The ''Schürzen'' may also disrupt tank rounds as well, but the much greater kinetic energy of tank shells means that its disruption will be ineffective to all but the most sloped shots. Though there is a belief that the ''schürzen'' plates were meant to stop HEAT rounds from shoulder-launched weapons, the plates were not intentionally designed for this task.

Spaced armour was used in various formats in the Cold War tank designs. It was used as a form of protection against HEAT rounds from tank guns and rocket launchers, with the air separating the tank's base armour and the spaced armour acting to dissipate the HEAT's power before it reaches the hull. Spaced armour also works against kinetic penetrators by shattering the round on impact with the first layer. Though early kinetic rounds using brittle materials like tungsten were affected by this armour, better material like depleted uranium made the rounds more durable and proof against this type of armour.<ref name="MM.Spaced">M.m. 2015</ref>

===Explosive reactive armour (ERA)===
Explosive reactive armour (ERA) works by using an explosive force to disrupt an incoming armour-piercing ammunition. The construction of ERA usually takes the form of individual tiles made up of "reactive elements", which are sandwiched explosives in between sheets of metal. These tiles would be used around vulnerable points of a tank to provide protection at these locations.

Though ERA provides good protection against HEAT ammunition, high-velocity kinetic penetrators like APDS and APFSDS penetrates too quickly for the explosive force to be effective against them. This was a problem in early ERA designs, but more modern ERA types have been able to resist these ammunition. Even so, ERA still has drawbacks in that each explosive tile were one-time-use against the incoming round, leaving the exposed tank metal underneath once expended. ERA also has become vulnerable to tandem-charge ammunition, which use a two-stage detonation sequence with the first charge destroying the ERA plate and the second penetrating the armour underneath the plate. Finally, the ERA plates rarely cover the entire tank sections due to contouring and moving parts, so the armour is still exposed in various degrees to be hit and penetrated.

====History====
The first efforts in discovering this form of protection reach back to 1949 in the Soviet Union at the Nii Stali facility, although nothing much came out of it after failed tests and it was discontinued on the belief that the current armour on their main battle tanks was good enough. The traction did not continue again until German researcher Dr.Manfred Held, a shaped charge (HEAT) specialist, traveled to Israel on the conclusion of their 1967 Six-Day War. Examining several of the destroyed tanks from the conflict, he discovered that the force from exploding ammunition slightly reduced the effect of the shaped charge used. He then developed the first working ERA plate in 1970. Though this was the first effective iteration of the ERA, Held's design required the explosive mesh to be fitted inside empty cavities, integrated into the tank armour. Held improved on the design in the same year which consisted of a tiles formed with the reactive elements. This model would become the fundamental design of modern ERA.<ref name="MM.Era">M.m. 2016</ref>

The majority of the NATO countries did not buy into the explosive reactive armour that Held presented. He did not find anyone interested until he returned back to Israel in 1974, after the 1973 Yom-Kippur War. There, the Israeli government and the Israeli Defense Force were persuaded, perhaps from their combat experiences, to adopt the ERA as a protection for their tanks. The Israelis then produced the ''Blazer ERA'' plates which followed Held's design with reactive elements. The Blazer ERA will first see usage in the 1982 Lebanon War, the tiles attached onto M60 tanks to protect the steel hull against anti-tank weaponry.<ref name="MM.Era" />

The Soviet Union was the next country to use ERA, under the name ''Kontakt ERA''. It was first introduced in 1984 and featured a tile design similar to Blazers, though using one or two reactive elements stacked together for better effectiveness. Like the Blazer, these plates were highly effective against HEAT rounds, but were generally ineffective against kinetic penetrators. Following the Soviets, the reactive armour was soon adopted by many other countries in the 1980s, from mainly Eastern bloc countries such as Czechoslovakia, Ukraine, and Poland. Today the ERA plates are still viable against modern anti-tank weaponry, especially when complemented with other tank defensive measures.<ref name="MM.Era" />

===Composite armour===
''To be filled''

===[[Add-on Armor|Add-on armor]]===
{{main|Add-on Armor}}

Add-on armour is a form of improvisation of the tank armour usually done by the crew or a maintenance unit in the front lines. Due to the rushed nature of tank technology in World War II, armour once considered adequate on tanks can quickly become obsolete with the introduction of a new gun piece in the field or a new equipment, such as the [[KwK 36 (88 mm)]] on the [[Tiger H1|Tiger I]] and the ''Panzerfaust'' anti-tank launcher, both could cut through Sherman and T-34 armour with little resistance. The declining armour effectiveness against these weapons prompted the tank crews to attempt an expedient method to improve the armour quality of their tanks. Troops went and attached logs, sandbags, tracks, concrete, and metal sheets onto their tanks to improve its effective thickness. The usefulness against anti-tank rounds from tank shells and HEAT rounds are controversial. Some tankers swear by it and claim they were saved by their improvised armour while analysts say that the add-on armour has no effect at all in interfering with incoming rounds. What was universally accepted was that these add-on armour helped improve the tank crew morale when fighting the enemy, renewed in confidence with their "improved" tank armour. However, add-on armour increases the weight of the tank due to the add-on of materials and thus can cause a strain on the power train and suspension of tanks, prompting some commanders like General George S. Patton to ban the usage of improvised armour to improve tank reliability. The most useful add-on armour was the welding of additional sheets of metal onto the tank, as seen in the well-received reception of the up-armoured M4 Sherman in the form of the [[M4A3E2|"Jumbos"]].

From Update 1.57, a modification known as the ''Add-on Armour'' was added onto certain vehicles. The modification adds spare track links along the hull and turret of the vehicle. The track links, when added, give an average of 17 - 20 mm of additional armour where they are attached.

= Media =


;Videos
{{Youtube-gallery|mJO2sLI_jwU|'''The Shooting Range #19''' - ''Tactics & Strategy'' section at 04:53 discusses how to angle your armour.|Go91srkTM80|'''Explosive Reactive Armor and Composite Armor''' - ''War Thunder Official Channel''|o24D6yl_VLg|'''The Shooting Range #115''' - ''Tactics & Strategy'' section at 10:14 discusses how to maximize your armour while on the defensive.|B2woWvJK4ew|'''Top 7 most armoured vehicles''' - ''War Thunder Official Channel''|c7NXyv_vD1A|'''How to use the protection analysis tool in War Thunder''' - ''Skreezilla''}}

= External links =


* [[wt:en/news/5569-development-protection-analysis-en|[Development] Protection Analysis]]

==References==
<references />

==Sources==

* Bismarck. "⚜ | Yes, World War 2 Planes Had Armour BUT..." YouTube. YouTube, 17 Aug. 2017. Web. 26 Sept. 2017. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-v5aMayFrRE Video].
* Carruthers, Bob. Tiger I: Official Wartime Crew Manual (the Tigerfibel). Warwickshire: Coda, 2011. Print.
* M.m. "Explosive Reactive Armor - Some History, Some Types." Below The Turret Ring. Blogger, 28 Apr. 2016. Web. 25 Sept. 2017. [https://below-the-turret-ring.blogspot.com/2016/04/explosive-reactive-armor-some-history.html Website].
* M.m. "The Truth about Spaced Armor on Modern Tanks and AFVs." Below The Turret Ring. Blogger, 31 Dec. 2015. Web. 26 Sept. 2017. [https://below-the-turret-ring.blogspot.com/2015/12/the-truth-about-spaced-armor-on-modern.html Website].

[[Category:Game mechanics]]

Armour

2022-02-17T20:41:43Z

U16328860: /* Types of armour in-game */

=Armour=
'''Armour''' is the basic defense an entity has against threats. Armour can be found in both air and ground vehicles in War Thunder and plays a very important role to the vehicle's survivability.

== Types of armour in-game ==

* KE: Kinetic Energy
* CE: Chemical Energy

Armour modifier applies to both types of penetrators, unless specified.

<nowiki>*</nowiki>with add-on armour modification

{| class="wikitable"
! Material or Component !! Armour Modifier !! Examples
|-
! colspan="3" | Ground vehicles
|-
| '''Rolled homogeneous armour''' (RHA) || x1.00 ||
|-
| '''Modern RHA''' || x1.01 || {{Specs-Link|cn_ztz_96}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|germ_leopard_1a5}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_chieftain_mk_3}}
|-
| '''Cast homogeneous armour''' (CHA) || x0.94 ||
|-
| '''Modern CHA''' || x0.98 || {{Specs-Link|germ_kpz_70}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_merkava_mk_3d}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_64_b_1984}}
|-
| '''High hardness rolled armour''' (HHRA) || x1.25 || {{Specs-Link|germ_pzkpfw_III_ausf_L}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|it_centauro_mgs_120}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|sw_ikv_91}}
|-
| '''Modern HHRA''' || x1.10 || {{Specs-Link|sw_strv_122}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_m1128_mgs}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_bmp_2}}
|-
| '''Tracks''' || x0.75 ||
|-
| '''Structural steel''' || x0.45 ||
|-
| '''Structural steel of chassis''' || x0.60 ||
|-
| '''Wheel''' || x0.30 ||
|-
| '''Rubber-fabric screens''' || x0.20 || {{Specs-Link|it_of_40_mk_1}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_m901_itv}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_62m1}}
|-
| '''Composite screen''' || x0.16 KE x2.00 CE || {{Specs-Link|fr_leclerc_s2}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|jp_type_16}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_vickers_mk7}}
|-
| '''Air''' (Spaced armour) || x0.05 KE x0.30 CE || {{Specs-Link|fr_amx_32}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|germ_kpz_70}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_merkava_mk_1}}
|-
| '''Aluminium''' || x0.20 || {{Specs-Link|jp_st_a1}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_chieftain_mk_10}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_bmp_2m}}
|-
| '''Aluminium alloy 5083''' || x0.32 || {{Specs-Link|cn_cm_25}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|it_otobreda_sidam_25}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_m3_bradley}}
|-
| '''Aluminium alloy AA7017''' || x0.50 || {{Specs-Link|uk_fv102_striker}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_stormer_hvm}}
|-
| '''Aluminium alloy 7020''' || x0.50 || {{Specs-Link|it_centauro_mgs_120}}
|-
| '''Aluminium alloy 7039''' || x0.50 || {{Specs-Link|it_oto_r3_t20_fa}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|jp_type_75}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_t114}}
|-
| '''Alloy ABT-101''' || x0.38 || {{Specs-Link|ussr_bmp_2}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_object_685}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_object_906}}
|-
| '''Alloy ABT-102''' || x0.42 || {{Specs-Link|ussr_bmp_3}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_9p157}}
|-
| '''Aluminium alloy AMS 4050A''' || x0.50 || {{Specs-Link|fr_amx_10rc}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|jp_type_87}}
|-
| '''Alloy BT-6''' || x0.70 || {{Specs-Link|ussr_t_80b}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_80u}}
|-
| '''{{Annotation|ERA|Explosive Reactive Armour}}''' || x0.10 KE x5.00 CE || {{Specs-Link|cn_cm11}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|fr_amx_30_b2_brenus}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_m60a1_rise_passive_era}}
|-
| '''ERA''' || x0.50 KE x3.50 CE || {{Specs-Link|cn_type_59d}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|cn_type_69_2g}}
|-
| '''"Blazer" ERA''' || x0.10 KE x2.80 CE
5mm KE

260mm CE
| {{Specs-Link|sw_strv_104}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_centurion_shot_kal_d}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_magach_3}}*
|-
| '''"CONTACT-1" ERA''' || x0.10 KE x2.50 CE
5mm KE

400mm CE
| {{Specs-Link|ussr_t_64_b_1984}}*{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_72av_turms}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_72b}}
|-
| '''"CONTACT-5" INTEGRATED ERA''' || 120 mm KE 400 - 450 mm CE || {{Specs-Link|ussr_t_72b3_2011}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_80u}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_90a}}
|-
| '''FY-4 ERA''' || x0.80 KE x2.00 CE || {{Specs-Link|cn_ztz_96a}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|cn_ztz_99}}
|-
| '''Integrated ERA''' || 10 mm KE 250 mm CE || {{Specs-Link|fr_leclerc_s1}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|fr_leclerc_s2}}
|-
| '''"ROMOR-A" ERA''' || x0.30 KE x3.50 CE
30mm KE

300mm CE
| {{Specs-Link|it_b1_centauro_romor}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_centurion_mk_5_avre_era}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_challenger_II}}
|-
| '''"Relict" ERA''' || 250mm KE

600mm CE
| {{Specs-Link|ussr_t_72b3_2011}}*
|-
| '''External composite armour with {{Annotation|NERA|Non-Energetic Reactive Armour}} elements''' || x0.10 KE x1.70 CE || {{Specs-Link|germ_leopard_2a6}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|jp_type_90b}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_vickers_mk7}}
|-
| '''Wood''' || x0.05 || {{Specs-Link|cn_ztz_99}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_is_3}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_object_120}}
|-
| '''{{Annotation|MEXAS|Modular Expandable Armour System}} 2''' || x0.16 || {{Specs-Link|us_m1128_mgs}}
|-
| '''MEXAS 2C''' || x0.16 || {{Specs-Link|us_m1128_mgs}}
|-
! colspan="3" | Naval vessels
|-
| '''Rolled homogeneous armour''' || x1.00 ||
|-
| '''Rolled cemented armour''' || x1.10 || Heavy cruisers, battleships
|-
| '''Structural steel''' || x0.45 ||
|-
| '''Coal bunker''' || x0.01 ||
|-
| '''Concrete''' || x0.35 || {{Specs-Link|germ_artilleriefahrprahm_typ_d1}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|germ_artilleriefahrprahm_typ_d3}}
|-
| '''Wood''' || x0.05 KE x0.00 CE ||
|-
| '''Antifragmentation armour''' || x0.90 ||
|-
| '''Hardened armour''' || x0.80 ||
|-
|}

=Aircraft=
Armour on aircraft are often minimum and focused on vital sections rather than on the overall airframe. Armour are often not taken into consideration in the design as armour constitutes more material and thus a heavier aircraft which would inhibit its performance due to weight penalty.<ref name="BismarckArmour">Bismarck 2017</ref>

Armour for pilots are thus usually never beyond the usage of bullet-resistant glass on the cockpit that could provide protection against rifle calibre ammunition. Though some armour plating are present in the back on some planes like the P-47, these were only thick enough for small calibers and serve more to slow down the incoming round so that it has little energy once it punches through. Other important areas that armour could be present on aircraft is around the engine. Important design features that dictate whether an aircraft design is more durable than others was in the airframe build quality, the air frame's ability to take damage, and adequate protections around vital components such as the engine, pilot, and fuel tanks.<ref name="BismarckArmour" />

=Tank=
==History==
===Interwar period===
Armour plays a very important role on tanks as they were conceived by it. The armour on the tanks at its inception made them invulnerable to the basic small arms fire, a trait that broke the stalemate of the trench warfare in World War I. During the interwar period, tank armour was prioritized on protection against firearms and artillery shrapnel. However, experience in the Spanish Civil War showed that this concept leaves the tank vulnerable to heavier guns. This is demonstrated when Italian tankettes and German Panzer I's, armed with only machine guns and simple 13 mm armour, went up against the Soviet [[T-26|T-26]], which had a 45 mm gun on its turret. The tank arms race increased armament and armour, evident on the German [[Pz.IV C|Panzer IV]] when armour increased from the initial 14.5 mm in 1936 to 30 mm in 1938 before World War II broke out.

===Early World War II===
During World War II, tank armour played a huge part in tank design. More armour means more weight on the tank and thus must be sparingly used to the tank mobility in acceptable margins. Tank armour in this period is separated by the three tank categories, light, medium, and heavy tanks. It was in this period that tank armour went through many technological advances. One of the perfect example is the French SOMUA S35 and the Soviet [[T-34 (1940)|T-34]]. The two vehicles made extensive usage of the concept of "sloped armour", which increased the armour effective thickness due to the difference in the line-of-sight thickness (See [[Armour#Sloped_armour|"Concepts"]] section). The Germans, which mainly used vertical-faced armour on their [[Pz.III F|Panzers]], struggled to take these vehicles out due to their strong armour against their inadequate guns. While the Battle of France did not incite Germany to quickly upgrade their armour and armament due to the small quantities of these kinds of tanks, the encounter with the T-34's in Operation Barbarossa came as a great shock due to the large number of T-34's available in Soviet inventory. The Germans, in a stage informally known as a "tank panic", rushed development to complete weapons able to destroy the T-34 and uparmour their tanks to withstand the Soviet 76 mm cannons. The Soviet T-34 and American [[M4A1|M4 Shermans]] caused great headaches in the German armoured forces due to their strong, sloped front armour in 1942, but that all changed in 1943 and beyond.

===Late World War II===
The year 1943 changed everything in the balance of tank power from the Allies with their T-34 and Shermans to the Germans. Germany introduced their newest tanks in large quantities, the [[Panther D|Panther]] and the [[Tiger H1|Tiger I]] tanks. These vehicles introduced powerful cannons and a new redefinition of the term "armour" for tanks. The Tiger I came with an astounding 100 mm armour thickness in front. Though vertical-faced and thus did not have the benefit of "sloped armour", the guns on Shermans and T-34 at the time could not penetrate the front plate at standard combat ranges, forcing the Allied medium tanks to close in for a kill. The Panther had 80 mm of frontal armour, but that armour was sloped at a 55° from vertical and caused the effective armour to instead be ''140 mm'' thick. Thus, the Panther was basically invulnerable in the hull front from any anti-tank weapon in existence in Allied inventory at that time. The Germans also started to extensively used an armour called ''Schürzen'', which is a form of "spaced armour" that provided additional protection to their tank's weak side armour. The two new tanks, plus a new one in the form of the [[Tiger II (H)|Tiger II]] with 150 mm of frontal armour sloped for effective thickness of ~230 mm, caused turmoil in the Allied armoured forces as they find a way to easily destroy the new tanks. They were never able to compete against the German's in terms of armour thickness until after World War II.

===Cold War===
By the end of World War II, sloping armour had become a ubiquitous concept and every tank designed has it from the American [[M60|M60]], British [[Centurion Mk 3|Centurion]], and Soviet [[T-54 (1951)|T-54/55]] tanks. With increasing tank armour equaling to increased weight, countries try to keep their tank weight in manageable ranges while making the armour up to date with current threats. By early 1960s, anti-tank technology such as the [[Anti-tank_guided_missiles|anti-tank guided missiles (ATGM)]] has grown to the point where it requires a large amount of steel to make the armour thick enough to resist the threat, but the amount was prohibitive and made the tank too heavy. Some nations such as Germany tried to solve this by relying on mobility at the expense of armour such as the [[Leopard I]], but it became clear a new type of armour is needed. It came in the form of "composite armour", which used steel combined with a variety of material such as plastic and ceramic that can resist penetration more effectively at a lighter weight. Composite armour soon became the new standard of tank armour throughout the world. Another armour developed in the Cold War was the "explosive reactive armour", which used an explosive to deflect a penetration property. Explosive reactive armour, or ERA, was highly effective against the ubiquitous HEATFS rounds used as anti-tank weapons. These armour technology saved the tanks from becoming obsolete during the Cold War against the new anti-tank missile threat that allows a small infantry crew to destroy a tank as far as 2000 meters away. Composite armour, ERA, and the increasing lethality of tank armament helped revolutionize the tank concept from light, medium, and heavy tanks into the new, universal "main battle tank".

==Concepts==
===Sloped armour===
[[File:T-54 Training Parola Tank Museum.jpg|x200px|thumb|right|A cut-out of a [[T-54 (1951)|T-54]] to show the effectiveness of sloping armour.]]

Sloped armour is effectively angling the armour of a tank on an angle rather than placed for a flat surface.

Slope armour presents the advantage of having a much thicker effective armour on a tanks for a lighter weight due to using a thinner armour plate. The sloped nature also increases the chance of the impacting shell to simply ricochet or deflect off, doing no effect to the armour. The disadvantage of the sloped armour was its more complicated manufacturing process and a reduction in internal space.

====Calculating sloped armour effective thickness====
A simple formula to calculate a tank's effective thickness (Line Of Sight, or LOS) due to sloping armour is with this: 

[LOS Effective Thickness vs Projectile Type] = ([Armour Thickness] × [Armor Modifier vs Projectile Type]) / cos ([Armour Angle]) 
'''Note:''' This formula does '''not''' factor in the possible horizontal '''or''' vertical angle of the target's armor plate relative to the shot's origin '''or''' deviations of the shell's angle of inclination due to bullet drop at longer ranges. We assume the target is placed on an even field and shot at from straight ahead at distance where the shell will hit the armor with 0° of bullet drop. 

For example: A '''Panther''' has an '''80 mm''' (armor thickness) front armour plate, sloped at an angle of '''55°''' (armor angle) and made out of '''RHA''' (armor modifier), being shot at by an AP projectile (armor modifier vs projectile = 1.0 vs KE). Thus, we input the values: 

(80 mm × 1.0) / cos (55°) = 80 mm / cos (55°) = 80 mm / 0.574 = 139.4 mm ≈ 140 mm (vs Kinetic AP) 

Thus, we get the value of how thick the Panther's sloped frontal armour is in a line-of-sight angle.

===Armour angling===
Outside of sloped armour, another way to improve the effective armour thickness on tanks is simply angling the armour towards the opponent. This means instead of sloping the armour in a vertical plane, instead angle sideways.

[[File:TigerIHTank Armour Angling.png|x200px|thumb|left|An example of armour angling with the [[Tiger_H1|Tiger I]], angled towards the opponent in its most optimum degree for best all-around armour.]]

This gives another form of thickness as not only does the round have to pass through a plane of armour, but two plane of the same armour, which would boost the effective thickness. This is best seen in vertical-faced armoured tanks like the [[Tiger H1|Tiger I tank]]. Though their vertical faced 100 mm front plate would only give 100 mm effectiveness, it was recommended in the ''Tigerfibel'' crew manual that a 45 degree diamond angle position would provide a front armour of nearly 130 mm of effective thickness.<ref name="Tigerfibel">Carruthers 2011</ref> This gives tank a chance to improve their effective front armour thickness especially when against enemies that would penetrate their front with little difficulty. However, beware of angling to much towards the enemy that it exposes the weaker side armour to enemy fire, which may have a chance of penetrating.

Some tanks attempt to implement this concept into the designs itself. One example is the Soviet [[IS-3]] with its "pike nose" front armour. Due to the sloping effect not only going back, but sweeping to the sides, this improves the IS-3 front armour effectiveness and ricochet chances.

===Spaced armour===
Spaced armour helps against anti-tank rounds in a form of disruption and denial. Spaced armour was first widely used by the Germans in the form of ''Schürzen'', attaching metal sheets away from the base armour of their Panzers. These metal sheets were intended to disrupt the kinetic energy of the Soviet 14.5 mm anti-tank rifles, which could penetrate the weaker side armour of their tanks. It does this by forcing much of the energy on the rifle round to be expelled on the ''Schürzen'' sheets, passing through and causing negligible damage on the base side armour. The ''Schürzen'' may also disrupt tank rounds as well, but the much greater kinetic energy of tank shells means that its disruption will be ineffective to all but the most sloped shots. Though there is a belief that the ''schürzen'' plates were meant to stop HEAT rounds from shoulder-launched weapons, the plates were not intentionally designed for this task.

Spaced armour was used in various formats in the Cold War tank designs. It was used as a form of protection against HEAT rounds from tank guns and rocket launchers, with the air separating the tank's base armour and the spaced armour acting to dissipate the HEAT's power before it reaches the hull. Spaced armour also works against kinetic penetrators by shattering the round on impact with the first layer. Though early kinetic rounds using brittle materials like tungsten were affected by this armour, better material like depleted uranium made the rounds more durable and proof against this type of armour.<ref name="MM.Spaced">M.m. 2015</ref>

===Explosive reactive armour (ERA)===
Explosive reactive armour (ERA) works by using an explosive force to disrupt an incoming armour-piercing ammunition. The construction of ERA usually takes the form of individual tiles made up of "reactive elements", which are sandwiched explosives in between sheets of metal. These tiles would be used around vulnerable points of a tank to provide protection at these locations.

Though ERA provides good protection against HEAT ammunition, high-velocity kinetic penetrators like APDS and APFSDS penetrates too quickly for the explosive force to be effective against them. This was a problem in early ERA designs, but more modern ERA types have been able to resist these ammunition. Even so, ERA still has drawbacks in that each explosive tile were one-time-use against the incoming round, leaving the exposed tank metal underneath once expended. ERA also has become vulnerable to tandem-charge ammunition, which use a two-stage detonation sequence with the first charge destroying the ERA plate and the second penetrating the armour underneath the plate. Finally, the ERA plates rarely cover the entire tank sections due to contouring and moving parts, so the armour is still exposed in various degrees to be hit and penetrated.

====History====
The first efforts in discovering this form of protection reach back to 1949 in the Soviet Union at the Nii Stali facility, although nothing much came out of it after failed tests and it was discontinued on the belief that the current armour on their main battle tanks was good enough. The traction did not continue again until German researcher Dr.Manfred Held, a shaped charge (HEAT) specialist, traveled to Israel on the conclusion of their 1967 Six-Day War. Examining several of the destroyed tanks from the conflict, he discovered that the force from exploding ammunition slightly reduced the effect of the shaped charge used. He then developed the first working ERA plate in 1970. Though this was the first effective iteration of the ERA, Held's design required the explosive mesh to be fitted inside empty cavities, integrated into the tank armour. Held improved on the design in the same year which consisted of a tiles formed with the reactive elements. This model would become the fundamental design of modern ERA.<ref name="MM.Era">M.m. 2016</ref>

The majority of the NATO countries did not buy into the explosive reactive armour that Held presented. He did not find anyone interested until he returned back to Israel in 1974, after the 1973 Yom-Kippur War. There, the Israeli government and the Israeli Defense Force were persuaded, perhaps from their combat experiences, to adopt the ERA as a protection for their tanks. The Israelis then produced the ''Blazer ERA'' plates which followed Held's design with reactive elements. The Blazer ERA will first see usage in the 1982 Lebanon War, the tiles attached onto M60 tanks to protect the steel hull against anti-tank weaponry.<ref name="MM.Era" />

The Soviet Union was the next country to use ERA, under the name ''Kontakt ERA''. It was first introduced in 1984 and featured a tile design similar to Blazers, though using one or two reactive elements stacked together for better effectiveness. Like the Blazer, these plates were highly effective against HEAT rounds, but were generally ineffective against kinetic penetrators. Following the Soviets, the reactive armour was soon adopted by many other countries in the 1980s, from mainly Eastern bloc countries such as Czechoslovakia, Ukraine, and Poland. Today the ERA plates are still viable against modern anti-tank weaponry, especially when complemented with other tank defensive measures.<ref name="MM.Era" />

===Composite armour===
''To be filled''

===[[Add-on Armor|Add-on armor]]===
{{main|Add-on Armor}}

Add-on armour is a form of improvisation of the tank armour usually done by the crew or a maintenance unit in the front lines. Due to the rushed nature of tank technology in World War II, armour once considered adequate on tanks can quickly become obsolete with the introduction of a new gun piece in the field or a new equipment, such as the [[KwK 36 (88 mm)]] on the [[Tiger H1|Tiger I]] and the ''Panzerfaust'' anti-tank launcher, both could cut through Sherman and T-34 armour with little resistance. The declining armour effectiveness against these weapons prompted the tank crews to attempt an expedient method to improve the armour quality of their tanks. Troops went and attached logs, sandbags, tracks, concrete, and metal sheets onto their tanks to improve its effective thickness. The usefulness against anti-tank rounds from tank shells and HEAT rounds are controversial. Some tankers swear by it and claim they were saved by their improvised armour while analysts say that the add-on armour has no effect at all in interfering with incoming rounds. What was universally accepted was that these add-on armour helped improve the tank crew morale when fighting the enemy, renewed in confidence with their "improved" tank armour. However, add-on armour increases the weight of the tank due to the add-on of materials and thus can cause a strain on the power train and suspension of tanks, prompting some commanders like General George S. Patton to ban the usage of improvised armour to improve tank reliability. The most useful add-on armour was the welding of additional sheets of metal onto the tank, as seen in the well-received reception of the up-armoured M4 Sherman in the form of the [[M4A3E2|"Jumbos"]].

From Update 1.57, a modification known as the ''Add-on Armour'' was added onto certain vehicles. The modification adds spare track links along the hull and turret of the vehicle. The track links, when added, give an average of 17 - 20 mm of additional armour where they are attached.

= Media =


;Videos
{{Youtube-gallery|mJO2sLI_jwU|'''The Shooting Range #19''' - ''Tactics & Strategy'' section at 04:53 discusses how to angle your armour.|Go91srkTM80|'''Explosive Reactive Armor and Composite Armor''' - ''War Thunder Official Channel''|o24D6yl_VLg|'''The Shooting Range #115''' - ''Tactics & Strategy'' section at 10:14 discusses how to maximize your armour while on the defensive.|B2woWvJK4ew|'''Top 7 most armoured vehicles''' - ''War Thunder Official Channel''|c7NXyv_vD1A|'''How to use the protection analysis tool in War Thunder''' - ''Skreezilla''}}

= External links =


* [[wt:en/news/5569-development-protection-analysis-en|[Development] Protection Analysis]]

==References==
<references />

==Sources==

* Bismarck. "⚜ | Yes, World War 2 Planes Had Armour BUT..." YouTube. YouTube, 17 Aug. 2017. Web. 26 Sept. 2017. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-v5aMayFrRE Video].
* Carruthers, Bob. Tiger I: Official Wartime Crew Manual (the Tigerfibel). Warwickshire: Coda, 2011. Print.
* M.m. "Explosive Reactive Armor - Some History, Some Types." Below The Turret Ring. Blogger, 28 Apr. 2016. Web. 25 Sept. 2017. [https://below-the-turret-ring.blogspot.com/2016/04/explosive-reactive-armor-some-history.html Website].
* M.m. "The Truth about Spaced Armor on Modern Tanks and AFVs." Below The Turret Ring. Blogger, 31 Dec. 2015. Web. 26 Sept. 2017. [https://below-the-turret-ring.blogspot.com/2015/12/the-truth-about-spaced-armor-on-modern.html Website].

[[Category:Game mechanics]]

Armour

2022-02-17T20:41:08Z

U16328860: /* Types of armour in-game */

=Armour=
'''Armour''' is the basic defense an entity has against threats. Armour can be found in both air and ground vehicles in War Thunder and plays a very important role to the vehicle's survivability.

== Types of armour in-game ==

* KE: Kinetic Energy
* CE: Chemical Energy

Armour modifier applies to both types of penetrators, unless specified.

<nowiki>*</nowiki>with add-on armour modification

{| class="wikitable"
! Material or Component !! Armour Modifier !! Examples
|-
! colspan="3" | Ground vehicles
|-
| '''Rolled homogeneous armour''' (RHA) || x1.00 ||
|-
| '''Modern RHA''' || x1.01 || {{Specs-Link|cn_ztz_96}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|germ_leopard_1a5}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_chieftain_mk_3}}
|-
| '''Cast homogeneous armour''' (CHA) || x0.94 ||
|-
| '''Modern CHA''' || x0.98 || {{Specs-Link|germ_kpz_70}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_merkava_mk_3d}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_64_b_1984}}
|-
| '''High hardness rolled armour''' (HHRA) || x1.25 || {{Specs-Link|germ_pzkpfw_III_ausf_L}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|it_centauro_mgs_120}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|sw_ikv_91}}
|-
| '''Modern HHRA''' || x1.10 || {{Specs-Link|sw_strv_122}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_m1128_mgs}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_bmp_2}}
|-
| '''Tracks''' || x0.75 ||
|-
| '''Structural steel''' || x0.45 ||
|-
| '''Structural steel of chassis''' || x0.60 ||
|-
| '''Wheel''' || x0.30 ||
|-
| '''Rubber-fabric screens''' || x0.20 || {{Specs-Link|it_of_40_mk_1}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_m901_itv}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_62m1}}
|-
| '''Composite screen''' || x0.16 KE x2.00 CE || {{Specs-Link|fr_leclerc_s2}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|jp_type_16}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_vickers_mk7}}
|-
| '''Air''' (Spaced armour) || x0.05 KE x0.30 CE || {{Specs-Link|fr_amx_32}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|germ_kpz_70}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_merkava_mk_1}}
|-
| '''Aluminium''' || x0.20 || {{Specs-Link|jp_st_a1}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_chieftain_mk_10}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_bmp_2m}}
|-
| '''Aluminium alloy 5083''' || x0.32 || {{Specs-Link|cn_cm_25}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|it_otobreda_sidam_25}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_m3_bradley}}
|-
| '''Aluminium alloy AA7017''' || x0.50 || {{Specs-Link|uk_fv102_striker}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_stormer_hvm}}
|-
| '''Aluminium alloy 7020''' || x0.50 || {{Specs-Link|it_centauro_mgs_120}}
|-
| '''Aluminium alloy 7039''' || x0.50 || {{Specs-Link|it_oto_r3_t20_fa}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|jp_type_75}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_t114}}
|-
| '''Alloy ABT-101''' || x0.38 || {{Specs-Link|ussr_bmp_2}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_object_685}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_object_906}}
|-
| '''Alloy ABT-102''' || x0.42 || {{Specs-Link|ussr_bmp_3}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_9p157}}
|-
| '''Aluminium alloy AMS 4050A''' || x0.50 || {{Specs-Link|fr_amx_10rc}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|jp_type_87}}
|-
| '''Alloy BT-6''' || x0.70 || {{Specs-Link|ussr_t_80b}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_80u}}
|-
| '''{{Annotation|ERA|Explosive Reactive Armour}}''' || x0.10 KE x5.00 CE || {{Specs-Link|cn_cm11}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|fr_amx_30_b2_brenus}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_m60a1_rise_passive_era}}
|-
| '''ERA''' || x0.50 KE x3.50 CE || {{Specs-Link|cn_type_59d}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|cn_type_69_2g}}
|-
| '''"Blazer" ERA''' || x0.10 KE x2.80 CE
5mm KE 260mm CE
| {{Specs-Link|sw_strv_104}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_centurion_shot_kal_d}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_magach_3}}*
|-
| '''"CONTACT-1" ERA''' || x0.10 KE x2.50 CE
5mm KE 400mm CE
| {{Specs-Link|ussr_t_64_b_1984}}*{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_72av_turms}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_72b}}
|-
| '''"CONTACT-5" INTEGRATED ERA''' || 120 mm KE 400 - 450 mm CE || {{Specs-Link|ussr_t_72b3_2011}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_80u}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_90a}}
|-
| '''FY-4 ERA''' || x0.80 KE x2.00 CE || {{Specs-Link|cn_ztz_96a}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|cn_ztz_99}}
|-
| '''Integrated ERA''' || 10 mm KE 250 mm CE || {{Specs-Link|fr_leclerc_s1}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|fr_leclerc_s2}}
|-
| '''"ROMOR-A" ERA''' || x0.30 KE x3.50 CE
30mm KE 300mm CE
| {{Specs-Link|it_b1_centauro_romor}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_centurion_mk_5_avre_era}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_challenger_II}}
|-
| '''"Relict" ERA''' || 250mm KE

600mm CE
| {{Specs-Link|ussr_t_72b3_2011}}*
|-
| '''External composite armour with {{Annotation|NERA|Non-Energetic Reactive Armour}} elements''' || x0.10 KE x1.70 CE || {{Specs-Link|germ_leopard_2a6}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|jp_type_90b}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_vickers_mk7}}
|-
| '''Wood''' || x0.05 || {{Specs-Link|cn_ztz_99}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_is_3}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_object_120}}
|-
| '''{{Annotation|MEXAS|Modular Expandable Armour System}} 2''' || x0.16 || {{Specs-Link|us_m1128_mgs}}
|-
| '''MEXAS 2C''' || x0.16 || {{Specs-Link|us_m1128_mgs}}
|-
! colspan="3" | Naval vessels
|-
| '''Rolled homogeneous armour''' || x1.00 ||
|-
| '''Rolled cemented armour''' || x1.10 || Heavy cruisers, battleships
|-
| '''Structural steel''' || x0.45 ||
|-
| '''Coal bunker''' || x0.01 ||
|-
| '''Concrete''' || x0.35 || {{Specs-Link|germ_artilleriefahrprahm_typ_d1}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|germ_artilleriefahrprahm_typ_d3}}
|-
| '''Wood''' || x0.05 KE x0.00 CE ||
|-
| '''Antifragmentation armour''' || x0.90 ||
|-
| '''Hardened armour''' || x0.80 ||
|-
|}

=Aircraft=
Armour on aircraft are often minimum and focused on vital sections rather than on the overall airframe. Armour are often not taken into consideration in the design as armour constitutes more material and thus a heavier aircraft which would inhibit its performance due to weight penalty.<ref name="BismarckArmour">Bismarck 2017</ref>

Armour for pilots are thus usually never beyond the usage of bullet-resistant glass on the cockpit that could provide protection against rifle calibre ammunition. Though some armour plating are present in the back on some planes like the P-47, these were only thick enough for small calibers and serve more to slow down the incoming round so that it has little energy once it punches through. Other important areas that armour could be present on aircraft is around the engine. Important design features that dictate whether an aircraft design is more durable than others was in the airframe build quality, the air frame's ability to take damage, and adequate protections around vital components such as the engine, pilot, and fuel tanks.<ref name="BismarckArmour" />

=Tank=
==History==
===Interwar period===
Armour plays a very important role on tanks as they were conceived by it. The armour on the tanks at its inception made them invulnerable to the basic small arms fire, a trait that broke the stalemate of the trench warfare in World War I. During the interwar period, tank armour was prioritized on protection against firearms and artillery shrapnel. However, experience in the Spanish Civil War showed that this concept leaves the tank vulnerable to heavier guns. This is demonstrated when Italian tankettes and German Panzer I's, armed with only machine guns and simple 13 mm armour, went up against the Soviet [[T-26|T-26]], which had a 45 mm gun on its turret. The tank arms race increased armament and armour, evident on the German [[Pz.IV C|Panzer IV]] when armour increased from the initial 14.5 mm in 1936 to 30 mm in 1938 before World War II broke out.

===Early World War II===
During World War II, tank armour played a huge part in tank design. More armour means more weight on the tank and thus must be sparingly used to the tank mobility in acceptable margins. Tank armour in this period is separated by the three tank categories, light, medium, and heavy tanks. It was in this period that tank armour went through many technological advances. One of the perfect example is the French SOMUA S35 and the Soviet [[T-34 (1940)|T-34]]. The two vehicles made extensive usage of the concept of "sloped armour", which increased the armour effective thickness due to the difference in the line-of-sight thickness (See [[Armour#Sloped_armour|"Concepts"]] section). The Germans, which mainly used vertical-faced armour on their [[Pz.III F|Panzers]], struggled to take these vehicles out due to their strong armour against their inadequate guns. While the Battle of France did not incite Germany to quickly upgrade their armour and armament due to the small quantities of these kinds of tanks, the encounter with the T-34's in Operation Barbarossa came as a great shock due to the large number of T-34's available in Soviet inventory. The Germans, in a stage informally known as a "tank panic", rushed development to complete weapons able to destroy the T-34 and uparmour their tanks to withstand the Soviet 76 mm cannons. The Soviet T-34 and American [[M4A1|M4 Shermans]] caused great headaches in the German armoured forces due to their strong, sloped front armour in 1942, but that all changed in 1943 and beyond.

===Late World War II===
The year 1943 changed everything in the balance of tank power from the Allies with their T-34 and Shermans to the Germans. Germany introduced their newest tanks in large quantities, the [[Panther D|Panther]] and the [[Tiger H1|Tiger I]] tanks. These vehicles introduced powerful cannons and a new redefinition of the term "armour" for tanks. The Tiger I came with an astounding 100 mm armour thickness in front. Though vertical-faced and thus did not have the benefit of "sloped armour", the guns on Shermans and T-34 at the time could not penetrate the front plate at standard combat ranges, forcing the Allied medium tanks to close in for a kill. The Panther had 80 mm of frontal armour, but that armour was sloped at a 55° from vertical and caused the effective armour to instead be ''140 mm'' thick. Thus, the Panther was basically invulnerable in the hull front from any anti-tank weapon in existence in Allied inventory at that time. The Germans also started to extensively used an armour called ''Schürzen'', which is a form of "spaced armour" that provided additional protection to their tank's weak side armour. The two new tanks, plus a new one in the form of the [[Tiger II (H)|Tiger II]] with 150 mm of frontal armour sloped for effective thickness of ~230 mm, caused turmoil in the Allied armoured forces as they find a way to easily destroy the new tanks. They were never able to compete against the German's in terms of armour thickness until after World War II.

===Cold War===
By the end of World War II, sloping armour had become a ubiquitous concept and every tank designed has it from the American [[M60|M60]], British [[Centurion Mk 3|Centurion]], and Soviet [[T-54 (1951)|T-54/55]] tanks. With increasing tank armour equaling to increased weight, countries try to keep their tank weight in manageable ranges while making the armour up to date with current threats. By early 1960s, anti-tank technology such as the [[Anti-tank_guided_missiles|anti-tank guided missiles (ATGM)]] has grown to the point where it requires a large amount of steel to make the armour thick enough to resist the threat, but the amount was prohibitive and made the tank too heavy. Some nations such as Germany tried to solve this by relying on mobility at the expense of armour such as the [[Leopard I]], but it became clear a new type of armour is needed. It came in the form of "composite armour", which used steel combined with a variety of material such as plastic and ceramic that can resist penetration more effectively at a lighter weight. Composite armour soon became the new standard of tank armour throughout the world. Another armour developed in the Cold War was the "explosive reactive armour", which used an explosive to deflect a penetration property. Explosive reactive armour, or ERA, was highly effective against the ubiquitous HEATFS rounds used as anti-tank weapons. These armour technology saved the tanks from becoming obsolete during the Cold War against the new anti-tank missile threat that allows a small infantry crew to destroy a tank as far as 2000 meters away. Composite armour, ERA, and the increasing lethality of tank armament helped revolutionize the tank concept from light, medium, and heavy tanks into the new, universal "main battle tank".

==Concepts==
===Sloped armour===
[[File:T-54 Training Parola Tank Museum.jpg|x200px|thumb|right|A cut-out of a [[T-54 (1951)|T-54]] to show the effectiveness of sloping armour.]]

Sloped armour is effectively angling the armour of a tank on an angle rather than placed for a flat surface.

Slope armour presents the advantage of having a much thicker effective armour on a tanks for a lighter weight due to using a thinner armour plate. The sloped nature also increases the chance of the impacting shell to simply ricochet or deflect off, doing no effect to the armour. The disadvantage of the sloped armour was its more complicated manufacturing process and a reduction in internal space.

====Calculating sloped armour effective thickness====
A simple formula to calculate a tank's effective thickness (Line Of Sight, or LOS) due to sloping armour is with this: 

[LOS Effective Thickness vs Projectile Type] = ([Armour Thickness] × [Armor Modifier vs Projectile Type]) / cos ([Armour Angle]) 
'''Note:''' This formula does '''not''' factor in the possible horizontal '''or''' vertical angle of the target's armor plate relative to the shot's origin '''or''' deviations of the shell's angle of inclination due to bullet drop at longer ranges. We assume the target is placed on an even field and shot at from straight ahead at distance where the shell will hit the armor with 0° of bullet drop. 

For example: A '''Panther''' has an '''80 mm''' (armor thickness) front armour plate, sloped at an angle of '''55°''' (armor angle) and made out of '''RHA''' (armor modifier), being shot at by an AP projectile (armor modifier vs projectile = 1.0 vs KE). Thus, we input the values: 

(80 mm × 1.0) / cos (55°) = 80 mm / cos (55°) = 80 mm / 0.574 = 139.4 mm ≈ 140 mm (vs Kinetic AP) 

Thus, we get the value of how thick the Panther's sloped frontal armour is in a line-of-sight angle.

===Armour angling===
Outside of sloped armour, another way to improve the effective armour thickness on tanks is simply angling the armour towards the opponent. This means instead of sloping the armour in a vertical plane, instead angle sideways.

[[File:TigerIHTank Armour Angling.png|x200px|thumb|left|An example of armour angling with the [[Tiger_H1|Tiger I]], angled towards the opponent in its most optimum degree for best all-around armour.]]

This gives another form of thickness as not only does the round have to pass through a plane of armour, but two plane of the same armour, which would boost the effective thickness. This is best seen in vertical-faced armoured tanks like the [[Tiger H1|Tiger I tank]]. Though their vertical faced 100 mm front plate would only give 100 mm effectiveness, it was recommended in the ''Tigerfibel'' crew manual that a 45 degree diamond angle position would provide a front armour of nearly 130 mm of effective thickness.<ref name="Tigerfibel">Carruthers 2011</ref> This gives tank a chance to improve their effective front armour thickness especially when against enemies that would penetrate their front with little difficulty. However, beware of angling to much towards the enemy that it exposes the weaker side armour to enemy fire, which may have a chance of penetrating.

Some tanks attempt to implement this concept into the designs itself. One example is the Soviet [[IS-3]] with its "pike nose" front armour. Due to the sloping effect not only going back, but sweeping to the sides, this improves the IS-3 front armour effectiveness and ricochet chances.

===Spaced armour===
Spaced armour helps against anti-tank rounds in a form of disruption and denial. Spaced armour was first widely used by the Germans in the form of ''Schürzen'', attaching metal sheets away from the base armour of their Panzers. These metal sheets were intended to disrupt the kinetic energy of the Soviet 14.5 mm anti-tank rifles, which could penetrate the weaker side armour of their tanks. It does this by forcing much of the energy on the rifle round to be expelled on the ''Schürzen'' sheets, passing through and causing negligible damage on the base side armour. The ''Schürzen'' may also disrupt tank rounds as well, but the much greater kinetic energy of tank shells means that its disruption will be ineffective to all but the most sloped shots. Though there is a belief that the ''schürzen'' plates were meant to stop HEAT rounds from shoulder-launched weapons, the plates were not intentionally designed for this task.

Spaced armour was used in various formats in the Cold War tank designs. It was used as a form of protection against HEAT rounds from tank guns and rocket launchers, with the air separating the tank's base armour and the spaced armour acting to dissipate the HEAT's power before it reaches the hull. Spaced armour also works against kinetic penetrators by shattering the round on impact with the first layer. Though early kinetic rounds using brittle materials like tungsten were affected by this armour, better material like depleted uranium made the rounds more durable and proof against this type of armour.<ref name="MM.Spaced">M.m. 2015</ref>

===Explosive reactive armour (ERA)===
Explosive reactive armour (ERA) works by using an explosive force to disrupt an incoming armour-piercing ammunition. The construction of ERA usually takes the form of individual tiles made up of "reactive elements", which are sandwiched explosives in between sheets of metal. These tiles would be used around vulnerable points of a tank to provide protection at these locations.

Though ERA provides good protection against HEAT ammunition, high-velocity kinetic penetrators like APDS and APFSDS penetrates too quickly for the explosive force to be effective against them. This was a problem in early ERA designs, but more modern ERA types have been able to resist these ammunition. Even so, ERA still has drawbacks in that each explosive tile were one-time-use against the incoming round, leaving the exposed tank metal underneath once expended. ERA also has become vulnerable to tandem-charge ammunition, which use a two-stage detonation sequence with the first charge destroying the ERA plate and the second penetrating the armour underneath the plate. Finally, the ERA plates rarely cover the entire tank sections due to contouring and moving parts, so the armour is still exposed in various degrees to be hit and penetrated.

====History====
The first efforts in discovering this form of protection reach back to 1949 in the Soviet Union at the Nii Stali facility, although nothing much came out of it after failed tests and it was discontinued on the belief that the current armour on their main battle tanks was good enough. The traction did not continue again until German researcher Dr.Manfred Held, a shaped charge (HEAT) specialist, traveled to Israel on the conclusion of their 1967 Six-Day War. Examining several of the destroyed tanks from the conflict, he discovered that the force from exploding ammunition slightly reduced the effect of the shaped charge used. He then developed the first working ERA plate in 1970. Though this was the first effective iteration of the ERA, Held's design required the explosive mesh to be fitted inside empty cavities, integrated into the tank armour. Held improved on the design in the same year which consisted of a tiles formed with the reactive elements. This model would become the fundamental design of modern ERA.<ref name="MM.Era">M.m. 2016</ref>

The majority of the NATO countries did not buy into the explosive reactive armour that Held presented. He did not find anyone interested until he returned back to Israel in 1974, after the 1973 Yom-Kippur War. There, the Israeli government and the Israeli Defense Force were persuaded, perhaps from their combat experiences, to adopt the ERA as a protection for their tanks. The Israelis then produced the ''Blazer ERA'' plates which followed Held's design with reactive elements. The Blazer ERA will first see usage in the 1982 Lebanon War, the tiles attached onto M60 tanks to protect the steel hull against anti-tank weaponry.<ref name="MM.Era" />

The Soviet Union was the next country to use ERA, under the name ''Kontakt ERA''. It was first introduced in 1984 and featured a tile design similar to Blazers, though using one or two reactive elements stacked together for better effectiveness. Like the Blazer, these plates were highly effective against HEAT rounds, but were generally ineffective against kinetic penetrators. Following the Soviets, the reactive armour was soon adopted by many other countries in the 1980s, from mainly Eastern bloc countries such as Czechoslovakia, Ukraine, and Poland. Today the ERA plates are still viable against modern anti-tank weaponry, especially when complemented with other tank defensive measures.<ref name="MM.Era" />

===Composite armour===
''To be filled''

===[[Add-on Armor|Add-on armor]]===
{{main|Add-on Armor}}

Add-on armour is a form of improvisation of the tank armour usually done by the crew or a maintenance unit in the front lines. Due to the rushed nature of tank technology in World War II, armour once considered adequate on tanks can quickly become obsolete with the introduction of a new gun piece in the field or a new equipment, such as the [[KwK 36 (88 mm)]] on the [[Tiger H1|Tiger I]] and the ''Panzerfaust'' anti-tank launcher, both could cut through Sherman and T-34 armour with little resistance. The declining armour effectiveness against these weapons prompted the tank crews to attempt an expedient method to improve the armour quality of their tanks. Troops went and attached logs, sandbags, tracks, concrete, and metal sheets onto their tanks to improve its effective thickness. The usefulness against anti-tank rounds from tank shells and HEAT rounds are controversial. Some tankers swear by it and claim they were saved by their improvised armour while analysts say that the add-on armour has no effect at all in interfering with incoming rounds. What was universally accepted was that these add-on armour helped improve the tank crew morale when fighting the enemy, renewed in confidence with their "improved" tank armour. However, add-on armour increases the weight of the tank due to the add-on of materials and thus can cause a strain on the power train and suspension of tanks, prompting some commanders like General George S. Patton to ban the usage of improvised armour to improve tank reliability. The most useful add-on armour was the welding of additional sheets of metal onto the tank, as seen in the well-received reception of the up-armoured M4 Sherman in the form of the [[M4A3E2|"Jumbos"]].

From Update 1.57, a modification known as the ''Add-on Armour'' was added onto certain vehicles. The modification adds spare track links along the hull and turret of the vehicle. The track links, when added, give an average of 17 - 20 mm of additional armour where they are attached.

= Media =


;Videos
{{Youtube-gallery|mJO2sLI_jwU|'''The Shooting Range #19''' - ''Tactics & Strategy'' section at 04:53 discusses how to angle your armour.|Go91srkTM80|'''Explosive Reactive Armor and Composite Armor''' - ''War Thunder Official Channel''|o24D6yl_VLg|'''The Shooting Range #115''' - ''Tactics & Strategy'' section at 10:14 discusses how to maximize your armour while on the defensive.|B2woWvJK4ew|'''Top 7 most armoured vehicles''' - ''War Thunder Official Channel''|c7NXyv_vD1A|'''How to use the protection analysis tool in War Thunder''' - ''Skreezilla''}}

= External links =


* [[wt:en/news/5569-development-protection-analysis-en|[Development] Protection Analysis]]

==References==
<references />

==Sources==

* Bismarck. "⚜ | Yes, World War 2 Planes Had Armour BUT..." YouTube. YouTube, 17 Aug. 2017. Web. 26 Sept. 2017. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-v5aMayFrRE Video].
* Carruthers, Bob. Tiger I: Official Wartime Crew Manual (the Tigerfibel). Warwickshire: Coda, 2011. Print.
* M.m. "Explosive Reactive Armor - Some History, Some Types." Below The Turret Ring. Blogger, 28 Apr. 2016. Web. 25 Sept. 2017. [https://below-the-turret-ring.blogspot.com/2016/04/explosive-reactive-armor-some-history.html Website].
* M.m. "The Truth about Spaced Armor on Modern Tanks and AFVs." Below The Turret Ring. Blogger, 31 Dec. 2015. Web. 26 Sept. 2017. [https://below-the-turret-ring.blogspot.com/2015/12/the-truth-about-spaced-armor-on-modern.html Website].

[[Category:Game mechanics]]

Armour

2022-02-17T20:38:24Z

U16328860: /* Types of armour in-game */

=Armour=
'''Armour''' is the basic defense an entity has against threats. Armour can be found in both air and ground vehicles in War Thunder and plays a very important role to the vehicle's survivability.

== Types of armour in-game ==

* KE: Kinetic Energy
* CE: Chemical Energy

Armour modifier applies to both types of penetrators, unless specified.

<nowiki>*</nowiki>with add-on armour modification

{| class="wikitable"
! Material or Component !! Armour Modifier !! Examples
|-
! colspan="3" | Ground vehicles
|-
| '''Rolled homogeneous armour''' (RHA) || x1.00 ||
|-
| '''Modern RHA''' || x1.01 || {{Specs-Link|cn_ztz_96}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|germ_leopard_1a5}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_chieftain_mk_3}}
|-
| '''Cast homogeneous armour''' (CHA) || x0.94 ||
|-
| '''Modern CHA''' || x0.98 || {{Specs-Link|germ_kpz_70}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_merkava_mk_3d}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_64_b_1984}}
|-
| '''High hardness rolled armour''' (HHRA) || x1.25 || {{Specs-Link|germ_pzkpfw_III_ausf_L}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|it_centauro_mgs_120}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|sw_ikv_91}}
|-
| '''Modern HHRA''' || x1.10 || {{Specs-Link|sw_strv_122}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_m1128_mgs}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_bmp_2}}
|-
| '''Tracks''' || x0.75 ||
|-
| '''Structural steel''' || x0.45 ||
|-
| '''Structural steel of chassis''' || x0.60 ||
|-
| '''Wheel''' || x0.30 ||
|-
| '''Rubber-fabric screens''' || x0.20 || {{Specs-Link|it_of_40_mk_1}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_m901_itv}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_62m1}}
|-
| '''Composite screen''' || x0.16 KE x2.00 CE || {{Specs-Link|fr_leclerc_s2}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|jp_type_16}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_vickers_mk7}}
|-
| '''Air''' (Spaced armour) || x0.05 KE x0.30 CE || {{Specs-Link|fr_amx_32}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|germ_kpz_70}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_merkava_mk_1}}
|-
| '''Aluminium''' || x0.20 || {{Specs-Link|jp_st_a1}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_chieftain_mk_10}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_bmp_2m}}
|-
| '''Aluminium alloy 5083''' || x0.32 || {{Specs-Link|cn_cm_25}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|it_otobreda_sidam_25}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_m3_bradley}}
|-
| '''Aluminium alloy AA7017''' || x0.50 || {{Specs-Link|uk_fv102_striker}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_stormer_hvm}}
|-
| '''Aluminium alloy 7020''' || x0.50 || {{Specs-Link|it_centauro_mgs_120}}
|-
| '''Aluminium alloy 7039''' || x0.50 || {{Specs-Link|it_oto_r3_t20_fa}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|jp_type_75}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_t114}}
|-
| '''Alloy ABT-101''' || x0.38 || {{Specs-Link|ussr_bmp_2}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_object_685}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_object_906}}
|-
| '''Alloy ABT-102''' || x0.42 || {{Specs-Link|ussr_bmp_3}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_9p157}}
|-
| '''Aluminium alloy AMS 4050A''' || x0.50 || {{Specs-Link|fr_amx_10rc}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|jp_type_87}}
|-
| '''Alloy BT-6''' || x0.70 || {{Specs-Link|ussr_t_80b}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_80u}}
|-
| '''{{Annotation|ERA|Explosive Reactive Armour}}''' || x0.10 KE x5.00 CE || {{Specs-Link|cn_cm11}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|fr_amx_30_b2_brenus}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_m60a1_rise_passive_era}}
|-
| '''ERA''' || x0.50 KE x3.50 CE || {{Specs-Link|cn_type_59d}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|cn_type_69_2g}}
|-
| '''"Blazer" ERA''' || x0.10 KE x2.80 CE || {{Specs-Link|sw_strv_104}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_centurion_shot_kal_d}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|us_magach_3}}*
|-
| '''"CONTACT-1" ERA''' || x0.10 KE x2.50 CE
5mm KE 400mm CE
| {{Specs-Link|ussr_t_64_b_1984}}*{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_72av_turms}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_72b}}
|-
| '''"CONTACT-5" INTEGRATED ERA''' || 120 mm KE 400 - 450 mm CE || {{Specs-Link|ussr_t_72b3_2011}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_80u}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_t_90a}}
|-
| '''FY-4 ERA''' || x0.80 KE x2.00 CE || {{Specs-Link|cn_ztz_96a}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|cn_ztz_99}}
|-
| '''Integrated ERA''' || 10 mm KE 250 mm CE || {{Specs-Link|fr_leclerc_s1}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|fr_leclerc_s2}}
|-
| '''"ROMOR-A" ERA''' || x0.30 KE x3.50 CE
30mm KE 300mm CE
| {{Specs-Link|it_b1_centauro_romor}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_centurion_mk_5_avre_era}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_challenger_II}}
|-
| '''"Relict" ERA''' || 250mm KE

600mm CE
| {{Specs-Link|ussr_t_72b3_2011}}*
|-
| '''External composite armour with {{Annotation|NERA|Non-Energetic Reactive Armour}} elements''' || x0.10 KE x1.70 CE || {{Specs-Link|germ_leopard_2a6}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|jp_type_90b}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|uk_vickers_mk7}}
|-
| '''Wood''' || x0.05 || {{Specs-Link|cn_ztz_99}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_is_3}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|ussr_object_120}}
|-
| '''{{Annotation|MEXAS|Modular Expandable Armour System}} 2''' || x0.16 || {{Specs-Link|us_m1128_mgs}}
|-
| '''MEXAS 2C''' || x0.16 || {{Specs-Link|us_m1128_mgs}}
|-
! colspan="3" | Naval vessels
|-
| '''Rolled homogeneous armour''' || x1.00 ||
|-
| '''Rolled cemented armour''' || x1.10 || Heavy cruisers, battleships
|-
| '''Structural steel''' || x0.45 ||
|-
| '''Coal bunker''' || x0.01 ||
|-
| '''Concrete''' || x0.35 || {{Specs-Link|germ_artilleriefahrprahm_typ_d1}}{{-}}{{Specs-Link|germ_artilleriefahrprahm_typ_d3}}
|-
| '''Wood''' || x0.05 KE x0.00 CE ||
|-
| '''Antifragmentation armour''' || x0.90 ||
|-
| '''Hardened armour''' || x0.80 ||
|-
|}

=Aircraft=
Armour on aircraft are often minimum and focused on vital sections rather than on the overall airframe. Armour are often not taken into consideration in the design as armour constitutes more material and thus a heavier aircraft which would inhibit its performance due to weight penalty.<ref name="BismarckArmour">Bismarck 2017</ref>

Armour for pilots are thus usually never beyond the usage of bullet-resistant glass on the cockpit that could provide protection against rifle calibre ammunition. Though some armour plating are present in the back on some planes like the P-47, these were only thick enough for small calibers and serve more to slow down the incoming round so that it has little energy once it punches through. Other important areas that armour could be present on aircraft is around the engine. Important design features that dictate whether an aircraft design is more durable than others was in the airframe build quality, the air frame's ability to take damage, and adequate protections around vital components such as the engine, pilot, and fuel tanks.<ref name="BismarckArmour" />

=Tank=
==History==
===Interwar period===
Armour plays a very important role on tanks as they were conceived by it. The armour on the tanks at its inception made them invulnerable to the basic small arms fire, a trait that broke the stalemate of the trench warfare in World War I. During the interwar period, tank armour was prioritized on protection against firearms and artillery shrapnel. However, experience in the Spanish Civil War showed that this concept leaves the tank vulnerable to heavier guns. This is demonstrated when Italian tankettes and German Panzer I's, armed with only machine guns and simple 13 mm armour, went up against the Soviet [[T-26|T-26]], which had a 45 mm gun on its turret. The tank arms race increased armament and armour, evident on the German [[Pz.IV C|Panzer IV]] when armour increased from the initial 14.5 mm in 1936 to 30 mm in 1938 before World War II broke out.

===Early World War II===
During World War II, tank armour played a huge part in tank design. More armour means more weight on the tank and thus must be sparingly used to the tank mobility in acceptable margins. Tank armour in this period is separated by the three tank categories, light, medium, and heavy tanks. It was in this period that tank armour went through many technological advances. One of the perfect example is the French SOMUA S35 and the Soviet [[T-34 (1940)|T-34]]. The two vehicles made extensive usage of the concept of "sloped armour", which increased the armour effective thickness due to the difference in the line-of-sight thickness (See [[Armour#Sloped_armour|"Concepts"]] section). The Germans, which mainly used vertical-faced armour on their [[Pz.III F|Panzers]], struggled to take these vehicles out due to their strong armour against their inadequate guns. While the Battle of France did not incite Germany to quickly upgrade their armour and armament due to the small quantities of these kinds of tanks, the encounter with the T-34's in Operation Barbarossa came as a great shock due to the large number of T-34's available in Soviet inventory. The Germans, in a stage informally known as a "tank panic", rushed development to complete weapons able to destroy the T-34 and uparmour their tanks to withstand the Soviet 76 mm cannons. The Soviet T-34 and American [[M4A1|M4 Shermans]] caused great headaches in the German armoured forces due to their strong, sloped front armour in 1942, but that all changed in 1943 and beyond.

===Late World War II===
The year 1943 changed everything in the balance of tank power from the Allies with their T-34 and Shermans to the Germans. Germany introduced their newest tanks in large quantities, the [[Panther D|Panther]] and the [[Tiger H1|Tiger I]] tanks. These vehicles introduced powerful cannons and a new redefinition of the term "armour" for tanks. The Tiger I came with an astounding 100 mm armour thickness in front. Though vertical-faced and thus did not have the benefit of "sloped armour", the guns on Shermans and T-34 at the time could not penetrate the front plate at standard combat ranges, forcing the Allied medium tanks to close in for a kill. The Panther had 80 mm of frontal armour, but that armour was sloped at a 55° from vertical and caused the effective armour to instead be ''140 mm'' thick. Thus, the Panther was basically invulnerable in the hull front from any anti-tank weapon in existence in Allied inventory at that time. The Germans also started to extensively used an armour called ''Schürzen'', which is a form of "spaced armour" that provided additional protection to their tank's weak side armour. The two new tanks, plus a new one in the form of the [[Tiger II (H)|Tiger II]] with 150 mm of frontal armour sloped for effective thickness of ~230 mm, caused turmoil in the Allied armoured forces as they find a way to easily destroy the new tanks. They were never able to compete against the German's in terms of armour thickness until after World War II.

===Cold War===
By the end of World War II, sloping armour had become a ubiquitous concept and every tank designed has it from the American [[M60|M60]], British [[Centurion Mk 3|Centurion]], and Soviet [[T-54 (1951)|T-54/55]] tanks. With increasing tank armour equaling to increased weight, countries try to keep their tank weight in manageable ranges while making the armour up to date with current threats. By early 1960s, anti-tank technology such as the [[Anti-tank_guided_missiles|anti-tank guided missiles (ATGM)]] has grown to the point where it requires a large amount of steel to make the armour thick enough to resist the threat, but the amount was prohibitive and made the tank too heavy. Some nations such as Germany tried to solve this by relying on mobility at the expense of armour such as the [[Leopard I]], but it became clear a new type of armour is needed. It came in the form of "composite armour", which used steel combined with a variety of material such as plastic and ceramic that can resist penetration more effectively at a lighter weight. Composite armour soon became the new standard of tank armour throughout the world. Another armour developed in the Cold War was the "explosive reactive armour", which used an explosive to deflect a penetration property. Explosive reactive armour, or ERA, was highly effective against the ubiquitous HEATFS rounds used as anti-tank weapons. These armour technology saved the tanks from becoming obsolete during the Cold War against the new anti-tank missile threat that allows a small infantry crew to destroy a tank as far as 2000 meters away. Composite armour, ERA, and the increasing lethality of tank armament helped revolutionize the tank concept from light, medium, and heavy tanks into the new, universal "main battle tank".

==Concepts==
===Sloped armour===
[[File:T-54 Training Parola Tank Museum.jpg|x200px|thumb|right|A cut-out of a [[T-54 (1951)|T-54]] to show the effectiveness of sloping armour.]]

Sloped armour is effectively angling the armour of a tank on an angle rather than placed for a flat surface.

Slope armour presents the advantage of having a much thicker effective armour on a tanks for a lighter weight due to using a thinner armour plate. The sloped nature also increases the chance of the impacting shell to simply ricochet or deflect off, doing no effect to the armour. The disadvantage of the sloped armour was its more complicated manufacturing process and a reduction in internal space.

====Calculating sloped armour effective thickness====
A simple formula to calculate a tank's effective thickness (Line Of Sight, or LOS) due to sloping armour is with this: 

[LOS Effective Thickness vs Projectile Type] = ([Armour Thickness] × [Armor Modifier vs Projectile Type]) / cos ([Armour Angle]) 
'''Note:''' This formula does '''not''' factor in the possible horizontal '''or''' vertical angle of the target's armor plate relative to the shot's origin '''or''' deviations of the shell's angle of inclination due to bullet drop at longer ranges. We assume the target is placed on an even field and shot at from straight ahead at distance where the shell will hit the armor with 0° of bullet drop. 

For example: A '''Panther''' has an '''80 mm''' (armor thickness) front armour plate, sloped at an angle of '''55°''' (armor angle) and made out of '''RHA''' (armor modifier), being shot at by an AP projectile (armor modifier vs projectile = 1.0 vs KE). Thus, we input the values: 

(80 mm × 1.0) / cos (55°) = 80 mm / cos (55°) = 80 mm / 0.574 = 139.4 mm ≈ 140 mm (vs Kinetic AP) 

Thus, we get the value of how thick the Panther's sloped frontal armour is in a line-of-sight angle.

===Armour angling===
Outside of sloped armour, another way to improve the effective armour thickness on tanks is simply angling the armour towards the opponent. This means instead of sloping the armour in a vertical plane, instead angle sideways.

[[File:TigerIHTank Armour Angling.png|x200px|thumb|left|An example of armour angling with the [[Tiger_H1|Tiger I]], angled towards the opponent in its most optimum degree for best all-around armour.]]

This gives another form of thickness as not only does the round have to pass through a plane of armour, but two plane of the same armour, which would boost the effective thickness. This is best seen in vertical-faced armoured tanks like the [[Tiger H1|Tiger I tank]]. Though their vertical faced 100 mm front plate would only give 100 mm effectiveness, it was recommended in the ''Tigerfibel'' crew manual that a 45 degree diamond angle position would provide a front armour of nearly 130 mm of effective thickness.<ref name="Tigerfibel">Carruthers 2011</ref> This gives tank a chance to improve their effective front armour thickness especially when against enemies that would penetrate their front with little difficulty. However, beware of angling to much towards the enemy that it exposes the weaker side armour to enemy fire, which may have a chance of penetrating.

Some tanks attempt to implement this concept into the designs itself. One example is the Soviet [[IS-3]] with its "pike nose" front armour. Due to the sloping effect not only going back, but sweeping to the sides, this improves the IS-3 front armour effectiveness and ricochet chances.

===Spaced armour===
Spaced armour helps against anti-tank rounds in a form of disruption and denial. Spaced armour was first widely used by the Germans in the form of ''Schürzen'', attaching metal sheets away from the base armour of their Panzers. These metal sheets were intended to disrupt the kinetic energy of the Soviet 14.5 mm anti-tank rifles, which could penetrate the weaker side armour of their tanks. It does this by forcing much of the energy on the rifle round to be expelled on the ''Schürzen'' sheets, passing through and causing negligible damage on the base side armour. The ''Schürzen'' may also disrupt tank rounds as well, but the much greater kinetic energy of tank shells means that its disruption will be ineffective to all but the most sloped shots. Though there is a belief that the ''schürzen'' plates were meant to stop HEAT rounds from shoulder-launched weapons, the plates were not intentionally designed for this task.

Spaced armour was used in various formats in the Cold War tank designs. It was used as a form of protection against HEAT rounds from tank guns and rocket launchers, with the air separating the tank's base armour and the spaced armour acting to dissipate the HEAT's power before it reaches the hull. Spaced armour also works against kinetic penetrators by shattering the round on impact with the first layer. Though early kinetic rounds using brittle materials like tungsten were affected by this armour, better material like depleted uranium made the rounds more durable and proof against this type of armour.<ref name="MM.Spaced">M.m. 2015</ref>

===Explosive reactive armour (ERA)===
Explosive reactive armour (ERA) works by using an explosive force to disrupt an incoming armour-piercing ammunition. The construction of ERA usually takes the form of individual tiles made up of "reactive elements", which are sandwiched explosives in between sheets of metal. These tiles would be used around vulnerable points of a tank to provide protection at these locations.

Though ERA provides good protection against HEAT ammunition, high-velocity kinetic penetrators like APDS and APFSDS penetrates too quickly for the explosive force to be effective against them. This was a problem in early ERA designs, but more modern ERA types have been able to resist these ammunition. Even so, ERA still has drawbacks in that each explosive tile were one-time-use against the incoming round, leaving the exposed tank metal underneath once expended. ERA also has become vulnerable to tandem-charge ammunition, which use a two-stage detonation sequence with the first charge destroying the ERA plate and the second penetrating the armour underneath the plate. Finally, the ERA plates rarely cover the entire tank sections due to contouring and moving parts, so the armour is still exposed in various degrees to be hit and penetrated.

====History====
The first efforts in discovering this form of protection reach back to 1949 in the Soviet Union at the Nii Stali facility, although nothing much came out of it after failed tests and it was discontinued on the belief that the current armour on their main battle tanks was good enough. The traction did not continue again until German researcher Dr.Manfred Held, a shaped charge (HEAT) specialist, traveled to Israel on the conclusion of their 1967 Six-Day War. Examining several of the destroyed tanks from the conflict, he discovered that the force from exploding ammunition slightly reduced the effect of the shaped charge used. He then developed the first working ERA plate in 1970. Though this was the first effective iteration of the ERA, Held's design required the explosive mesh to be fitted inside empty cavities, integrated into the tank armour. Held improved on the design in the same year which consisted of a tiles formed with the reactive elements. This model would become the fundamental design of modern ERA.<ref name="MM.Era">M.m. 2016</ref>

The majority of the NATO countries did not buy into the explosive reactive armour that Held presented. He did not find anyone interested until he returned back to Israel in 1974, after the 1973 Yom-Kippur War. There, the Israeli government and the Israeli Defense Force were persuaded, perhaps from their combat experiences, to adopt the ERA as a protection for their tanks. The Israelis then produced the ''Blazer ERA'' plates which followed Held's design with reactive elements. The Blazer ERA will first see usage in the 1982 Lebanon War, the tiles attached onto M60 tanks to protect the steel hull against anti-tank weaponry.<ref name="MM.Era" />

The Soviet Union was the next country to use ERA, under the name ''Kontakt ERA''. It was first introduced in 1984 and featured a tile design similar to Blazers, though using one or two reactive elements stacked together for better effectiveness. Like the Blazer, these plates were highly effective against HEAT rounds, but were generally ineffective against kinetic penetrators. Following the Soviets, the reactive armour was soon adopted by many other countries in the 1980s, from mainly Eastern bloc countries such as Czechoslovakia, Ukraine, and Poland. Today the ERA plates are still viable against modern anti-tank weaponry, especially when complemented with other tank defensive measures.<ref name="MM.Era" />

===Composite armour===
''To be filled''

===[[Add-on Armor|Add-on armor]]===
{{main|Add-on Armor}}

Add-on armour is a form of improvisation of the tank armour usually done by the crew or a maintenance unit in the front lines. Due to the rushed nature of tank technology in World War II, armour once considered adequate on tanks can quickly become obsolete with the introduction of a new gun piece in the field or a new equipment, such as the [[KwK 36 (88 mm)]] on the [[Tiger H1|Tiger I]] and the ''Panzerfaust'' anti-tank launcher, both could cut through Sherman and T-34 armour with little resistance. The declining armour effectiveness against these weapons prompted the tank crews to attempt an expedient method to improve the armour quality of their tanks. Troops went and attached logs, sandbags, tracks, concrete, and metal sheets onto their tanks to improve its effective thickness. The usefulness against anti-tank rounds from tank shells and HEAT rounds are controversial. Some tankers swear by it and claim they were saved by their improvised armour while analysts say that the add-on armour has no effect at all in interfering with incoming rounds. What was universally accepted was that these add-on armour helped improve the tank crew morale when fighting the enemy, renewed in confidence with their "improved" tank armour. However, add-on armour increases the weight of the tank due to the add-on of materials and thus can cause a strain on the power train and suspension of tanks, prompting some commanders like General George S. Patton to ban the usage of improvised armour to improve tank reliability. The most useful add-on armour was the welding of additional sheets of metal onto the tank, as seen in the well-received reception of the up-armoured M4 Sherman in the form of the [[M4A3E2|"Jumbos"]].

From Update 1.57, a modification known as the ''Add-on Armour'' was added onto certain vehicles. The modification adds spare track links along the hull and turret of the vehicle. The track links, when added, give an average of 17 - 20 mm of additional armour where they are attached.

= Media =


;Videos
{{Youtube-gallery|mJO2sLI_jwU|'''The Shooting Range #19''' - ''Tactics & Strategy'' section at 04:53 discusses how to angle your armour.|Go91srkTM80|'''Explosive Reactive Armor and Composite Armor''' - ''War Thunder Official Channel''|o24D6yl_VLg|'''The Shooting Range #115''' - ''Tactics & Strategy'' section at 10:14 discusses how to maximize your armour while on the defensive.|B2woWvJK4ew|'''Top 7 most armoured vehicles''' - ''War Thunder Official Channel''|c7NXyv_vD1A|'''How to use the protection analysis tool in War Thunder''' - ''Skreezilla''}}

= External links =


* [[wt:en/news/5569-development-protection-analysis-en|[Development] Protection Analysis]]

==References==
<references />

==Sources==

* Bismarck. "⚜ | Yes, World War 2 Planes Had Armour BUT..." YouTube. YouTube, 17 Aug. 2017. Web. 26 Sept. 2017. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-v5aMayFrRE Video].
* Carruthers, Bob. Tiger I: Official Wartime Crew Manual (the Tigerfibel). Warwickshire: Coda, 2011. Print.
* M.m. "Explosive Reactive Armor - Some History, Some Types." Below The Turret Ring. Blogger, 28 Apr. 2016. Web. 25 Sept. 2017. [https://below-the-turret-ring.blogspot.com/2016/04/explosive-reactive-armor-some-history.html Website].
* M.m. "The Truth about Spaced Armor on Modern Tanks and AFVs." Below The Turret Ring. Blogger, 31 Dec. 2015. Web. 26 Sept. 2017. [https://below-the-turret-ring.blogspot.com/2015/12/the-truth-about-spaced-armor-on-modern.html Website].

[[Category:Game mechanics]]

2A46M-5 (125 mm)

2022-02-02T14:10:25Z

U16328860: /* Available ammunition */

2A46M-5 (125 mm)

2022-02-02T14:07:23Z

U16328860: /* Available ammunition */ Added shell table

U-5TS (115 mm)

2022-02-02T14:04:39Z

U16328860: /* Available ammunition */

== Description ==
''Write an introduction to the article in 2-3 small paragraphs. Briefly tell us about the history of the development and combat using the weaponry and also about its features. Compile a list of air, ground, or naval vehicles that feature this weapon system in the game.''

=== Vehicles equipped with this weapon ===


* {{Specs-Link|ussr_t_62}}
* {{Specs-Link|cn_t_62}}
* {{Specs-Link|ussr_t_62m1}}

== General info ==
''Tell us about the tactical and technical characteristics of the cannon or machine gun.''

=== Available ammunition ===
{| class="wikitable sortable" width="100%" style="text-align:center"
! colspan="8" |Penetration statistics
|-
! rowspan="2" data-sort-type="text" |Ammunition
! rowspan="2" |Type of
warhead
! colspan="6" |Penetration @ 0° Angle of Attack (mm)
|-
!10 m!!100 m!!500 m!!1,000 m!!1,500 m!!2,000 m
|-
|3BM4||APFSDS||285||279||263||243||222||202
|-
|3BM3||APFSDS||350||347||322||300||283||270
|-
|3BK4||HEATFS||440||440||440||440||440||440
|-
|3OF11||HE||31||31||31||31||31||31
|-
|3BK15M
|HEATFS
|500
|500
|500
|500
|500
|500
|-
|3OF27
|HE
|40
|40
|40
|40
|40
|40
|-
|9M117
|ATGM
|600
|600
|600
|600
|600
|600
|-
|3BM21
|APFSDS
|420
|415
|405
|390
|380
|370
|-
|3BM28
|APFSDS
|386
|384
|377
|369
|361
|352
|}
{| class="wikitable sortable" width="100%" style="text-align:center"
! colspan="10" |Shell details
|-
! rowspan="2" data-sort-type="text" |Ammunition
! rowspan="2" |Type of
warhead
! rowspan="2" |Velocity
(m/s)
! rowspan="2" |Projectile
Mass (kg)
! rowspan="2" |Fuse delay
(m)
! rowspan="2" |Fuse sensitivity
(mm)
! rowspan="2" |Explosive Mass
(TNT equivalent) (g)
! colspan="3" |Ricochet
|-
!0%!!50%!!100%
|-
|3BM4||APFSDS||1,615||4||N/A||N/A||N/A||72°||76°||78°
|-
|3BM3||APFSDS||1,615||4||N/A||N/A||N/A||76°||77°||80°
|-
|3BK4||HEATFS||950||12.97||0.05||0.1||2,280||65°||72°||77°
|-
|3OF11||HE||905||14.86||0||0.1||2,640||79°||80°||81°
|-
|3BK15M
|HEATFS
|1,060
|12.2
|0.05
|0.1
|2,280
|65°
|72°
|77°
|-
|3OF27
|HE
|800
|17.82
|0
|0.1
|4,820
|79°
|80°
|81°
|-
|3BM21
|APFSDS
|1,600
|4.55
|N/A
|N/A
|N/A
|76°
|77°
|80°
|-
|3BM28
|APFSDS
|1,600
|4.88
|N/A
|N/A
|N/A
|78°
|80°
|81°
|}
{| class="wikitable sortable" width="100%" style="text-align:center"
! colspan="11" |Shell details
|-
! rowspan="2" data-sort-type="text" |Ammunition
! rowspan="2" |Type of
warhead
! rowspan="2" |Velocity
(m/s)
! rowspan="2" |Range
(m)
! rowspan="2" |Projectile
Mass (kg)
! rowspan="2" |Fuse delay
(m)
! rowspan="2" |Fuse sensitivity
(mm)
! rowspan="2" |Explosive Mass
(TNT equivalent) (g)
! colspan="3" |Ricochet
|-
!0%!!50%!!100%
|-
|9M117||ATGM||370||5,000||18.8||0.05||0.1||4,620||80°||82°||90°
|}
=== Comparison with analogues ===
''Give a comparative description of cannons/machine guns that have firepower equal to this weapon.''

== Usage in battles ==
''Describe the cannon/machine gun in the game - its distinctive features, tactics of usage against notable opponents. Please don't write a "guide" - do not impose a single point of view, but give the reader food for thought.''

=== Pros and cons ===
''Summarise and briefly evaluate the weaponry in terms of its characteristics and combat effectiveness. Mark pros and cons as a list.''

'''Pros:'''

*

'''Cons:'''

*

== History ==

In 1952, there were considerations among the Soviet tank development bureaus to begin developing a new tank to replace the T-54 in Soviet service. This was finalized in 09 September 1952 in Resolution No.4169-1631 for the development of the "New Medium Tank".<ref name="Kinnear_2021(14)">Kinnear et al. 2021, 14</ref> The development focus lay in a a new new 100 mm D-54T gun developed by F.F. Petrov. Though attempts were made to fit the D-54T tank gun into the [[T-54 (1951)|T-54]] chassis, the gun's ammunition proved too large to be easily loaded within the turret.

The tank development project would be contested between Leonid N. Kartsev's project "Object 140" from Nizhny Tagil and Alexandr A Morozov's project "Object 430" from Kharkov. Kartsev's design would be cancelled in favor of Object 430, but continued development with a tank to use as many T-54/55 components and a larger turret culminated into the "Object 165". During this development, reports of a 100 mm T-12 smoothbore anti-tank gun showed the effectiveness of a smoothbore design. Kartsev consulted with F.F. Petrov on the feasibility of modifying the 100 mm D-54T into a smoothbore weapon. Upon finding the modification feasible without compromising the gun barrel's integrity, the 100 mm bored out into a 115 mm smoothbore gun. The weapon would be designated '''115 mm U-5TS''' under the project name "Molot" for "Hammer".<ref name="Kinnear_2021(24-25)">Kinnear et al. 2021, 24-25</ref>

The 115 mm U-5TS would have the accolade of being the first smoothbore tank gun in production in the world, which was then followed up with the first development of an armour-piercing fin-stabilized discarding-sabot (APFSDS) round. The benefits of smoothbore over the rifled D-54T design was apparent with an increased muzzle velocity, and therefore armour penetration, using the same amount of propellent. Kartsev would install this in his Object 165 tank, which would become known as "Object 166" with the 115 mm gun installed. While the 115 mm continued to remained in testing as the Object 166 continued to be evaluated, the process was soon expedited upon the Soviet discovery of 105 mm tank guns in NATO inventory in 1961 (namely the [[L7A1 (105 mm)|L7 gun]] equipped in new [[M60|American]], [[Leopard I|German]], and [[Centurion Mk 10|British]] tanks). The commander of the Soviet Grounds Forces, Vasily Ya. Chukov, was furious upon learning about this event and insisted the 115 mm must be put into service as soon as possible. As such, on 12 August 1961 with Resolution No. 729-305, the T-62 medium tank and attached 115 mm U-5TS (GAU designation ''2A20'') was accepted into Soviet service.<ref name="Kinnear_2021(29-31)">Kinnear et al. 2021, 29-31</ref>

== Media ==

[[File:WeaponImage 9M117.png|thumb|left|420px|The 9M117 ATGM fired by the U-5TS cannon (scale is approximate)]]
{{Break}}

== See also ==
''Links to the articles on the War Thunder Wiki that you think will be useful for the reader, for example:''

* ''reference to the article about the variant of the cannon/machine gun;''
* ''references to approximate analogues by other nations and research trees.''

== External links ==

===References===

;Citations:
<references />

;Bibliography:

* Kinnear, Jim and Stephen L. Sewell. 2021. ''Soviet T-62 Main Battle Tank''. Oxford: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc. Kindle.

{{USSR tank cannons}}
{{China tank cannons}}

[[Category:Tank cannons]]

U-5TS (115 mm)

2022-02-02T14:03:42Z

U16328860: /* Available ammunition */

== Description ==
''Write an introduction to the article in 2-3 small paragraphs. Briefly tell us about the history of the development and combat using the weaponry and also about its features. Compile a list of air, ground, or naval vehicles that feature this weapon system in the game.''

=== Vehicles equipped with this weapon ===


* {{Specs-Link|ussr_t_62}}
* {{Specs-Link|cn_t_62}}
* {{Specs-Link|ussr_t_62m1}}

== General info ==
''Tell us about the tactical and technical characteristics of the cannon or machine gun.''

=== Available ammunition ===
{| class="wikitable sortable" width="100%" style="text-align:center"
! colspan="8" |Penetration statistics
|-
! rowspan="2" data-sort-type="text" |Ammunition
! rowspan="2" |Type of
warhead
! colspan="6" |Penetration @ 0° Angle of Attack (mm)
|-
!10 m!!100 m!!500 m!!1,000 m!!1,500 m!!2,000 m
|-
|3BM4||APFSDS||285||279||263||243||222||202
|-
|3BM3||APFSDS||350||347||322||300||283||270
|-
|3BK4||HEATFS||440||440||440||440||440||440
|-
|3OF11||HE||31||31||31||31||31||31
|-
|3BK15M
|HEATFS
|500
|500
|500
|500
|500
|500
|-
|3OF27
|HE
|40
|40
|40
|40
|40
|40
|-
|9M117
|ATGM
|600
|600
|600
|600
|600
|600
|-
|3BM21
|APFSDS
|420
|415
|405
|390
|380
|370
|-
|3BM28
|APFSDS
|386
|384
|377
|369
|361
|352
|}
{| class="wikitable sortable" width="100%" style="text-align:center"
! colspan="10" |Shell details
|-
! rowspan="2" data-sort-type="text" |Ammunition
! rowspan="2" |Type of
warhead
! rowspan="2" |Velocity
(m/s)
! rowspan="2" |Projectile
Mass (kg)
! rowspan="2" |Fuse delay
(m)
! rowspan="2" |Fuse sensitivity
(mm)
! rowspan="2" |Explosive Mass
(TNT equivalent) (g)
! colspan="3" |Ricochet
|-
!0%!!50%!!100%
|-
|3BM4||APFSDS||1,615||4||N/A||N/A||N/A||72°||76°||78°
|-
|3BM3||APFSDS||1,615||4||N/A||N/A||N/A||76°||77°||80°
|-
|3BK4||HEATFS||950||12.97||0.05||0.1||2,280||65°||72°||77°
|-
|3OF11||HE||905||14.86||0||0.1||2,640||79°||80°||81°
|-
|3BK15M
|HEATFS
|1,060
|12.2
|0.05
|0.1
|2,280
|65°
|72°
|77°
|-
|3OF27
|HE
|800
|17.82
|0
|0.1
|4,820
|79°
|80°
|81°
|-
|3BM21
|APFSDS
|1,600
|4.55
|N/A
|N/A
|N/A
|76°
|77°
|80°
|-
|3BM28
|APFSDS
|1,600
|4.88
|N/A
|N/A
|N/A
|78°
|80°
|81°
|}
=== Comparison with analogues ===
''Give a comparative description of cannons/machine guns that have firepower equal to this weapon.''

== Usage in battles ==
''Describe the cannon/machine gun in the game - its distinctive features, tactics of usage against notable opponents. Please don't write a "guide" - do not impose a single point of view, but give the reader food for thought.''

=== Pros and cons ===
''Summarise and briefly evaluate the weaponry in terms of its characteristics and combat effectiveness. Mark pros and cons as a list.''

'''Pros:'''

*

'''Cons:'''

*

== History ==

In 1952, there were considerations among the Soviet tank development bureaus to begin developing a new tank to replace the T-54 in Soviet service. This was finalized in 09 September 1952 in Resolution No.4169-1631 for the development of the "New Medium Tank".<ref name="Kinnear_2021(14)">Kinnear et al. 2021, 14</ref> The development focus lay in a a new new 100 mm D-54T gun developed by F.F. Petrov. Though attempts were made to fit the D-54T tank gun into the [[T-54 (1951)|T-54]] chassis, the gun's ammunition proved too large to be easily loaded within the turret.

The tank development project would be contested between Leonid N. Kartsev's project "Object 140" from Nizhny Tagil and Alexandr A Morozov's project "Object 430" from Kharkov. Kartsev's design would be cancelled in favor of Object 430, but continued development with a tank to use as many T-54/55 components and a larger turret culminated into the "Object 165". During this development, reports of a 100 mm T-12 smoothbore anti-tank gun showed the effectiveness of a smoothbore design. Kartsev consulted with F.F. Petrov on the feasibility of modifying the 100 mm D-54T into a smoothbore weapon. Upon finding the modification feasible without compromising the gun barrel's integrity, the 100 mm bored out into a 115 mm smoothbore gun. The weapon would be designated '''115 mm U-5TS''' under the project name "Molot" for "Hammer".<ref name="Kinnear_2021(24-25)">Kinnear et al. 2021, 24-25</ref>

The 115 mm U-5TS would have the accolade of being the first smoothbore tank gun in production in the world, which was then followed up with the first development of an armour-piercing fin-stabilized discarding-sabot (APFSDS) round. The benefits of smoothbore over the rifled D-54T design was apparent with an increased muzzle velocity, and therefore armour penetration, using the same amount of propellent. Kartsev would install this in his Object 165 tank, which would become known as "Object 166" with the 115 mm gun installed. While the 115 mm continued to remained in testing as the Object 166 continued to be evaluated, the process was soon expedited upon the Soviet discovery of 105 mm tank guns in NATO inventory in 1961 (namely the [[L7A1 (105 mm)|L7 gun]] equipped in new [[M60|American]], [[Leopard I|German]], and [[Centurion Mk 10|British]] tanks). The commander of the Soviet Grounds Forces, Vasily Ya. Chukov, was furious upon learning about this event and insisted the 115 mm must be put into service as soon as possible. As such, on 12 August 1961 with Resolution No. 729-305, the T-62 medium tank and attached 115 mm U-5TS (GAU designation ''2A20'') was accepted into Soviet service.<ref name="Kinnear_2021(29-31)">Kinnear et al. 2021, 29-31</ref>

== Media ==

[[File:WeaponImage 9M117.png|thumb|left|420px|The 9M117 ATGM fired by the U-5TS cannon (scale is approximate)]]
{{Break}}

== See also ==
''Links to the articles on the War Thunder Wiki that you think will be useful for the reader, for example:''

* ''reference to the article about the variant of the cannon/machine gun;''
* ''references to approximate analogues by other nations and research trees.''

== External links ==

===References===

;Citations:
<references />

;Bibliography:

* Kinnear, Jim and Stephen L. Sewell. 2021. ''Soviet T-62 Main Battle Tank''. Oxford: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc. Kindle.

{{USSR tank cannons}}
{{China tank cannons}}

[[Category:Tank cannons]]

U-5TS (115 mm)

2022-02-02T14:02:37Z

U16328860: /* Available ammunition */

== Description ==
''Write an introduction to the article in 2-3 small paragraphs. Briefly tell us about the history of the development and combat using the weaponry and also about its features. Compile a list of air, ground, or naval vehicles that feature this weapon system in the game.''

=== Vehicles equipped with this weapon ===


* {{Specs-Link|ussr_t_62}}
* {{Specs-Link|cn_t_62}}
* {{Specs-Link|ussr_t_62m1}}

== General info ==
''Tell us about the tactical and technical characteristics of the cannon or machine gun.''

=== Available ammunition ===
{| class="wikitable sortable" width="100%" style="text-align:center"
! colspan="8" |Penetration statistics
|-
! rowspan="2" data-sort-type="text" |Ammunition
! rowspan="2" |Type of
warhead
! colspan="6" |Penetration @ 0° Angle of Attack (mm)
|-
!10 m!!100 m!!500 m!!1,000 m!!1,500 m!!2,000 m
|-
|3BM4||APFSDS||285||279||263||243||222||202
|-
|3BM3||APFSDS||350||347||322||300||283||270
|-
|3BK4||HEATFS||440||440||440||440||440||440
|-
|3OF11||HE||31||31||31||31||31||31
|-
|3BK15M
|HEATFS
|500
|500
|500
|500
|500
|500
|-
|3OF27
|HE
|40
|40
|40
|40
|40
|40
|-
|9M117
|ATGM
|600
|600
|600
|600
|600
|600
|-
|3BM21
|APFSDS
|420
|415
|405
|390
|380
|370
|-
|3BM28
|APFSDS
|386
|384
|377
|369
|361
|352
|}
{| class="wikitable sortable" width="100%" style="text-align:center"
! colspan="10" |Shell details
|-
! rowspan="2" data-sort-type="text" |Ammunition
! rowspan="2" |Type of
warhead
! rowspan="2" |Velocity
(m/s)
! rowspan="2" |Projectile
Mass (kg)
! rowspan="2" |Fuse delay
(m)
! rowspan="2" |Fuse sensitivity
(mm)
! rowspan="2" |Explosive Mass
(TNT equivalent) (g)
! colspan="3" |Ricochet
|-
!0%!!50%!!100%
|-
|3BM4||APFSDS||1,615||4||N/A||N/A||N/A||72°||76°||78°
|-
|3BM3||APFSDS||1,615||4||N/A||N/A||N/A||76°||77°||80°
|-
|3BK4||HEATFS||950||12.97||0.05||0.1||2,280||65°||72°||77°
|-
|3OF11||HE||905||14.86||0||0.1||2,640||79°||80°||81°
|}
=== Comparison with analogues ===
''Give a comparative description of cannons/machine guns that have firepower equal to this weapon.''

== Usage in battles ==
''Describe the cannon/machine gun in the game - its distinctive features, tactics of usage against notable opponents. Please don't write a "guide" - do not impose a single point of view, but give the reader food for thought.''

=== Pros and cons ===
''Summarise and briefly evaluate the weaponry in terms of its characteristics and combat effectiveness. Mark pros and cons as a list.''

'''Pros:'''

*

'''Cons:'''

*

== History ==

In 1952, there were considerations among the Soviet tank development bureaus to begin developing a new tank to replace the T-54 in Soviet service. This was finalized in 09 September 1952 in Resolution No.4169-1631 for the development of the "New Medium Tank".<ref name="Kinnear_2021(14)">Kinnear et al. 2021, 14</ref> The development focus lay in a a new new 100 mm D-54T gun developed by F.F. Petrov. Though attempts were made to fit the D-54T tank gun into the [[T-54 (1951)|T-54]] chassis, the gun's ammunition proved too large to be easily loaded within the turret.

The tank development project would be contested between Leonid N. Kartsev's project "Object 140" from Nizhny Tagil and Alexandr A Morozov's project "Object 430" from Kharkov. Kartsev's design would be cancelled in favor of Object 430, but continued development with a tank to use as many T-54/55 components and a larger turret culminated into the "Object 165". During this development, reports of a 100 mm T-12 smoothbore anti-tank gun showed the effectiveness of a smoothbore design. Kartsev consulted with F.F. Petrov on the feasibility of modifying the 100 mm D-54T into a smoothbore weapon. Upon finding the modification feasible without compromising the gun barrel's integrity, the 100 mm bored out into a 115 mm smoothbore gun. The weapon would be designated '''115 mm U-5TS''' under the project name "Molot" for "Hammer".<ref name="Kinnear_2021(24-25)">Kinnear et al. 2021, 24-25</ref>

The 115 mm U-5TS would have the accolade of being the first smoothbore tank gun in production in the world, which was then followed up with the first development of an armour-piercing fin-stabilized discarding-sabot (APFSDS) round. The benefits of smoothbore over the rifled D-54T design was apparent with an increased muzzle velocity, and therefore armour penetration, using the same amount of propellent. Kartsev would install this in his Object 165 tank, which would become known as "Object 166" with the 115 mm gun installed. While the 115 mm continued to remained in testing as the Object 166 continued to be evaluated, the process was soon expedited upon the Soviet discovery of 105 mm tank guns in NATO inventory in 1961 (namely the [[L7A1 (105 mm)|L7 gun]] equipped in new [[M60|American]], [[Leopard I|German]], and [[Centurion Mk 10|British]] tanks). The commander of the Soviet Grounds Forces, Vasily Ya. Chukov, was furious upon learning about this event and insisted the 115 mm must be put into service as soon as possible. As such, on 12 August 1961 with Resolution No. 729-305, the T-62 medium tank and attached 115 mm U-5TS (GAU designation ''2A20'') was accepted into Soviet service.<ref name="Kinnear_2021(29-31)">Kinnear et al. 2021, 29-31</ref>

== Media ==

[[File:WeaponImage 9M117.png|thumb|left|420px|The 9M117 ATGM fired by the U-5TS cannon (scale is approximate)]]
{{Break}}

== See also ==
''Links to the articles on the War Thunder Wiki that you think will be useful for the reader, for example:''

* ''reference to the article about the variant of the cannon/machine gun;''
* ''references to approximate analogues by other nations and research trees.''

== External links ==

===References===

;Citations:
<references />

;Bibliography:

* Kinnear, Jim and Stephen L. Sewell. 2021. ''Soviet T-62 Main Battle Tank''. Oxford: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc. Kindle.

{{USSR tank cannons}}
{{China tank cannons}}

[[Category:Tank cannons]]

U-5TS (115 mm)

2022-02-02T14:00:30Z

U16328860: /* Available ammunition */

== Description ==
''Write an introduction to the article in 2-3 small paragraphs. Briefly tell us about the history of the development and combat using the weaponry and also about its features. Compile a list of air, ground, or naval vehicles that feature this weapon system in the game.''

=== Vehicles equipped with this weapon ===


* {{Specs-Link|ussr_t_62}}
* {{Specs-Link|cn_t_62}}
* {{Specs-Link|ussr_t_62m1}}

== General info ==
''Tell us about the tactical and technical characteristics of the cannon or machine gun.''

=== Available ammunition ===
{| class="wikitable sortable" width="100%" style="text-align:center"
! colspan="8" |Penetration statistics
|-
! rowspan="2" data-sort-type="text" |Ammunition
! rowspan="2" |Type of
warhead
! colspan="6" |Penetration @ 0° Angle of Attack (mm)
|-
!10 m!!100 m!!500 m!!1,000 m!!1,500 m!!2,000 m
|-
|3BM4||APFSDS||285||279||263||243||222||202
|-
|3BM3||APFSDS||350||347||322||300||283||270
|-
|3BK4||HEATFS||440||440||440||440||440||440
|-
|3OF11||HE||31||31||31||31||31||31
|}
{| class="wikitable sortable" width="100%" style="text-align:center"
! colspan="10" |Shell details
|-
! rowspan="2" data-sort-type="text" |Ammunition
! rowspan="2" |Type of
warhead
! rowspan="2" |Velocity
(m/s)
! rowspan="2" |Projectile
Mass (kg)
! rowspan="2" |Fuse delay
(m)
! rowspan="2" |Fuse sensitivity
(mm)
! rowspan="2" |Explosive Mass
(TNT equivalent) (g)
! colspan="3" |Ricochet
|-
!0%!!50%!!100%
|-
|3BM4||APFSDS||1,615||4||N/A||N/A||N/A||72°||76°||78°
|-
|3BM3||APFSDS||1,615||4||N/A||N/A||N/A||76°||77°||80°
|-
|3BK4||HEATFS||950||12.97||0.05||0.1||2,280||65°||72°||77°
|-
|3OF11||HE||905||14.86||0||0.1||2,640||79°||80°||81°
|}
=== Comparison with analogues ===
''Give a comparative description of cannons/machine guns that have firepower equal to this weapon.''

== Usage in battles ==
''Describe the cannon/machine gun in the game - its distinctive features, tactics of usage against notable opponents. Please don't write a "guide" - do not impose a single point of view, but give the reader food for thought.''

=== Pros and cons ===
''Summarise and briefly evaluate the weaponry in terms of its characteristics and combat effectiveness. Mark pros and cons as a list.''

'''Pros:'''

*

'''Cons:'''

*

== History ==

In 1952, there were considerations among the Soviet tank development bureaus to begin developing a new tank to replace the T-54 in Soviet service. This was finalized in 09 September 1952 in Resolution No.4169-1631 for the development of the "New Medium Tank".<ref name="Kinnear_2021(14)">Kinnear et al. 2021, 14</ref> The development focus lay in a a new new 100 mm D-54T gun developed by F.F. Petrov. Though attempts were made to fit the D-54T tank gun into the [[T-54 (1951)|T-54]] chassis, the gun's ammunition proved too large to be easily loaded within the turret.

The tank development project would be contested between Leonid N. Kartsev's project "Object 140" from Nizhny Tagil and Alexandr A Morozov's project "Object 430" from Kharkov. Kartsev's design would be cancelled in favor of Object 430, but continued development with a tank to use as many T-54/55 components and a larger turret culminated into the "Object 165". During this development, reports of a 100 mm T-12 smoothbore anti-tank gun showed the effectiveness of a smoothbore design. Kartsev consulted with F.F. Petrov on the feasibility of modifying the 100 mm D-54T into a smoothbore weapon. Upon finding the modification feasible without compromising the gun barrel's integrity, the 100 mm bored out into a 115 mm smoothbore gun. The weapon would be designated '''115 mm U-5TS''' under the project name "Molot" for "Hammer".<ref name="Kinnear_2021(24-25)">Kinnear et al. 2021, 24-25</ref>

The 115 mm U-5TS would have the accolade of being the first smoothbore tank gun in production in the world, which was then followed up with the first development of an armour-piercing fin-stabilized discarding-sabot (APFSDS) round. The benefits of smoothbore over the rifled D-54T design was apparent with an increased muzzle velocity, and therefore armour penetration, using the same amount of propellent. Kartsev would install this in his Object 165 tank, which would become known as "Object 166" with the 115 mm gun installed. While the 115 mm continued to remained in testing as the Object 166 continued to be evaluated, the process was soon expedited upon the Soviet discovery of 105 mm tank guns in NATO inventory in 1961 (namely the [[L7A1 (105 mm)|L7 gun]] equipped in new [[M60|American]], [[Leopard I|German]], and [[Centurion Mk 10|British]] tanks). The commander of the Soviet Grounds Forces, Vasily Ya. Chukov, was furious upon learning about this event and insisted the 115 mm must be put into service as soon as possible. As such, on 12 August 1961 with Resolution No. 729-305, the T-62 medium tank and attached 115 mm U-5TS (GAU designation ''2A20'') was accepted into Soviet service.<ref name="Kinnear_2021(29-31)">Kinnear et al. 2021, 29-31</ref>

== Media ==

[[File:WeaponImage 9M117.png|thumb|left|420px|The 9M117 ATGM fired by the U-5TS cannon (scale is approximate)]]
{{Break}}

== See also ==
''Links to the articles on the War Thunder Wiki that you think will be useful for the reader, for example:''

* ''reference to the article about the variant of the cannon/machine gun;''
* ''references to approximate analogues by other nations and research trees.''

== External links ==

===References===

;Citations:
<references />

;Bibliography:

* Kinnear, Jim and Stephen L. Sewell. 2021. ''Soviet T-62 Main Battle Tank''. Oxford: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc. Kindle.

{{USSR tank cannons}}
{{China tank cannons}}

[[Category:Tank cannons]]

U-5TS (115 mm)

2022-02-02T13:59:51Z

U16328860:

== Description ==
''Write an introduction to the article in 2-3 small paragraphs. Briefly tell us about the history of the development and combat using the weaponry and also about its features. Compile a list of air, ground, or naval vehicles that feature this weapon system in the game.''

=== Vehicles equipped with this weapon ===


* {{Specs-Link|ussr_t_62}}
* {{Specs-Link|cn_t_62}}
* {{Specs-Link|ussr_t_62m1}}

== General info ==
''Tell us about the tactical and technical characteristics of the cannon or machine gun.''

=== Available ammunition ===

{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible"
! colspan="8" |Penetration statistics
|-
! rowspan="2" |Ammunition
! rowspan="2" |Type of
warhead
! colspan="6" |Penetration @ 0° Angle of Attack (mm)
|-
!10m
!100m
!500m
!1000m
!1500m
!2000m
|-
|3BM4
|APFSDS
|285
|279
|263
|243
|222
|202
|-
|3BM3
|APFSDS
|350
|347
|322
|300
|283
|270
|-
|3BK4
|HEATFS
|440
|440
|440
|440
|440
|440
|-
|3OF11
|HE
|31
|31
|31
|31
|31
|31
|}

{| class="wikitable sortable" width="100%" style="text-align:center"
! colspan="10" |Shell details
|-
! rowspan="2" data-sort-type="text" |Ammunition
! rowspan="2" |Type of
warhead
! rowspan="2" |Velocity
(m/s)
! rowspan="2" |Projectile
Mass (kg)
! rowspan="2" |Fuse delay
(m)
! rowspan="2" |Fuse sensitivity
(mm)
! rowspan="2" |Explosive Mass
(TNT equivalent) (g)
! colspan="3" |Ricochet
|-
!0%!!50%!!100%
|-
|3BM4||APFSDS||1,615||4||N/A||N/A||N/A||72°||76°||78°
|-
|3BM3||APFSDS||1,615||4||N/A||N/A||N/A||76°||77°||80°
|-
|3BK4||HEATFS||950||12.97||0.05||0.1||2,280||65°||72°||77°
|-
|3OF11||HE||905||14.86||0||0.1||2,640||79°||80°||81°
|}
=== Comparison with analogues ===
''Give a comparative description of cannons/machine guns that have firepower equal to this weapon.''

== Usage in battles ==
''Describe the cannon/machine gun in the game - its distinctive features, tactics of usage against notable opponents. Please don't write a "guide" - do not impose a single point of view, but give the reader food for thought.''

=== Pros and cons ===
''Summarise and briefly evaluate the weaponry in terms of its characteristics and combat effectiveness. Mark pros and cons as a list.''

'''Pros:'''

*

'''Cons:'''

*

== History ==

In 1952, there were considerations among the Soviet tank development bureaus to begin developing a new tank to replace the T-54 in Soviet service. This was finalized in 09 September 1952 in Resolution No.4169-1631 for the development of the "New Medium Tank".<ref name="Kinnear_2021(14)">Kinnear et al. 2021, 14</ref> The development focus lay in a a new new 100 mm D-54T gun developed by F.F. Petrov. Though attempts were made to fit the D-54T tank gun into the [[T-54 (1951)|T-54]] chassis, the gun's ammunition proved too large to be easily loaded within the turret.

The tank development project would be contested between Leonid N. Kartsev's project "Object 140" from Nizhny Tagil and Alexandr A Morozov's project "Object 430" from Kharkov. Kartsev's design would be cancelled in favor of Object 430, but continued development with a tank to use as many T-54/55 components and a larger turret culminated into the "Object 165". During this development, reports of a 100 mm T-12 smoothbore anti-tank gun showed the effectiveness of a smoothbore design. Kartsev consulted with F.F. Petrov on the feasibility of modifying the 100 mm D-54T into a smoothbore weapon. Upon finding the modification feasible without compromising the gun barrel's integrity, the 100 mm bored out into a 115 mm smoothbore gun. The weapon would be designated '''115 mm U-5TS''' under the project name "Molot" for "Hammer".<ref name="Kinnear_2021(24-25)">Kinnear et al. 2021, 24-25</ref>

The 115 mm U-5TS would have the accolade of being the first smoothbore tank gun in production in the world, which was then followed up with the first development of an armour-piercing fin-stabilized discarding-sabot (APFSDS) round. The benefits of smoothbore over the rifled D-54T design was apparent with an increased muzzle velocity, and therefore armour penetration, using the same amount of propellent. Kartsev would install this in his Object 165 tank, which would become known as "Object 166" with the 115 mm gun installed. While the 115 mm continued to remained in testing as the Object 166 continued to be evaluated, the process was soon expedited upon the Soviet discovery of 105 mm tank guns in NATO inventory in 1961 (namely the [[L7A1 (105 mm)|L7 gun]] equipped in new [[M60|American]], [[Leopard I|German]], and [[Centurion Mk 10|British]] tanks). The commander of the Soviet Grounds Forces, Vasily Ya. Chukov, was furious upon learning about this event and insisted the 115 mm must be put into service as soon as possible. As such, on 12 August 1961 with Resolution No. 729-305, the T-62 medium tank and attached 115 mm U-5TS (GAU designation ''2A20'') was accepted into Soviet service.<ref name="Kinnear_2021(29-31)">Kinnear et al. 2021, 29-31</ref>

== Media ==

[[File:WeaponImage 9M117.png|thumb|left|420px|The 9M117 ATGM fired by the U-5TS cannon (scale is approximate)]]
{{Break}}

== See also ==
''Links to the articles on the War Thunder Wiki that you think will be useful for the reader, for example:''

* ''reference to the article about the variant of the cannon/machine gun;''
* ''references to approximate analogues by other nations and research trees.''

== External links ==

===References===

;Citations:
<references />

;Bibliography:

* Kinnear, Jim and Stephen L. Sewell. 2021. ''Soviet T-62 Main Battle Tank''. Oxford: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc. Kindle.

{{USSR tank cannons}}
{{China tank cannons}}

[[Category:Tank cannons]]

U-5TS (115 mm)

2022-02-02T13:59:25Z

U16328860: Added shell table

== Description ==
''Write an introduction to the article in 2-3 small paragraphs. Briefly tell us about the history of the development and combat using the weaponry and also about its features. Compile a list of air, ground, or naval vehicles that feature this weapon system in the game.''

=== Vehicles equipped with this weapon ===


* {{Specs-Link|ussr_t_62}}
* {{Specs-Link|cn_t_62}}
* {{Specs-Link|ussr_t_62m1}}

== General info ==
''Tell us about the tactical and technical characteristics of the cannon or machine gun.''

=== Available ammunition ===

{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible"
! colspan="8" |Penetration statistics
|-
! rowspan="2" |Ammunition
! rowspan="2" |Type of
warhead
! colspan="6" |Penetration @ 0° Angle of Attack (mm)
|-
!10m
!100m
!500m
!1000m
!1500m
!2000m
|-
|3BM4
|APFSDS
|285
|279
|263
|243
|222
|202
|-
|3BM3
|APFSDS
|350
|347
|322
|300
|283
|270
|-
|3BK4
|HEATFS
|440
|440
|440
|440
|440
|440
|-
|3OF11
|HE
|31
|31
|31
|31
|31
|31
|}

=== Comparison with analogues ===
''Give a comparative description of cannons/machine guns that have firepower equal to this weapon.''

== Usage in battles ==
''Describe the cannon/machine gun in the game - its distinctive features, tactics of usage against notable opponents. Please don't write a "guide" - do not impose a single point of view, but give the reader food for thought.''

=== Pros and cons ===
''Summarise and briefly evaluate the weaponry in terms of its characteristics and combat effectiveness. Mark pros and cons as a list.''

'''Pros:'''

*

'''Cons:'''

*

== History ==

In 1952, there were considerations among the Soviet tank development bureaus to begin developing a new tank to replace the T-54 in Soviet service. This was finalized in 09 September 1952 in Resolution No.4169-1631 for the development of the "New Medium Tank".<ref name="Kinnear_2021(14)">Kinnear et al. 2021, 14</ref> The development focus lay in a a new new 100 mm D-54T gun developed by F.F. Petrov. Though attempts were made to fit the D-54T tank gun into the [[T-54 (1951)|T-54]] chassis, the gun's ammunition proved too large to be easily loaded within the turret.

The tank development project would be contested between Leonid N. Kartsev's project "Object 140" from Nizhny Tagil and Alexandr A Morozov's project "Object 430" from Kharkov. Kartsev's design would be cancelled in favor of Object 430, but continued development with a tank to use as many T-54/55 components and a larger turret culminated into the "Object 165". During this development, reports of a 100 mm T-12 smoothbore anti-tank gun showed the effectiveness of a smoothbore design. Kartsev consulted with F.F. Petrov on the feasibility of modifying the 100 mm D-54T into a smoothbore weapon. Upon finding the modification feasible without compromising the gun barrel's integrity, the 100 mm bored out into a 115 mm smoothbore gun. The weapon would be designated '''115 mm U-5TS''' under the project name "Molot" for "Hammer".<ref name="Kinnear_2021(24-25)">Kinnear et al. 2021, 24-25</ref>

The 115 mm U-5TS would have the accolade of being the first smoothbore tank gun in production in the world, which was then followed up with the first development of an armour-piercing fin-stabilized discarding-sabot (APFSDS) round. The benefits of smoothbore over the rifled D-54T design was apparent with an increased muzzle velocity, and therefore armour penetration, using the same amount of propellent. Kartsev would install this in his Object 165 tank, which would become known as "Object 166" with the 115 mm gun installed. While the 115 mm continued to remained in testing as the Object 166 continued to be evaluated, the process was soon expedited upon the Soviet discovery of 105 mm tank guns in NATO inventory in 1961 (namely the [[L7A1 (105 mm)|L7 gun]] equipped in new [[M60|American]], [[Leopard I|German]], and [[Centurion Mk 10|British]] tanks). The commander of the Soviet Grounds Forces, Vasily Ya. Chukov, was furious upon learning about this event and insisted the 115 mm must be put into service as soon as possible. As such, on 12 August 1961 with Resolution No. 729-305, the T-62 medium tank and attached 115 mm U-5TS (GAU designation ''2A20'') was accepted into Soviet service.<ref name="Kinnear_2021(29-31)">Kinnear et al. 2021, 29-31</ref>

== Media ==

[[File:WeaponImage 9M117.png|thumb|left|420px|The 9M117 ATGM fired by the U-5TS cannon (scale is approximate)]]
{{Break}}

== See also ==
''Links to the articles on the War Thunder Wiki that you think will be useful for the reader, for example:''

* ''reference to the article about the variant of the cannon/machine gun;''
* ''references to approximate analogues by other nations and research trees.''

== External links ==

===References===

;Citations:
<references />

;Bibliography:

* Kinnear, Jim and Stephen L. Sewell. 2021. ''Soviet T-62 Main Battle Tank''. Oxford: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc. Kindle.

{{USSR tank cannons}}
{{China tank cannons}}

[[Category:Tank cannons]]