Armor-Piercing Projectile

The invention relates to an armor-piercing projectile. French Pat. No. 1002092 describes armor-piercing projectiles which have a hollow charge portion arranged in front of a hard core inside the projectile relative to the direction of flight of the projectile. Such known projectiles have good armor piercing capabilities with respect to conventional armor plating. The ignition of the hollow charge in these known armor-piercing projectiles is effected by means of an impact igniter, disposed in the head of the projectile, which releases the ignition process upon impacting on the target.

However, with respect to the more modern armor platings, which are referred to in the art as "active armor", the armor-piercing capability of the afore-described known armor-piercing projectile has been found insufficient, so that targets having such "active armor" can not be effectively combatted with these conventional armor-piercing projectiles.

It is an object of this invention to provide a new type of armor-piercing projectile which can be effectively used against targets being protected by so-called "active armor" plating.

In the accompanying drawings, which illustrate two of the possible embodiments of the invention;

FIG. 1 is schematic longitudinal axial cross-sectional view of a projectile in accordance with this invention;

FIGS. 2a-2d are schematic representations of projectiles, in accordance with this invention, in flight, illustrated in different positions relative to a target protected by "active armor" plating.

The armor-piercing projectile comprises a hollow charge 2, arranged in front of the hard core 1, with respect to the flight direction of the projectile. In contradistinction to the conventional armor-piercing projectiles of this type, the projectile of this invention is equipped with a proximity fuse or igniter instead of the conventional target impact or target contact igniter or fuse. This proximity fuse or igniter can be constructed as a capacitive proximity igniter. This proximity fuse or igniter causes an ignition of the hollow-charge 2 of the projectile 20, at a predetermined distance from the target 21 (see FIGS. 2a and 2b), that is prior to the projectile 20 reaching the target 21. The spike formed by the detonating hollow charge is thereby caused to impinge on the outer layer 22 of the "active armor" plating consisting of layers 22 and 23 of the target 21. Due to the impact of the hollow charge spike the layer 22 of the "active armor", which may consist of an explosive material, is caused to detonate and therefore can no longer inhibit the effectiveness of the hard core 1 of the projectile, which follows in the direction of flight, when it reaches the target 21. In this way an undisturbed penetration of the remaining layer 23 of the "active armor" by the hard core 1 of the projectile 20 is made possible.

The hard core 1 of the projectile 20 consists advantageously of a heavy metal, for example, a tungsten or uranium alloy or compound. Sintered bodies made from the aforementioned substances have been found to be particularly suitable. As is already known, the penetration capacity of the hard core can be increased by forming the hard core out of a plurality of component elements, which can, for example, be of annular configuration and which can be arranged one behind the other in the axial direction.

The hollow charge 2 of the projectile 20 is advantageously formed as a flat conically shaped hollow charge having, a copper, nickel-aluminum or also zirconium insert. Thereby a particularly favorable influence on the in general sluggish explosive material of the active armor is attained.

In an advantageous further embodiment of the invention (FIGS. 2c and 2d) the hollow charge portion 2 and hard core 1 of the projectile 20 are constructed to be separable during flight which is effected preferably by providing an expulsion charge 3 between the hard core 1 and the hollow charge 2, which is advantageously activated by the proximity fuse 4 at a predetermined distance from the target. When the projectile has sufficiently approached the to be combatted target 21 the hollow charge 2 is explosively expelled by the expulsion charge 3 and precedes the hard core 1 in the direction of flight towards the to be combatted target. By the explosion of the hollow charge at the target the effect of the "active armor" is disposed of, so that the timely following hard core 1 can pass through the remaining layer 23 without difficulty.

The armor piercing projectile can preferably be formed as sabot-propelled, sub-caliber projectile and is particularly suitable to be fired out of weapons having smooth bore gun barrels.

Although the invention is illustrated and described with reference to a plurality of preferred embodiments thereof, it is to be expressly understood that it is in no way limited to the disclosure of such preferred embodiments, but is capable of numerous modifications within the scope of the appended claims.