From: Steve Grammont (islander@midmaine.com)
Date: Thu Aug 07 2003 - 11:01:11 PDT
>Hi Chaps,
>
>I would be very interested to hear what protection cold-rolled steel
>will provide against an RPG round .........and I want to hear from
>people who KNOW, NOT from those with an opinion.
It won't do squat. In fact, it might make a truck easier to hit. The
armor plating will present a target surface where one might not have
existed before (i.e. canvas top or open air).
So it is a tradeoff between greater protection for some things, little to
none against others. Such is the reality of warfare. There is no magic
solution to a given problem of this nature.
>As a qualified metallurgist ( albeit in a former incarnation), I can
>only imagine that it would be like holing up a newspaper, when, before,
>one only had arsewipe.
Correct. The armor plating is only good against small arms fire and
fragments.
The only "sure fire" way to protect a lightly armored vehicle from a RPG
is to provide a security perimeter around the vehicles in excess of the
RPG's range. This isn't too hard to do out in the open desert, but in
built up areas it is impractical. Therefore, RPG attacks will continue
to be a serious threat, as will mines and remote controlled explosives.
However, the armoring will greatly reduce the serious threat posed by a
numbnut with an AK. A Special Forces friend of mine just commented that
only 1/4 of the suspected AKs have been rounded up. That means 750,000
are still out there, and in theory just one is needed to chew up a
softskinned vehicle.
Again, there is no magic bullet solution here. All our guys can do is
reduce the risks as practical conditions allow them to do.
Steve
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