The Patriot Files Forums  

Go Back   The Patriot Files Forums > Branch Posts > Army

Post New Thread  Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #1  
Old 11-04-2003, 09:31 AM
thedrifter thedrifter is offline
Senior Member
 

Join Date: Apr 2002
Posts: 4,601
Distinctions
VOM 
Cool ?Something? felled an M1A1 Abrams tank in Iraq ? but what?

October 27, 2003

?Something? felled an M1A1 Abrams tank in Iraq ? but what?
Mystery behind Aug. 28 incident puzzles Army officials

By John Roos
Special to the Times


Shortly before dawn on Aug. 28, an M1A1 Abrams tank on routine patrol in Baghdad ?was hit by something? that crippled the 69-ton behemoth.
Army officials still are puzzling over what that ?something? was.

According to an unclassified Army report, the mystery projectile punched through the vehicle?s skirt and drilled a pencil-sized hole through the hull. The hole was so small that ?my little finger will not go into it,? the report?s author noted.

The ?something? continued into the crew compartment, where it passed through the gunner?s seatback, grazed the kidney area of the gunner?s flak jacket and finally came to rest after boring a hole 1? to 2 inches deep in the hull on the far side of the tank.

As it passed through the interior, it hit enough critical components to knock the tank out of action. That made the tank one of only two Abrams disabled by enemy fire during the Iraq war and one of only a handful of ?mobility kills? since they first rumbled onto the scene 20 years ago. The other Abrams knocked out this year in Iraq was hit by an RPG-7, a rocket-propelled grenade.

Experts believe whatever it is that knocked out the tank in August was not an RPG-7 but most likely something new ? and that worries tank drivers.

Mystery and anxiety

Terry Hughes is a technical representative from Rock Island Arsenal, Ill., who examined the tank in Baghdad and wrote the report.

In the sort of excited language seldom included in official Army documents, he said, ?The unit is very anxious to have this ?SOMETHING? identified. It seems clear that a penetrator of a yellow molten metal is what caused the damage, but what weapon fires such a round and precisely what sort of round is it? The bad guys are using something unknown and the guys facing it want very much to know what it is and how they can defend themselves.?

Nevertheless, the Abrams continues its record of providing extraordinary crew protection. The four-man crew suffered only minor injuries in the attack. The tank commander received ?minor shrapnel wounds to the legs and arms and the gunner got some in his arm? as a result of the attack, according to the report.

Whatever penetrated the tank created enough heat inside the hull to activate the vehicle?s Halon firefighting gear, which probably prevented more serious injuries to the crew.

The soldiers of 2nd Battalion, 70th Armor Regiment, 1st Armor Division who were targets of the attack weren?t the only ones wondering what damaged their 69-ton tank.

Hughes also was puzzled. ?Can someone tell us?? he wrote. ?If not, can we get an expert on foreign munitions over here to examine this vehicle before repairs are begun? Please respond quickly.?

His report went to the office of the combat systems program manager at the U.S. Army Tank-automotive and Armaments Command in Warren, Mich. A command spokesman said he could provide no information about the incident.

?The information is sensitive,? he said. ?It looks like [members of the program manager?s office] are not going to release any information right now.?

While it?s impossible to determine what caused the damage without actually examining the tank, some conclusions can be drawn from photos that accompanied the incident report. Those photos show a pencil-size penetration hole through the tank body, but very little sign of the distinctive damage ? called spalling ? that typically occurs on the inside surface after a hollow- or shaped-charge warhead from an anti-tank weapon burns its way through armor.

Spalling results when an armor penetrator pushes a stream of molten metal ahead of it as it bores through an armored vehicle?s protective skin.

?It?s a real strange impact,? said a source who has worked both as a tank designer and as an anti-tank weapons engineer. ?This is a new one. ? It almost definitely is a hollow-charge warhead of some sort, but probably not an RPG-7? anti-tank rocket-propelled grenade.

The well-known RPG-7 has been the scourge of lightly armored vehicles since its introduction more than 40 years ago. Its hollow-charge warhead easily could punch through an M1?s skirt and the relatively thin armor of its armpit joint, the area above the tracks and beneath the deck on which the turret sits, just where the mystery round hit the tank.

An RPG-7 can penetrate about 12 inches of steel ? a thickness far greater than the armor that was penetrated on the tank in Baghdad. But the limited spalling evident in the photos accompanying the incident report all but rules out the RPG-7 as the culprit, experts say.

Limited spalling is a telltale characteristic of Western-manufactured weapons designed to defeat armor with a cohesive jet stream of molten metal. In contrast, RPG-7s typically produce a fragmented jet spray.

The incident is so sensitive that most experts in the field would talk only on the condition that they not be identified.

One armor expert at Fort Knox, Ky., suggested the tank may have been hit by an updated RPG. About 15 years ago, Russian scientists created tandem-warhead anti-tank-grenades designed to defeat reactive armor. The new round, a PG-7VR, can be fired from an RPG-7V launcher and might have left the unusual signature on the tank.

In addition, the Russians have developed an improved weapon, the RPG-22. These and perhaps even newer variants have been used against American forces in Afghanistan. It is believed U.S. troops seized some that have been returned to the United States for testing, but scant details about their effects and ?fingerprints? are available.

Still another possibility is a retrofitted warhead for the RPG system being developed by a Swiss manufacturer.

At this time, it appears most likely that an RPG-22 or some other improved variant of the Russian-designed weapon damaged the M1 tank, sources concluded. The damage certainly was caused by some sort of shaped-charge or hollow-charge warhead, and the cohesive nature of the destructive jet suggests a more effective weapon than a fragmented-jet RPG-7.

A spokesman for General Dynamics Land Systems, which manufactures the Abrams, said company engineers agree some type of RPG probably caused the damage. After checking with them, the spokesman delivered the manufacturer?s verdict: The tank was hit by ?a ?golden? RPG? ? an extremely lucky shot.

In the end, a civilian weapons expert said, ?I hope it was a lucky shot and we are not part of someone?s test program. Being a live target is no fun.?

John Roos is editor of Armed Forces Journal, which is owned by Army Times Publishing Co.


http://www.armytimes.com/print.php?f...36-2336437.php


Sempers,

Roger
__________________
IN LOVING MEMORY OF MY HUSBAND
SSgt. Roger A.
One Proud Marine
1961-1977
68/69
Once A Marine............Always A Marine.............

http://www.geocities.com/thedrifter001/
sendpm.gif Reply With Quote
Sponsored Links
  #2  
Old 11-05-2003, 11:26 AM
Boats's Avatar
Boats Boats is offline
Senior Member
 

Join Date: Jul 2002
Location: Sauk Village, IL
Posts: 21,784
Default

Roger

Good report and it will be interesting to find out who and what took out the tank?

Thanks
__________________
Boats

O Almighty Lord God, who neither slumberest nor sleepest; Protect and assist, we beseech thee, all those who at home or abroad, by land, by sea, or in the air, are serving this country, that they, being armed with thy defence, may be preserved evermore in all perils; and being filled with wisdom and girded with strength, may do their duty to thy honour and glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

"IN GOD WE TRUST"
sendpm.gif Reply With Quote
  #3  
Old 11-06-2003, 01:50 PM
Desdichado Desdichado is offline
Senior Member
 

Join Date: Mar 2003
Posts: 285
Default

"These blast points - too accurate for sandpeople. Only Imperial Stormtroopers are so precise...."
__________________
This space for hire.
sendpm.gif Reply With Quote
  #4  
Old 05-08-2004, 11:00 AM
Houdini Houdini is offline
Member
 

Join Date: Apr 2003
Posts: 32
Default

Quote:
Originally posted by Desdichado "These blast points - too accurate for sandpeople. Only Imperial Stormtroopers are so precise...."
LMAO!!!! Too funny!!

I hope they figure out what brought it down.
__________________
Everything I learned in life I got from killing smart people and eating their brains.
sendpm.gif Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is On

Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Abrams crew?s unit grieves, vows to move on thedrifter Marines 0 04-02-2003 05:24 AM
Crew drowns as Abrams plunges into Euphrates thedrifter Marines 0 03-30-2003 11:57 AM
First Abrams lost in combat.......... :- ( MORTARDUDE General Posts 1 03-26-2003 05:21 PM
First Abrams lost in combat .... :- ( MORTARDUDE Vietnam 0 03-26-2003 03:51 AM
First Abrams lost in combat .... :- ( MORTARDUDE Iraqi Freedom 0 03-26-2003 03:50 AM

All times are GMT -7. The time now is 04:00 AM.


Powered by vBulletin, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.