Strv 103 BAR ARMOUR SIMULATION | T-62 vs S-Tank | 115mm 3BM3 APFSDS Armour Piercing Simulation

Some Swedish Strv 103's featured bar armour at the front of the hull to protect against shaped charge munitions as well as damaging or distorting kinetic projectiles. A potential threat to the Strv 103 was the Soviet T-62; the first tank to enter service with a smoothbore gun and fire Armour-Piercing Fin-Stabilised Discarding-Sabot (APFSDS) ammunition.

The 115mm smoothbore gun provided the APFSDS with an exceptional muzzle velocity of over 1600m/s, giving it more penetration than most NATO tanks of the time. It's initial APFSDS round (3BM3) featured a maraging steel body (~650BHN), a tungsten carbide slug, a soft steel cap, and a steel windshield and fins. The slug provided high penetration against vertical armour but could be easily deflected by sloped (or bar) armour.

The simulation shows the 3BM3 impacting the Strv 103 at 1km range, at a lower portion of the upper plate. This area of the upper plate doesnt have the ribbed armour, but instead has spare track links on it. (This area was chosen to save computational time as to hit the ribbed armour the round would have to fly substantially further)

[SYsimulations]

I genuinely didnt expect this to go through, but I suspect a hit higher up wouldnt perforate the armour due to a larger air gap and the ribbed armour

[TheAmazingCowpig]

The dynamics of post-WWII sabot rounds and destabilizing them as a form of protection never stops being fascinating. While WWII was generally about "make armor thicker, and slope may make the impact less optimal", Cold War ammo vs armor is so interesting with "stopping a lot more while trying to do it with a lot less", and that's just wild.

[nicolasrouvreau]

For a plate of only 40 mm, it still very impressive

[thefunfactman]

And this is why my STRV 103 is still one of my favorite tanks. Such a unique design.

[Sean_but_Not_Heard]

The additional explanations are what make your videos so awesome. I’m a complete nub when it comes to this stuff, but with the context you give I’m able to work out all the effects and figure out why you’re showing what you are.

[MrSuba]

It would be interesting to test full caliber 120mm M58 gun with AP shot, on different tanks like is3 and more modern tanks with composite armour designed to stop apfsds like leopard 2 turret.

[PrinzAquatic]

Unlike normal round that ricochet when meeting extreme angle

Dart round shattered when hitting extreme angle, shown beautifully here.

[henryextreme]

War thunder seing this : looks like the shell completely penetrated so now it will go through the whole engine, kill the crew and explode the ammo
Nice gaijin 👌

[Artemonim]

Can you simulate a ricochet? It is interesting to see what condition the projectile is in after the ricochet.

[MaxRavenclaw]

That looks like cage armour made to mess up with shaped charge warheads. EDIT: Yes, didn't see the title well, that's bar/cage/slat armour. Interesting that it can also mess with APFSDS, though it was probably not installed to do that as much as to short RPGs that would probably fuse on the tracks or something. Just my educated guess, I haven't researched the official reasoning.

[johan-erikjohannesson]

An engineer working for the Swedish defence material acquisition agency (FMV) wrote that Sweden testfired T-72s bought from former DDR in 1994 against Strv 103C. The apfsds of the T-72 went straight through with no problems.

[datadavis]

Ribbed armor - for added survivability feel

[betterlatethannever]

Стрв 103 произведение инженерного искусства и помимо этого симпатичная машина

[petter]

I believe the rib armour on top of the main armour is missing in this simulation.
Even if it penetrates the crew is protected behind the engines and another armour wall.

[theBlind]

Just as a thought, rerun this one without the track piece. It seems to me, like the track would create a backstop for the dart and add downward force, MAYBE helping in penetration. A kind of mini shot-trap.

[benij]

Even though it penetrated it the crew would be fine seen as this is a diagram from the very front of the S tank proving its design was really remarkable

[flyingskyward]

Is there any possibility of doing a test of plates at different angles including vertical with the same equivalent horizontal thickness against various rounds? I want to see how much benefit angled plates really are.

[Mamiya]

I'm a fan of engine-front design for this. Dream car is a civilian CV90 (with free fuel).

[qc_ploum-zoum]

I don’t know if thd spall shield would be enough to stop the debri. Still amazing that a tiny fence changed a full penetration to a almost bounce

[MarcinP]

You have the top of the bar cut short and constrained. I think the asymmetry caused by the bending would help.