These shells do not have any explosive properties, unless I'm wrong. They said that these were she shells used in the friendly fire segment in the beginning but when it showed the shells hit they exploded on impact it looked like.
shareDepleted Uranium shells are dense enough to punch through armor, and yes there is little to no explosion to it. The explosions come from catching the fuel and ammo on fire.
shareThanks I didn't think it create an explosion that big though. I mean it was huge.
sharePhotos I have seen of tank battles in WWII seem to back you up. Tanks hit by solid shot AP shells are burned out, they don't blow up in a massive explosion. The ammunition blows up, but not usually all at once. This movie shows the turrets being blown off T-54s. I have read a German report on their first assault on Tobruk in 1941, which specifically refers to this happening to some tanks, but these were probably due to hits from HE rounds from British 25-pound (3.75 inch) field guns - it is hard to imagine the standard British AT 2-pound (40mm) gun of that time, firing solid shot only, blowing the turret off anything. The depleted uranium rounds used by modern US tanks may be another matter. The mass is concentrated into a thin rod of uranium (about 2.5 times the density of steel). The energy of the round impacts on a much smaller area, giving it much greater penetration - which it needs to get through the compound armour of a modern tank. However, I can't find any reports of them causing tanks to blow up like this movie shows - even obsolete ones like a T-54.
Oops - correction! I have found this quote from an actual Gulf War vet on another thread.
'We could plainly see which tanks were destroyed and which tanks were still good due to the fact that when a russian tank is sliced open by our sabot ammo it blows the turret off. At 5000m we could see them clearly enough using our thermal sights. Well enough to see whether they had turrets or not. The primary tank round we use is a sabot, called APFSDS-T. That is an Armor Piercing Fin Stabilized Discarding Sabot-Tracer. This depleted uranium round flies at a little over 7000 feet per second and hits with over 4 million foot pounds of energy.'
Plus most Russian tanks carried their shells in the floor. So if they exploded, the force of the explosion upward would often blow the turret off. That's why U.S and many allied countries put the shells in the back of the turret. An explosion there is a lot safer for the crew since an explosion vents out away from the cabin of the tank.
shareThe depleted uranium is a "dart" maybe an inch in diameter by 18" or so long. It is encased in a holder called a sabot (pronounced Say-Bo) which peels apart after firing. the dart hits with such tremendous kinetic energy that it vaporizes the steel armor of the target tank, and sends molten steel (sorry
Rosie O'Donnell, steel does melt) into the cabin of the tank. That steel, with fragments, will then blow up the shell propellent sitting on racks. To blow off a turret, the shells exploding, not the sabot round, causes it.
Billy the Kid
But Denzel said they used depleted uranium shells, which emplys it was a non-exploding round.
shareRyno, read it again. The depleted uranium "shells" do not explode, no more than a piece of 1" steel pipe can. They are solid pieces of uranium, which is a very dense heavy metal. What explodes is the propellent (gunpowder) in the shells of the tank which has been hit.
Billy the Kid
DU ammo has pyrophoric effects. The shell is designed to break apart after hitting a hard target so that fragments will have heat transfer from the impact, so that the fragments will burn. That burning will catch fire in the enemy's fuel and ammo stores.
shareAh! The many varied and ingenious ways man has come up with to kill fellow man!
They misunderestimated me.