1985 RPG armor penetration demonstration

Same demonstration as above, viewed from the RPG side: "they shot an RPG and it went through six layers of armor, through both sides of all three tanks." Likely the same event as the Aberdeen test.

The technology for weapons is sort of amazing. In 1985, they were first developing some of these really good RPGs. One of my students who was in the Army at the time, over at Watertown Arsenal doing his doctoral thesis, told me a story. They lined up three tanks on a battlefield — probably down at Aberdeen — and they shot an RPG, and it went through six layers of armor, through both sides of all three tanks. Apparently the general tossed his cookies right there on the battlefield. He just got sick.

I should have brought my shaped charge — I have one in my office. Maybe I'll bring it tomorrow. A shaped charge can typically go through about three feet of steel. I've seen the steel that a shaped charge went through. I used to be on the advisory board for the Army Materiel Command down at Aberdeen Proving Ground, where they test shaped charges. Back in the mid-80s they had developed shaped charges to the point where they could go through virtually any armor that was around. One of my former students working for the Army told me the story: they lined up three old tanks on the battlefield and shot a shaped charge through all six layers of armor — one side of armor, second tank, all the way through. An armored general tossed his cookies right there on the battlefield when he saw what a shaped charge could do. Within a year there was no shaped charge that couldn't be defeated by the improved armor, which was basically ceramic armor.