re: This is how the Sabot round turns enemies into a fine mist

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And how much does that uranium dart cost?

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Normal uranium is not as hard as tungsten. But a classified technique allows it to be hardened. This is believed to involve alloying it with titanium and cooling it so that it forms a single large metallic crystal rather than a chaotic mass of tiny crystals. This structure is very strong and produces an improvement similar to the difference between a brittle pencil lead and a carbon-fibre tennis racquet. The final advantage of uranium is cost. Machined tungsten is expensive, but governments supply DU more or less free.

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They apparently will be replaced by the real expensive stuff, "brilliant munitions."

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It is likely that DU will be phased out eventually, not for health reasons but for military ones. It was introduced to solve the problem of breaking through heavy armour. But tank armour is concentrated mainly at the front, facing the main threat; it is thinner on the sides, and thinner still on top. If the entire vehicle were clad in thick armour it would be too heavy to move. Instead of brute force, the clever approach would be to attack the weakest point.

After decades of development a new generation of anti-armour weapons is being fielded. These "brilliant" weapons find their own targets, unlike mere smart bombs, which have to be directed. One example is Sadarm (Seek And Destroy Armour). It is fired like a normal artillery shell into the target area, where it ejects two submunitions that descend by parachute. As they fall, Sadarm scans the ground with radar and infrared sensors. Targets are identified, and the most important are selected - a Scud launcher in preference to a tank, a tank rather than a truck.

Sadarm fires a slug of molten metal at the selected target. The slug takes on an aerodynamic shape as it travels through the air, ideal for piercing armour. Though less powerful than a DU shell, it can break through the top armour of any tank.

Engagements between tanks are fought face-to-face, at a maximum distance of about 4km. Sadarm can be lobbed at an enemy 20km away. Missiles carrying brilliant munitions can range out to 100km or more.

Sadarm and other brilliant weapons use tantalum, an exotic heavy metal for which little data is available. But it appears to be highly toxic, especially when vaporised. We will probably discover its full effects only after the next hi-tech war.

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I remember right after the First Gulf War there was a lot of talk about our exposure to depleted uranium and it possibly being connected to Gulf War Syndrome. It's been 25 years and (knock on wood) I'm doing fine.

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I remember right after the First Gulf War there was a lot of talk about our exposure to depleted uranium and it possibly being connected to Gulf War Syndrome. It's been 25 years and (knock on wood) I'm doing fine.

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to the guy who downvoted Darth's health

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Sadarm and other brilliant weapons use tantalum, an exotic heavy metal for which little data is available. But it appears to be highly toxic, especially when vaporised. We will probably discover its full effects only after the next hi-tech war.

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You see, this is why you can't believe every thing you are told.


Nearly every house in America has a product with tantalum.

It is used for surgical implants as well.

Exotic metal indeed.

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My guess is that it would be easy to develop countermeasures for this kind of weapon

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Tanks have been on the battlefield for 100 years now. In that time it's been a never ending process of developing new ways to kill them and new ways to keep them from being killed.

Lasers would be difficult to stop.

What is the difference in the sabot round and the projectile from a rail gun?

How many problems that could solve?

"Gunner, sabot, idiot."

"Up!"

"Identified!"

"Fire!"

"On the way!"

Didn't I tell you, once, that I read Team Yankee right before I enlisted? Armor was the only combat arms branch on my preference sheet when I got commissioned (I had a GRFD, so that was just a formality, but still).

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Didn't I tell you, once, that I read Team Yankee right before I enlisted?

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Great book. I read Red Storm Rising on my way to Germany in 88. Figured that would get me ready since at that time we thought it was a matter of when and not if WWIII happened.

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Armor was the only combat arms branch on my preference sheet when I got commissioned (I had a GRFD, so that was just a formality, but still).

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I don't know how it is now, but I was told back in my day Armor was the combat arms branch to be in for officers who wanted to make general. I was enlisted myself so that may have just been talk.