HEAT traps

[California Tanker]

"Aha.. The old 'dig a hole and get the tank to fall into it' trick!"

NTM

[hptmurphy]

..In your case Nick its not the warhead of any missile you have to worry about..apppears the ditches on the sides of the road can be more deadly...

[California Tanker]

i'd never heard the expression before

Don't worry about it. Honestly, I've never heard it before either, and I've been into armour for donkeys' years. "Shot trap" I'm familiar with, as it was a phenomenon from more or less WWII, vanishing in the 1960s. Possibly the most famous shot trap was the underside of the mantlet on early model Panthers. The difference is that solid projectiles ("Shot", to use the old term) would ricochet. I've never heard of a HEAT stream ricocheting, and I'm not convinced it's possible. Indeed, I would go as far as to wager that particularly sharp angles are better for dealing with HEAT warheads as there's a better chance of deforming the round before the fuzed noze is detonated.

NTM

[turbocalves]

thanks murpy and tony i'd never heard the expression before but i think i've the jist of it good stuff

[tonyrdf]

Heat Trap

A heat trap is a shape/angle in armour that will focus/channel explosive enegry towards a perticular point, thus enhancing the effect of the explosion on the armour. An example of this was the turret of the timoney (sorry about the spelling) APC, the turret was sloped aruond where the HMG was fitted, this would have channled the energy of any explosive projectile downward towards the vunerable turret ring.

Le Meas

[hptmurphy]

A HEAT trap is where there is a point where shall we say the turret meets the body at an inverted point and would be a weak area regarding a hit..any agressively angled surface on an AFV could be considered to be a point of weakness due to welds or bonding of armour or steel and is an ideal target of oppertunity for weapon that would nessacarily have the inertia to punch ahole through sloped or dense armour.....any help?

[turbocalves]

Can anyone please explain to what a HEAT trap is try be simple as is possible

thanks TC