In the first Gulf War, it was said that an extremely small number of tanks were lost to enemy action. I am aware that this is for a large number of reasons (tactics, technology, air superiority, etc) but the armor of the Abrahms tank is supposed to be some of the most sophisticated tank armor in the world. So what happens when you take a T-72, park it 900 yards away (just for demonstration purposes here) and plug away at it with Armor Piercing shells? Do they just bounce off with a comedic ‘ka-pwinggg!’ ? What about sabot rounds, the rounds designed to defeat tanks with reactive armor, can they get anywhere against the composite depleted uranium Chobham armor?
I know some were disabled, and I read about the ‘mystery shot’ which pierced on tank in Gulf War II, but I am really interested in seeing just how strong this armor is to conventional attack. Would the tank survive if you fired a stinger missile at it? What about a cruise missile?
Tanks traditionally , have the most armor on the front of the vehicle ,and will generally have lighter to no armor on other spots. The msytery shot that disabled the abrams in question , was akin really to a knight in shining armor getting stabbed in the shoulder pit.
Other tank kills , have been from RPG fire , launched into the cupola of the abrams , or the weaker topside rear.
So , in order
A stinger would track the abrams , but would be akin to having a shotgun blast hit the tank , the stinger is designed to fragment into about a couple of hundred pellets that would pepper a light skinned A/C or helo.
A cruise missile , along the lines of a Tomahawk , Slammer or that new british job , would vaporuize the tank , since the nominal warhead of conventional cruise is 500 pounds. During the Korean war , it was marine corsairs that stopped some pretty intense tank assualts , and in Desert storm , many an F-111 was plinking Iraqi tanks with 500 pound bombs.
More details on the “mystery shot”: From what I understand, it was a normal RPG that managed to hit in JUST the right place to go BETWEEN the Chobham armour assemblies. The Chobham armour needs to have steel around the outside so it can actually be welded/attached to the rest of the tank, and on the side there was about an inch or so band that was nothing but steel from the outside in. The shaped jet from a HEAT round will go through steel like a hot knife through butter, explaining the penetration.