Everyone has heard at least once in military affairs about such a term as "subcaliber shell". At the same time, not everyone knows, or at least fully understands, what exactly this ammunition is, and for what and in what situation it is used. It's time to sort out the issue once and for all.
What is sub-caliber ammunition?
So, first of all, it is worth recalling that for conventional ammunition, the caliber is determined by the largest diameter. Thus, the caliber of a conventional projectile always coincides with the caliber of the gun itself. Subcaliber shells are another matter. The diameter of their combat thickets is slightly less than the diameter of the bore. This is the first and most obvious difference between the two types of ammunition, but far from the only one.
For firing sub-caliber ammunition, special pallets are used along with them, which in their diameter coincide with the diameter of the caliber of the gun. A striking element with a heavy core is inserted directly into the pallet, the diameter of which can be several times smaller than the diameter of the retaining element.
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The cores are made exclusively from super-hard alloys. Most often it is depleted uranium or tungsten. At the same time, unlike conventional ammunition, sub-caliber ammunition can also have a stabilizing tail, which neutralizes the negative aspects of the structure at the time of the shot.
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What are sub-caliber ammunition used for?
Subcaliber ammunition is used mainly to combat armored targets. The bottom line is that, due to the design used, the warhead accelerates to incredible values and, despite the fact that it has a smaller caliber, it has much more lethality. The most "severe" sub-caliber ammunition accelerates at the moment of firing to 1.7 m / s. This is possible due to the relatively small cross-sectional area of the core. In addition, such ammunition can fly an order of magnitude further. Previously, projectiles were divided into armor-piercing and sub-caliber, but nowadays most of the ammunition for hitting heavy armor belongs to the hybrid class - armor-piercing sub-caliber.
If you want to know even more interesting things, you should take a look at how it happened. the decline of the era of infantry weapons, or Why the Danish rifle Madsen M1947 was out of work.
A source: https://novate.ru/blogs/270320/53928/