Best modern ATGM?

my uneducated guess would be around 3000mm RHAe. that's NUTS...

Yeah... I know that's a lot but considering how big the LOSAT is and how fast it travels those figures might be close to the real thing.

This is what a friend of mine found out, he is VERY knowledgable and quite unbiased, great guy...

If anyone's interested, I couldn't find the exact stats on the Losat but I found a few official sites that state it delivers approx 10 Megajoules of energy to the target, compared to the newest abrams round (M829A2) which delivers a 10.85 lb penetrator at 5512 fps (not 2500 GZ

which equals approx 7 Mj... conclusion, not five times as powerful but probably pretty close to twice once you take into account velocity loss of the APFSDS at 2500 meters...

p.s. something interesting i found about the APFSDS while checking this; if an abrams fires at 55 degree elevation (elevation which achieves max range) the penetrator will reach a max altitude of 27 miles and a range of 70 miles

Originally posted by GrOuNd_ZeRo
If anyone's interested, I couldn't find the exact stats on the Losat but I found a few official sites that state it delivers approx 10 Megajoules of energy to the target, compared to the newest abrams round (M829A2) which delivers a 10.85 lb penetrator at 5512 fps (not 2500 GZ

which equals approx 7 Mj... conclusion, not five times as powerful but probably pretty close to twice once you take into account velocity loss of the APFSDS at 2500 meters...

This is strange, because LOSAT warhead has weights 18.5kg (over 40 lbs) while flying more than 5000 feet per second. So the warhead has 4 times more weight than tank fired penetrator and only slightly lower speed. Besides remeber that the tank rounds have high muzzle velocity but it decreases after some range. So I think 5 times more power could be possible if range is more than 1km.

I think your friend was talking about smaller CKEM version? This is a smaller version of LOSAT (50lbs compared to 174lbs) with higher speed and much lighter warhead. I found on globalsecurity that it delivers 10MJ (and it is downgraded LOSAT version), so I think he was talking about CKEM.

Hehe, LOSAT's KEM and the CKEM have NO warhead what so ever...little mistake on your part...

Another one of my friends had another excellent analysis...

J, the velocity drops is not that extreme i;e about 50-100m/sec/km for modern 120/125mm gun so LOSAT became twice more powerful than AFSPDS really unlikely (except u compare it with Iraqi T-72 using 1978 munition offcourse )

Russian have higher initial velocity but their velocity drop faster than its western counterpart due to less effective design

J, some data I had :

NORINCO-120mm : 1660m/sec@0m, 1550m/sec@2km
Russian BM-32 125mm : 1700m/sec@0m, 1460m/sec@2km, 1350m/sec@3km
US M-829A2 120mm : 1680m/sec@0m, 1570m/sec@2km, 1515m/sec@3km
Russian BM-42M : 1750m/sec@0m, 1570m/sec@2km (estimated)
There are more but im too lazy to dig it around old files...
it shows that most modern AFSPDS is still faster on most flight regimes...

As far as i know LOSAT penetration is around 750mm-800mm RHAe KE-Penetration. WHile the missile is very long most of its length goes to the propellant system so not sure if its penetrator longer than standard munition plus with its bulky size+less mass/volume wouldnt it have high drag penalty (?)

Originally posted by GrOuNd_ZeRo
Hehe, LOSAT's KEM and the CKEM have NO warhead what so ever...little mistake on your part...

Well, I meant penetrator weight. LOSAT penetrator is from tungsten and weights 18.5kg. And as I already said it is CKEM that has 10MJ energy, and CKEM is only downgraded version of LOSAT, so LOSAT must be more powerfull.



link which stated CKEM has 10 MJ energy

I was thinking more along the lines of a common missile for both vehicle, chopper and crewserved use... Javelin? Spike? TRrigat? Gill? Brimstone? (Is the trigat still in existance?)