Vancon wrote:Can someone make a list of the tank acronyms for those of us who want to learn yet don't?
Such as but not limited to:
HEAT
ERA
L (ie
L50 120mm cannon)
ATGM
Sabot
FS-APD
etc...
I know some of these, but not all of them.
I can take a stab at it. Note my definitions are not the best and may be confusing, for more information click the links and read on wikipedia.
APS:
Active Protective Systems, broken down into Hard Kill and Soft Kill. Hard Kill physically destroys or deflects the incoming projectile, Soft Kill jams sensors or stops projectiles form locking on.
RWS:
Remote Weapon Station, a weapon system on the outside of the vehicle controlled from the inside.
HEAT:
High Explosive Anti Tank, essentially creates a "jet" of plasma to penetrate enemy armor.
HESH:
High Explosive Squash Head, Anti tank weapon that coats outside armor with high explosives, when the explosives detonate they create a shock wave breaking off internal pieces of the tank and killing/injuring crew.
ERA:
Explosive Reactive Armor, armor that explodes when it with enough energy. Increases protection
NERA:
Non Explosive Reactive Armor, rumor like armor that expands when hit energetically enough, increasing protection levels.
L (as in L50) is a measure of the length of a tank gun. The number following behind the L is a multiplayer of the guns diameter to get the length. Thus a 120mm L55 gun is 6,600mm (6.6 meters) long.
ATGM:
Anti Tank Guided Missile, a missile for killing tanks that is guided in some way. There are a lot of ways to guide a missile. Generally HEAT though there are some KE variants.
GLATGM:
Gun Launched Anti Tank Guided Missile, a anti tank guided missile launched from a tanks main gun.
Sabot: A case for holding the actual bullet when it is smaller than the barrel.
FS-APD, or APFSDS:
Armor Piercing, Fin Stabilized Discarded Sabot. A specific type of tank round, essentially a long thin projectile is fired because the projectile is smaller than the barrel it must be contained in a sabot to get the required speeds, the sabot falls off after firing.
KE: Kinetic Energy, usually used to describe one method of killing tanks
CE: Chemical Energy, usually used to describe the other method for killing tanks.
AFV:
Armored Fighting Vehicle, all armored vehicles.
APC:
Armored Personnel Carrier, usually a lightly armored lightly gunned vehicle for transporting infantry
IFV:
Infantry Fighting Vehicle, usually more heavily armored and gunned than an APC for transporting and supporting infantry
MBT:
Main Battle Tank, the main tank of a nation
MRAP:
Mine Resistant Ambush Protected, a combat vehicle desgined to be resistant to mines and IEDs.
SPG:
Self Propelled Gun, artillery that moves itself without the need of another vehicle to tow it.
SPAA:
Self Propelled Anti Air, a mobile vehicle with dedicated to anti air use. Sometimes called SPAAG (Self Propelled Anti Air Gun) or SPAD (Self Propelled Air Defense)
I'll edit in more if people ask me, and links to Wikipedia and other places as I find/think of them.