WORLD’S STRANGEST TANK SHELL | BR-350A | APHEBC Armour Piercing Simulation

The Soviet BR-350A is one of the most unique tank projectiles due to the shape of its nose. This round was used by T-34s and KV-1s in WW2 and was likely designed this way to improve performance against sloped armour; the blunt nose will scoop out part of the plate, with the narrow neck clearly being designed to fracture, preventing moment transfer to the main body. This body will then impact the divet caused by the nose, which is at a slightly reduced obliquity. This is not ’normalisation’, as a shell will never turn towards the plate, but merely a reduction in deflection. This round offered no benefits over other blunt Soviet projectiles, like BR-350B, which is probably why no other shell shares a similar design. *The explosive is not simulated for simplicity, but the explosive cavity is fractured in both impacts anyway hardness: