THIS APFSDS CONTAINS BUCKSHOT | AMX-30B2 vs BTR-80 | OFL 105 F1 Armour Penetration Simulation

The OFL 105 F1 APFSDS projectile features a unique tip, with ~300 tungsten pellets housed between two conical faces. During penetration, the tip will decelerate, causing the two conical faces to close. This forces the pellets outwards and is intended to increase the behind-target effects of the projectile against light armour. Despite its novel design, the simulation shows that the dispersion is not very large when hitting the BTR’s side. This may be due to the armour being too thin, where the tip is not decelerated enough to force the pellets outwards at any substantial velocity. To give the pellets the best chance of dispersing, the shroud around the pellets has been modelled as low strength magnesium alloy. The tip is tungsten alloy, based on the patent, but between its reasonably large mass and the thickness of the shroud supporting it, it seems that ~20mm or more of armour would be necessary to cause any significant deceleration and pellet dispersion. This is strange as nearly all lightly armoured Soviet vehicles had thinner armour than this, and it is likely that they were the impetus for this tip design in the first place. Some had thicker front armour (like BMPs) but the narrow driver’s area would negate the pellet dispersion effects. Amazing thumbnail artwork from: Serhii_Ryzhkov