The Atomic Tank

[Eric]

This is a very interesting bit of early Cold War era trivia.

 

[G19Tony]

Interesting. What was the big round thing next to the gun. I’ve always thought it was a searchlight. 

 

[pipedreams]

4 hours ago, G19Tony said:

Interesting. What was the big round thing next to the gun. I’ve always thought it was a searchlight.

I believe that's for infrared vision so they see at night.  We had similar but smaller on our vehicles. Had to be careful because if the enemy was using a infrared scope they could see you light up and zero right in. 

Edited August 20, 2019 by pipedreams

[Moshe]

It is interesting that the Russians played with a nuclear system to hit anywhere in the world, and they nuked themselves recently.

[Dric902]

The Atomic Artillery Projectiles that we use max out at about 17kt (no, that isn’t classified)

10kt is more than enough for most applications. 

I’m amazed that the tank returned to duty after a refit

 

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[Eric]

1 minute ago, Dric902 said:

The Atomic Artillery Projectiles that we use max out at about 17kt (no, that isn’t classified)

10kt is more than enough for most applications. 

I’m amazed that the tank returned to duty after a refit

 

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I wonder whose **** list you had to be on to be picked to crew & drive the undecontaminated tank a few hours back to the decontamination point? 

[Dric902]

2 minutes ago, Eric said:

I wonder whose **** list you had to be on to be picked to crew & drive the undecontaminated tank a few hours back to the decontamination point? 

That video didn’t give any info on their future did it. I’ve been through decon twice, I thought my skin was gonna come off.

 

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[janice6]

10 hours ago, Eric said:

This is a very interesting bit of early Cold War era trivia.

 

Reinforced Concrete does well comparatively, also.

[willie-pete]

Well, so much for EMP.

[janice6]

1 hour ago, willie-pete said:

Well, so much for EMP.

I doubt an EMP would harm an armored vehicle.  It's also shielding for EM waves.

[blueiron]

A Centurion tank has mechanical fuel injection, opto-mechanical targeting, visual ranging, and aside from the solid state radios in the later Marks, had few systems that were affected by MHD-EMP [magneto-hydrodynamic EMP]. Ground level bursts of nuclear weapons produce few effective MHD-EMP effects at nominal distance.

A nuclear weapon has to be detonated in the ionosphere [200 km to 400 km AGL] to produce the neutron interaction with atomic particles in the upper atmosphere, creating highly charged electrons which follow the geomagnetic fields. These interactions create electromagnetic energy through synchrotron radiation. The initial high energy disrupts electronic circuits and the secondary lower energy, but longer duration energy release affects lower frequency systems such as electrical transmission lines. 

Modern tanks with electro-optical systems, computerized targeting, motion and velocity compensation ballistic systems would be somewhat resistant, but not immune from the effects of MHD-EMP.

[Moshe]

7 hours ago, janice6 said:

I doubt an EMP would harm an armored vehicle.  It's also shielding for EM waves.

Wrap the thing in an internal faraday cage, then add armor and concrete.

[janice6]

Just now, Moshe said:

Wrap the thing in an internal faraday cage, then add armor and concrete.

The existing armor is the shielding.  No more is necessary.  The only drawback is if it weighs enough to stay put during a shock wave.

Not many people really understand the electromagnetics of both an EMP and shielding.

 

[Moshe]

1 minute ago, janice6 said:

The existing armor is the shielding.  No more is necessary.  The only drawback is if it weighs enough to stay put during a shock wave.

Not many people really understand the electromagnetics of both an EMP and shielding.

 

True, nothing shielded from an EMP pulse will function.  There are similar smaller devices for shutting down modern motor vehicles, by frying the electronics that they have.  With the right equipment, spike strips are a thing of the past.  If used to be if you blew a fuse you had problems in older vehicles.  I replaced many of them on my first ones.  Now, that the new ones all have computers to operate them, fry them, and that vehicle is going absolutely nowhere.

[xromad]

17 hours ago, Moshe said:

True, nothing shielded from an EMP pulse will function.  There are similar smaller devices for shutting down modern motor vehicles, by frying the electronics that they have.  With the right equipment, spike strips are a thing of the past.  If used to be if you blew a fuse you had problems in older vehicles.  I replaced many of them on my first ones.  Now, that the new ones all have computers to operate them, fry them, and that vehicle is going absolutely nowhere.

Wow!