Kinetic energy weapon can break an American tank apart with a single shot: Chinese study

Simulations by Chinese scientists have found a high-speed kinetic energy weapon weighing just 20kg could stop a US tank in its tracks

While traditional anti-tank weapons need precision to be effective, kinetic weapons can cause lethal damage even just with grazing contact

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Chinese researchers have been conducting simulations of using kinetic weapons against US military tanks. Photo: AP

Published: 10:00am, 1 Jan 2024Updated: 10:14am, 1 Jan 2024

Detailed tests on the damage capability of kinetic energy weapons against US military armour have found it could be possible to take out a tank in one shot – even if it does not look like any damage has occurred.

That was the conclusion of Chinese scientists who conducted the in-depth assessment of kinetic weapons through experiments and numerical simulations.

They found that a solid sphere, weighing 20kg (44lb) and hurtling towards its target at about four times the speed of sound, could spell disaster for advanced tanks manufactured to US military standards.

The kinetic energy carried by such a projectile would be around 25 megajoules. This value may seem large, but when converted into electrical energy it is less than 7 kilowatt-hours, scarcely more than the energy it takes to cook two turkeys for Christmas.

It may seem unlikely that such a small amount of energy could disable an advanced tank weighing around 40-60 tonnes and protected by thick layers of armour, especially one built under stringent US military standards.

But the research team, led by Huang Jie of the China Aerodynamics Research and Development Centre’s Hypervelocity Aerodynamic Institute, discovered during simulations that while the tank might have appeared unscathed on the outside, its inner workings were irreparably damaged.

Kinetic energy weapon can break an American tank apart with a single shot: Chinese study

Simulations by Chinese scientists have found a high-speed kinetic energy weapon weighing just 20kg could stop a US tank in its tracks While traditional anti-tank weapons need precision to be effective, kinetic weapons can cause lethal damage even just with grazing contact

Simulations by Chinese scientists have found a high-speed kinetic energy weapon weighing just 20kg could stop a US tank in its tracks

While traditional anti-tank weapons need precision to be effective, kinetic weapons can cause lethal damage even just with grazing contact