Frag Out! Magazine
Issue link: https://fragout.uberflip.com/i/1281650
side structure of the vehicle was reconstructed, with 10 mm Ar- mox 500T steel plates installed directly on the 8 mm base. The gap with the spacers was broadened to 75 mm, and only after that gap was created, the second steel plate (10 mm Armox 500T) was installed. Everything is inclined by 9 degrees in the vertical plane. For perpendicular angles, the armor is resistant to 14.5x114 mm API rounds shot at a distance of 200 meters. What's interesting, the side armor of the Afghan vehicle can withstand the force of much more powerful rounds and projec- tiles shot at angles of +/- 30° in relation to the longitudinal axis of the platform. This includes rounds shot from the 30 mm 2A42 guns of the BMP-2 vehicle and 2A72 cannons of the BMP-3/ BMD-4 platforms. The standard-issue Russian APDS rounds can only penetrate 25 mm of steel at an angle of 30 degrees, at the range of around 1,500 meters. The above means that armor of the Afghan-deployment version of the Rosomak platform should be able to stop rounds such as the 30 mm UBR6 (within the angle range specified: +/-30°), or any 23 mm rounds. This does not apply to the latest UBR11 sabot rounds for the 2A42 guns. However, this ammunition is not available in Russia as of yet. The upper front plate also received an extra layer, the structure of which differed from the one applied in case of the extra turret armor. The armor was made out of a com- posite material without ceramics, forming a layer cake of HHS/RHA plates with thicknesses ranging from 2.5 to 6.7 mm, with probable intermediate aramid layers and other plastics and air gaps separating the individual layers. The whole set was installed within an aluminum module. The above armor could be defined as a robust NeRA solution. The module was 130 mm thick weighing 340 kilograms, being an equivalent of 330 mm RHA. However, one should also remember that this element was placed on the base formed by the 8-millimeter front hull armor plate. Armour arranged in this manner can stop anti-tank shaped-charge grenades with penetration capa- bility of up to 500 mm of steel, and any of the 14.5x114 mm ro- unds. The front armor of the 'Afghan' Rosomak, as a whole, can withstand much more, including the older 30 mm rounds for the 2A42 cannon, whereas the total combat weight of the vehicle grew up to 26 tonnes.Noteworthy, the vehicles also received the RPG LASSO armor that is a license-based variant of the QinetiQ RPGNet solution. It is the latest nexus of the evolution of the slat-armor. The solution in question consists of a metal frame with a grid supported by it with small metal elements in- stalled within its structure, at the points where the lines cross. After the grenade hits the grid, the metal elements are hit as well which deforms www.fragoutmag.com