Medium Caliber Effectiveness vs Urban Targets

Infantry Fighting Vehicles (IFVs) are expected to perform two main combat missions:

• Engage light armored vehicles of the enemy using armor piercing ammunition
• Support organic infantry by fire

In today’s asymmetric battlefields including urban scenarios, the infantry needs to closely work together with their armor.

• The infantry might pinned down by enemy fire behind cover such as walls either be it brick or adobe or concrete. In this case, the IFV must be able to effectively fire through the wall and incapacitate the enemy team behind cover.

•  In order for the infantry squad to enter a suspicious building covered by walls, the IFV is neded to create an opening thru the wall for the infantry to enter the compound.

In some parts of the world a material called Adobe (not the software company… 😉 is very common in building walls.

Wikipedia defines Adobe as:

 Adobe is a natural building material made from sand, clay, water, and some kind of fibrous or organic material (sticks, straw, and/or manure), which the builders shape into bricks (using frames) and dry in the sun. Adobe buildings are similar to cob and mudbrick buildings. Adobe structures are extremely durable, and account for some of the oldest existing buildings in the world

The image below shows different calibers and types of rounds fired against a 20cm thick concrete wall.

TNO, “Capability Gap in Urban Ops”, 2012

Some information on the types of rounds fired:

FAPDS: Frangible Armor Piercing Discarding Sabot. The round breaks up upon impact with soft and hard targets. On the one hand, the projectile’s lethality is due to its penetrating power; on the other, to the effects of fragmentation. Consisting of a tungsten heavy metal alloy.

PELE: Penetrator with Enhanced Lateral Effect.
Crucial to its success is the specially engineered projectile, which combines two materials with different levels of density. Containing neither a fuse nor explosives, the round’s lethality derives from its high penetrating power coupled with fragmentation, blast and incendiary effects.

APDS: Armor Piercing Discarding Sabot.

P-ABM: Programmable Air Burst

MP: Multi Purpose

The other below shows the effects of again different calibers and types against a 80cm thick adobe wall.

TNO, “Capability Gap in Urban Ops”, 2012

Adobe Hut

Conclusions from the TNO’s study are remarkable:

Projectiles with fuze (20 to 35 mm HE & MP) are
NOT capable to defeat 80 cm Adobe wall
– Fragment debris in front of wall
– No fragment debris after the wall
NOT capable to breech

KE projectiles (25 to 35 mm APDS and APFDS) are
capable to defeat 80 cm Adobe wall
– No fragment debris in front of wall, but during flight
– No fragment debris after the wall

PABM and KETF unprogrammed are capable to defeat 40 cm Adobe
– No fragment debris in front of wall
– Fragment debris after the wall

Frangible and PELE-PEN (25 to 30mm) projectiles are
capable to defeat 80 cm Adobe wall
– No fragment debris in front of wall
– Some Fragment debris after the wall.

Belgian caliber cartridge 5,7 × 28 mm – pistol cartridge

In ammunition, today we will focus on the Belgian caliber cartridge 5,7 × 28 mm – pistol cartridge, created in 1986 to replace an already widespread cartridge 9 × 19 mm Parabellum NATO standard, although it bears little resemblance to the cartridge pistol. It is a compact cartridge with a pointed bullet and sleeve bottle-shaped, which, according to developers, has been obtained by replacing bullets and cartridge cases shortening 5.56 NATO. This round took place between intermediaries submachine pistol and ammunition. Compared with the chuck 9 × 19 mm, it provides a greater flatness of fire, smaller returns, greater effective range (the maximum range of a bullet – 1510 m and the maximum uboynaya- 825 meters, but because of the light bullets killing power of the cartridge falls rapidly at a distance of 600 m), armor piercing (with an initial velocity of 650 to 720 depending on the length of the barrel at a distance of 50 meters the bullet pierces the standard chuck 48 layers of Kevlar, and at a distance of 150-200 meters steel helmet or body armor standard set by NATO requirements CRISAT), as well as different degrees of reduced ricocheting. The main characteristic of the cartridge is enormous penetrating ability, which is an advantage compared with other pistol cartridge. Properties ballistics are that when released into the soft tissue, the bullet makes a turn of 360 degrees, and then continues its movement, stopping after 10 – 15 cm . This feature eliminates the departure bullet right through the human body, reducing the number of random victims to zero. In addition, the bullet causing fatal injuries of internal organs, internal and external bleeding and remains in the body. Typically, a single bullet to the torso / head enough to stop the enemy. Cases of death from shock. Sam cartridge designed specifically for the Belgian submachine gun FN P90, but it is also used in the PS90, AR-57, PP Singapore ST Kinetics CPW, VBR-Belgium CQBW gun FN Five-seveN. There are several types of the cartridge : standard (SS190), armor piercing steel core, tracer (SS196SR), subsonic (SB193: his bullet weighing 3.6 g is weakest killer stopped and the breakdown of the family from their patrons, as because of its low speed 305 m / s, the bullet does not change its direction in the tissue and can not be strong enough to break through the obstacles), single, expansive (SB195LF and SS197SR (?): has less penetrating ability than SS190, but the stopping power and great destructive power), increased speed with a hollow bullet poluobolochennye. Its characteristics caliber cartridge 5,7 × 28 mm superior to its main rival 4,6 × 30 mm, but the German and other delegations rejected the recommendation on the NATO standardizing cartridge 5,7 × 28 mm, resulting in that the standardization process of the cartridge in the NATO countries has been postponed.

From left to right SS190, SS196SR and SS197SR

Exterior cartridge SS190

SS196SR length of 40.5 mm

The expansive cartridge SS197SR sectional

A special 50-round magazine FN P90