The Wiki article compares pre-WWII HEAT warheads, and Panzerfaust HEAT warheads, and what's a shaped high explosive post-WWII HEAT. A good article to read is
The Hows and Whys of Armour Penetration, by Giorgio Ferrari, and published in Miltech in 1988. Furthermore, there is no plasma formed - it's a common misconception. It's a solid jet of copper, molybdenum, depleted uranium, or gold moving at hypervelocities, and thus it preforms like a liquid during penetration.
Here's a good thread: http://63.99.108.76/forums/index.php?showtopic=16311
[I'm Catalan]
Do the Abramses on the picures have full pentrations(from RPG-7 in the turret-1970's vintage)?
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Yes, it penetrated into the turret.
When the tank starts to burn it's ammo will imminently explode and
that's what happened to the T-72's in Grozny, once immobilized and
abandoned (the Chechens targeted the engine compartment and the fuel
tanks) they burned until the fire spread to the ammo carousel, there's
no evidence that they exploded directly after the hit.
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Difference is that the
casette in Soviet armour is much easier to hit, and the ammunition stored in the turret bustle of the Abrams is armoured and isolated from the crew. Furthermore, the Abrams turret bustle's has blow off panels so that if the ammunition
is sparked then the blast will be directed upwards, not towards the crew, why since the casette on the T-72/62/80/64 [the two latter have the casette, by the RALS works differently] is mounted around the turret ring, so it can only direct its blast upwards which means it takes the entire turret with it. Western armour did not have the same problems as Soviet tanks, given the difference in how the ammunition was stored.
On your pics with destroyed by the US aviation T-72's the crews had no
chances for escape: side hit from Hellfire definitely had evaporated
them in ms.
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Several were hit by ammunition from upgraded M60A3s and M1A1s, and there was the same effect. It's just an effect of having the ammunition in that casette. Furthermore, the T-72 has a fuel storage cell on the foward side armour, which only makes the tank more likely to go up in flames, especially given that most engagements will be to that area.