The future of the tank ...

Maybe, but the shown tanks on the pictures are not destroyed by RPG's, but more likely by aviation guided missiles.    

Originally posted by Desperado I'm very suspicious that a missile or RPG round that had penetrated succesfully the hull's armor and could cause ammo fire would leave the crew unharmed.

Depends where the RPG hits.  Regardless, RPG-29 doesn't seem to have very good post-penetration power.  You can technically increase penetration by reducing the mass of the liner, which increases jet tip velocity, but since you have less mass and the majority of the energy is expended during penetration post-penetration is small in comparison and fails to kill the crew.  There have been dozens of examples were RPGs have penetrated the Abrams and not killed the crew.  Nevertheless, crew conditions in Soviet tanks were infinitely worse than those on Western armour.

With or without the ammo explosion, once the cumulative jet enters the combat compartment of any MBT the result for the crew is lethal-the whole inside space of the turret instantly heats to few thousands degrees C.

Again, not necessarilly.  Depends on post-penetration preformance, which is not that great.  For example, not very many tank crew members in Lebanon died, even though their tanks were knocked out, and the same has happened in Iraq.   The difference in Chechnya was that the entire turret was literally blow off.  This doesn't happen in a simple HEAT penetration.

Maybe an "Abrams" in the same situations, you had mentioned, would remain with it's turret on the place, but the fate of the tankers will be absolutely the same: instantly cooked.

No, that's not true at all.  There is no real increase in heat when an RPG hit.  HEAT warhead =/= heat.  HEAT stands for high explosive anti-tank, and it's basically a low mass liner of ductile material [normally copper] with explosive backing.  During initiation the explosive forms axial wavefronts, shaped by a waveshaper near the end of the round.  These wavefronts collapse the liner which form into a kinetic penetrator moving at velocities over 10,000m/sec.  Penetration is completely hydrodynamic, which is why such a low mass penetrator can penetrate so much.  However, post-penetration preformance depends on the chemical energy remaining, which is little.

For the tank to remain more of a force in a combat situation, the small RPG and aerial missiles have to be dealt with.  I remember seeing video of a tank defense system that detonates the missile before it reaches the tank.  However, I do not know what the test conditions were and when it took place.  I saw the video probably around 6-9 months ago.

Originally posted by J.M.Finegold No, that's not true at all.� There is no real increase in heat when an RPG hit.� HEAT warhead =/= heat.� HEAT stands for high explosive anti-tank, and it's basically a low mass liner of ductile material [normally copper] with explosive backing.� During initiation the explosive forms axial wavefronts, shaped by a waveshaper near the end of the round.� These wavefronts collapse the liner which form into a kinetic penetrator moving at velocities over 10,000m/sec.� Penetration is completely hydrodynamic, which is why such a low mass penetrator can penetrate so much.� However, post-penetration preformance depends on the chemical energy remaining, which is little.

HEAT (High Explosive Anti-Tank)

Shaped charge rounds have a explosive warhead and are commonly known as HEAT rounds. They contain a specially formed charge covered with a thin piece of metal. Due to the way the charge is formed, upon detonation a jet of hot gasses and molten metal is forced forward into the target at a very high speed. This jet burns/blasts it's way through the armor. This round has a advantage over the kinetic energy round in that velocity doesn't matter to it's effectiveness, it has the same amount of killing power at the end of it's flight as it does at the muzzle. Because of this most anti-tank missiles, due to their low velocity, use this type of warhead. One drawback is that the plasma jet is easily disrupted, defeating the rounds effectiveness. Spaced, composite, and reactive armor have all been developed to defend against HEAT rounds. During WWII chicken wire was even used with success against early HEAT rounds. The wire was laid across the tank several inches from the hull. When the round hit the wire it detonated and the plasma jet splashed against the hull without penetrating. Source

The HEAT ammo is based on the Munroe effect:    
The Munroe effect refers to the partial focusing of blast energy caused by a hollow or void cut into a piece of explosive, a property which is exploited by a shaped charge.    Explosive energy is released directly away from (normal to) the surface of an explosive, so shaping the explosive will concentrate the explosive energy in the void. If the void is properly shaped (usually conically), a high-velocity jet of plasma will form.
That's about the thermal effect of the HEAT rounds.

Do the Abramses on the picures have full pentrations(from RPG-7 in the turret-1970's vintage)? 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. 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.
    

Edited by Desperado - 25-Sep-2006 at 12:06