History
From the invention of tanks through to the Second World War, tank armour increased in thickness to resist the increasing size and power of anti-tank guns. A tank with sufficient armor could resist the largest anti-tank guns then in use.
RHA was common use during this period (combined with other plate alloys and cast steel armor), and the measure of the power of an anti-tank gun was the thickness of RHA it would penetrate. This measure of tank gun effectiveness has remained in use because it is a useful universal measure for the comparison of increased anti-tank gun effectiveness. Different types of armour, some of which do not use steel or even metals, have come into use but depth of penetration of RHA is still used to compare anti-tank weapon effectiveness.
RHA was in common use as the primary armor system until after World War II. A new generation of anti-tank rounds had come into use during World War II which did not use a heavy, tough, high-velocity projectile to defeat steel armour but instead used an explosive charge called a shaped charge to overcome the strength of the steel. The strength, toughness and hardness of RHA was no longer protection against this threat.
Read more about this topic: Rolled Homogeneous Armour
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“Anyone who is practically acquainted with scientific work is aware that those who refuse to go beyond fact rarely get as far as fact; and anyone who has studied the history of science knows that almost every great step therein has been made by the “anticipation of Nature.””
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)
“A people without history
Is not redeemed from time, for history is a pattern
Of timeless moments.”
—T.S. (Thomas Stearns)
“At present cats have more purchasing power and influence than the poor of this planet. Accidents of geography and colonial history should no longer determine who gets the fish.”
—Derek Wall (b. 1965)