Further additions of the Z-10

Machinery of War Discussion Helicopter
467

SAPHE penetrates and then explodes (like high-TNT equiv APHE shells that love to overpressure – think of BR-471B from IS-2, or the PzGr from Tiger H1). If it doesn’t penetrate, SAPHE then explodes like HE.

This explains the tracks (since it penetrates the tracks and then explodes the 30mm side armour of Abrams instead of just exploding when contacting the tracks), but I am not sure why the RP-3 kills Abrams with some portions of its turret cheek while CM-502 (with higher tnt equivalent and thus HE penetration) doesn’t.
The only reason I can think of is because CM-502 is bigger, and so the centre of explosion is much further away than that of RP-3’s.

SAPHE is definitely one of the best types of penetrator in the game, but its maximum kinetic penetration is almost always the issue:

  • Tracks / foliage / destructible objects don’t trigger it to explode (unlike HE or HEATFS)
  • It one-shots every time as long as you penetrate (unlike HEATFS / APFSDS)
  • It still retains high-explosive penetration (like HE), so even if it does not kinetically penetrate, it can overpressure outside of the vehicle too.

If they had more penetration, I would 100% say that it is better than other types such as APFSDS, high-caliber HE, or APHE.

Luckily, CM-502KG and LMURs both are top-attack missiles, so the low penetration that comes with SAPHE is not as troublesome.
But for the CM-502KG’s to have its SAPHE removed is quite tragic.

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468

It’s the code issue where 502 was given a significantly lower overpressure code.

The turret I could imagine the same and it also pens less since it’s slower. RN it seems like it works a bit better but then still does a bit weirdly. Should have its SAPHE back.

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469

I’m not sure about that. I think it’s just the difference between how SAPHE overpressure mechanic works, and how HE overpressure mechanic works – it’s not just a 502 issue but an issue with SAPHE / HE in general.

The kinetic penetration of LMUR and CM-502 are effectively the same, despite CM-502’s max speed being slower.

If it actually is SAPHE, I would definitely like that.

470

We saw that it had the HEAT code in which was significantly lower than RP-3.

It is although it might be hard to suggest this to Gaijin.

471

I think it’s same thing with HEAT – its ‘HE’ overpressure mechanic behaves slighlty differently than HE or SAPHE. HEAT probably being the worst out of the three.

I see.