Howdy, I’ve noticed a recurring issue in War Thunder: shaped charge (HEAT, ATGM) rounds reliably penetrate upper frontal plates (UFP) with slopes exceeding 75–80° on multiple vehicles.
· TsNII-48 report B-6-46 (1947) concluded that impact angles of 80–85° guarantee full ricochet of shaped charge jets.
· Modern studies (Journal of Applied Mechanics and Technical Physics, 2007) confirm that at angles <8° to the surface, shaped charge jets fragment or ricochet rather than penetrate.
· In general, shaped charge effectiveness drops dramatically at extreme angles due to standoff disruption and jet instability.
Here are the sources:
Current in game behavior:
In War Thunder, HEAT rounds often penetrate these plates reliably, ignoring the physical realities of jet formation and ricochet. This makes heavily sloped armor (a key design feature of many modern MBTs) effectively useless against chemical munitions.
This is not a vehicle-specific issue. It is a systemic mechanic that affects all tanks with extreme slopes.
(for example Abrams, Leopard 2a7v, Leclerc)
Suggested fix:
Introduce a penetration/ricochet probability curve for chemical munitions that drastically reduces effectiveness at impact angles >75–80°, consistent with the cited sources.
For example, the Abrams has a 83-degree UPF slope, which means that any projectile that hits it will either break or ricochet, but there is no such thing in the game.
The angle here is interpreted as 82° minimum, not “75°-80°” as you mistakenly said. This is, in fact, a far more extreme angle than the current HEAT ricochet angles in-game, which are about 65° to 77° (likely limited by fuze angles rather than actual deflection of the jet).
In fact, this would mean that the cumulative jet from the vast majority of modern HEAT ammunition does not have any issue with the armor angles found on frontal armor of modern tanks. Except for the literal horizontal armor plates, which are 90°, but that is irrelevant anyway.
This would be considered a suggestion rather than a bug, therefore it is meant for here but just in the suggestion category and not the discussion category perhaps.
However, the M1 Abrams UFP is sloped at approximately 83 degrees . According to the source you cited, at 82 degrees the shaped charge jet ricochets rather than penetrates. This means the Abrams UFP (83 degrees ) exceeds even that critical angle.
If the source confirms that 82 degrees causes ricochet, then 83 degrees should also result in ricochet or jet fragmentation - not reliable penetration as we currently see in game.
Could you clarify why the game allows reliable penetration at angles that, according to the source, should cause jet ricochet?
First of all, it’s the source YOU cited. Second of all, I said minimum of 82 degrees, and that’s being generous. If you look at the graph, the values extend approximately from 7 degrees to 5 degrees, so >83° to >85° incidence angle needed to cause a deflection of the HEAT jet. And let me note, modern HEAT jet speeds is, very roughly, mostly in the range of 7 to 10 km/s; whereas the experimental values here only extend to about 8.3 km/s. Therefore, the vast majority of modern HEAT shells/ATGMs have a cumulative jet with speeds in excess of that required to penetrate the Abram’s UFP (83°).\
And before you mention the relatively slower speed of the jet’s tail, you should note that by the time it reaches the armor, the tip of the jet (traveling at the aforementioned speeds) would have already made an indent in the material’s surface, such that the angle of the armor plate is practically irrelevant.
