So i just watched Zenturions video about the kv2’s old anti concrete rounds and it reminded me how little pen SAP rounds have compared to APHE, so i looked at the Kirov’s 180mm and the Chapayev’s 152mm cannons and compared the penetartion and explosivemass for the SAP and APHE rounds that they have and calculated what the percentage of the shells mass are explosivemass and how much less pen the SAP have compared to the APHE.
Results:
Kirov’s 180mm:
SAP explosivemass %: ~7.2%
APHE explosivemass %: ~1.7%
How much more pen the APHE shell has compared to SAP: ~51.2%
Chapayev’s 152mm
SAP explosivemass %: ~7%
APHE explosivemass %: ~2%
How much more pen the APHE shell has compared to SAP: ~51.5%
So im just wondering is this realistic with how much less pen SAP has compared to APHE or is this just gaijin logic?
uuuuh- its called Semi-Armour Piercing for a reason-
Its probably both. In reality, SAP-HE shells have a larger quantity of explosive inside than APHE when you compare one to another. That is, if we take the shell of the same size and weight, the increased amount of explosive filler would be equal (?) to the decreased amount of steel used it the shell. Thus, the “kinetic” penetration of such large calibre gun would be lower (sometimes significantly lower) if we take SAP-HE in lieu of APHE(CBC).
Gaijin often uses their own calculator for measuring armor penetration of various shells. Idk if there is specific formula for SAP-HE rounds, but I believe there should be one (or it is just the same one as used for APHE armor penetration calculations).
However, seeing how different armor pen is on the guns you have mentioned, these are probably set by their IRL performance (e.g. there should be some sekrit dokument prooving SAP-HEs on these guns pen less than their APHE counterparts).
From a quick look at other naval guns that use both SAP-HE and APHE for the same gun, SAP-HE do often pen twice or even trice less armor. One exception I found from quick search is German 305 mm/50 SK L/50 which has SAP-HE that pens not so less armor. However, the APC shell is better since it is primarily designed for armor penetration, and its nature being focused on anti-armor aspect makes it better than rather general purpose SAP-HE rounds.
Oh, and the KV-2’s gun: its rounds are indeed not anti-tank but anti-concrete for bunker busting, so the focus was not as much on penetration of steel armor as on the fact that shell’s explosive filler would tear the bunker to pieces, breaking through part of the fortification but not its entirety.
No no no, let’s buff SAP so falcon gets even better
I have a question, is the penetration of SAP ammunition calculated using the game’s penetration calculator? I ran a test calculating the penetration of the Chi Ha Long Gun’s SAP ammunition, and while the game has a penetration of 102, the calculator showed it to be around 150mm.