Would steel diamond mesh , heavy gauge - 35 x 63 mm nominal for the diamonds opening ..

.. be sufficient to protect against shaped charges -- rpg and the like -- or is it too lithe ?

Thanks -- I know quite a few of ya'll have practical experience .

Uru

The original German plates were 4 to 6 mm (between 1/8" and 1/4") thick. The screens were probably no more than 1/8". The whole idea was not so much to absorb the energy from a HEAT round, as it was to allow dissipation of it before reaching the actual armor plate of the hull. With that taken into account, anything that'll set the warhead off before it reaches the vehicle will work.

In tests it was also seen that the plates could cause a slight deflection of an incoming round, or cause it to tumble. (I don't know if the screens were heavy enough to do the same).

... so the mesh I describe ( cause it's what I have enough of in PE , heh heh ) would be an adequate stand-off armor , sounds like ?

@ least for bazooka type rounds .

I didn't expect it to be able minimize a direct attack with an anti-tank round -- but anything to upset it's trajectory helps

Thanks

Yeah, I'd say go for it. Even a thinner mesh may help with an AP round if it comes in at an angle.

Cool Beans

Thanks !

Anything that will detonate a shaped charge more than a foot from the real armor will work as protection. A shaped charge operates by shooting a jet make of plasma from the copper cone of the charge through the armor, that jet is short and fairly easily disrupted. I believe that's how Chobham armor works, it breaks up the jet as it passes through layers of different armor.

Thanks .
Yeah , I know exactly how they work --

The slat armor currently utilized is much more robust .
With a significantly deeper profile , so I wasn't sure if the mesh was sufficient to detonate the warhead prior to the kinetic and possibly rocket energy punching it easily through .

... you think it would be effective against a HEAT round ?