I have heard the term "Softskins" thrown around a lot here. My question is: What is a softskin? I have complete ignorance in this area.......... Thanks for your time.

Ola Mebm

Softskins usually are things like trucks and other non armor plated vehicles. I`m sure Cliff (MrRoo) can tell you all about Softskins but Softskins are things like Trucks, Jeeps Etc.

Softskins are also wheeled vehicles

Think the LAV-25 and BTR-80 guys may beg to differ.

I think the WW2 German RSO fully tracked tractor is a softskin as well. Generally, a softskin is an unarmored vehicle, usually (but not always) wheeled. Obviously, just because a vehicle is wheeled, that doesn't necessarily make it a softskin.

Yup. Basically, if it doesn't have armor, it's a softskin - the vehicle's "skin" is "soft" enough to let bullets through.... #:-)

sorry Paul but a lot of softskined vehicles are tracked or half tracks. Motorcycles are also classed as soft skin vehicles too.

from my understanding, a softskin, is any vehicle, wheeled or tracked, thats basic construction does not include armour.

this includes,

motorbikes, jeeps, cars, lorries, halftracks, gun tractors etc etc

cheers

joe

Also, softskin can also refer to the people who believe that non-tracked vehicles are NOT a sub-species of AFV. I don't mean (read: Ya I do!!!) to cause any upset, because the Militarys unfortunate leaning toward this misguided direction. As we all know (even the ones who are hiding from the truth), if it aint tracked, it's a truck (wink to Mr Roooooo). Now I am going to froloic in a field of vinyl tracks and discarded link and length. Weeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!


This post is the view of one of my multipule personalities and is not nessasarily held by all of them or the management herein.

Wow, guys I really didn't now there were a lot of tracked softskins

Does that mean WWII Japanese Tanks,too? :-) No really, I know a couple of WWII veterans who were in the first big Japanese/American tank battles, and he told me that a 50 caliber (12.7 mm to those crazy people on the other side of the pond) machine gun could puncture some of their tanks. Crazy. #:-) Thanks for your time.

Hi all....
and things that have wheels AND armour i.e. armoured cars, are not softskins...???

Cheers
Peter
:-)

No they are not softskins but AFV's

I like nutty armor fans...I like the TinMan...He he he he ha ha ho ho ho hee :-)

It is really interesting where should we draw a line between softskins and AFVs.

Take Humvees:
- regular M998 are definitely softskins, as they have canvas doors and roof.
- typical M1025, M966, M1036 and similar are probably also softskins, as their metal shell can hardly be called an armor.
- what about M1045 and M1046? They are partially armored - are they already AFVs, or still softskins?
- fully armored Humvees, like M1114 should most likely be considered AFV's, but I think most people will still categorize them as softskins, simply because they are Humvees.

Similar questions arises about gun trucks - are they still softskins?...

Of course we need to think about definition of armor - each armor package is designed to stop only some caliber and type of projectiles. So the fact that the armor of M1045 Humvee does not stop RPG round, does not change the fact that it still is an armor - it was just meant to stop MG bullets, not RPG rounds. So probably the most precise (although not necessarily practical) definition of "softskin vehicle" should be, that it is a vehicle not containing any parts designed to protect vehicle interior against any kind of projectiles. Of course some parts can still protect the crew from bullets, like engine block or heavier components of vehicle frame and shell, but unless they were designed specifically to protect from bullets, they don't count as armor.

Cheers,
Pawel

Hi guys !

What about the M113 APC ? During my army time (when I had to repair that piece of
%$&"$§), we were told that the aluminium-armor will be penetrated even by 7,65mm bullets, depending on the location. A soft skin ?
Btw, why couldn't you use our fantastic metric system for your AFVs ? Would have made my life easier ...
But generally I agree; soft-skin is every non-armored vehicel, tracked or wheeled (or "footed" ?)

frank

No, because the aluminum shell was designed to protect the vehicle interior from artilery shrapnel and small arms fire. If it was effective or not is other question, but the idea was to stop bullets. So it is definitely an AFV.

Cheers,
Pawel

I believe just the name.... Armoured Personal Carrier would put it in the Armour class.

AHHH, straightforward sarcasm from a grumpy old man! :-)

@Grumpy

APC - this is how you call it; in the German Army it's officially called MTW (=MannschaftsTransportWagen = personal carrier), without the A for armored, you get the point ? Its nickname was "lunch box". Maybe its armor was designed to be bulletproof, but in fact the side armor (driver compartiment) was penetrated by a salvo of 7,62mm MG-3 bullets. The MG-3 is the good old MG-42 with slightly smaller caliber and lower rate of fire. No joke, it worked. But ok, let's say it is an APC (and the Maus is a cruiser tank ...).

CU

Frank

M113 and variants are classed as armor and not softskins

I give up