How durable is a tank?

[Fllflourine]

What is the durability of a tank assumed to be? Wall level? Small Building level?

 

[Promestein]

Small Building.

 

[Golden_Void]

https://vsbattles.fandom.com/wiki/M1_Abrams

 

[Soldier_Blue]

^ What Promestein said.

But note: AP for destroying a tank depends on type of destruction. Just blowing it apart is 9-A. Vaporizing it is Low 7-C to 7-C. I think subatomic destruction is 7-A.

 

[Fllflourine]

I was asking this because some tanks appear to be just Wall level (maybe with a + at the end) in durability, particularly the light tanks like the M551, not MBTs like the Abrams.

 

[Lina_Shields]

Before this question is answered, can a tank endure an incoming tank round from an opposing tank?

Depending on whether said tank can survive taking a round or not, its durability would directly scale to the kinetic energy of the incoming tank round, which yields around Small Building level (depending on the mass of the tank round).

What are the mass of tank rounds in general (for the tanks that we are talking about here), and how fast can these tank rounds move?

 

[Soldier_Blue]

What are the mass of tank rounds in general (for the tanks that we are talking about here), and how fast can these tank rounds move?

Not sure about tank round mass but they can have muzzle velocities ranging from 1000 to 1800 m/s.

 

[Lina_Shields]

Can an incoming tank eudure one of those tank rounds without them completely exploding, or ending up not being able to function?

 

[Soldier_Blue]

Depends on the type of round used. If it's a specialized shaped charge, it's most likely going to penetrate. If it's a conventional shell, something like an Abrams should be able to shrug one of those off.

 

[Fllflourine]

For some tank guns:

T-34-85's 85mm cannon has a muzzle velocity of 792-785 m/s and weighed around 9 kg. Using the values of the APCR (792 m/s, and a mass of 9.2 kg) I get Wall level results from calculating this KE. (0.000689630592734 Tons of TNT)

A T-54/55's D-10T 100mm cannon has a muzzle velocity of 1,000 m/s (Not sure where Wikipedia got this from, however) and mass of ~16 kg. Using the UBR-412D shell, with a muzzle velocity of 887 m/s and a mass of 15.88kg, I get a value of 0.001493055893881 tons of TNT, which is still Wall level, but close to Wall level+ (0.00250059751 Tons of TNT?)

Just two tanks, though, and two outdated tanks at that.

The M1 Abrams surely has a more potent shell. Using the M256's M829 APFSDS-T shell which has a muzzle velocity of 1,679 m/s and a weight of 18.7 kg. I get Small Building level results from this. (0.0062997211639579343487 tons of TNT)

Do we assume that an older tank would be Wall level-Wall level+, but a Modern one is Small Building? Additionally, it also depends on where you hit the tank. Sometimes a tank will be able to no sell a shell, but that same shell could cause the tank to instantly explode were it to hit say, the ammo rack.

 

[Lina_Shields]

Based on the results shown above...

• Older tanks such as T-34-85 and the T-54/55 would be Wall level to Wall level+ in terms of durability if they survived a round from any rounds of those cannons.
• The M1 Abrams would have its durability set to Small Building level, provided that they can either tank an RPG, or a round from their own tank shells.

@Soldier Blue: If it is a specialized shaped charge, the tip of the shaped charge would be shaped in a way that would better penetrate through the tank (meaning the surface area of the tip is much smaller in comparison to the surface area of the tank), thus the round would have an easier time piercing through the tank's durability compared to a regular round.

Thus the AP of that specific round would be higher than what the kinetic energy calculated from that round would suggest.