What does APFSDS stand for?

Armor-piercing fin-stabilized discarding sabot
Armor-piercing fin-stabilized discarding sabot (APFSDS), long dart penetrator, or simply dart ammunition, is a type of kinetic energy penetrator ammunition used to attack modern vehicle armor.

What is kinetic ammunition?

A kinetic energy penetrator (KEP, KE weapon, long-rod penetrator or LRP) is a type of ammunition designed to penetrate vehicle armour using a flechette-like, high-sectional density projectile. Modern KEP munitions are typically of the armour-piercing fin-stabilized discarding sabot (APFSDS) type.

What does sabot round mean?

A device that allows a projectile of a smaller caliber to be fired from a weapon of a larger caliber by filling the weapon’s bore and keeping the projectile centered. The sabot normally separates and falls away from the projectile a short distance from the muzzle.

What type of cannons are used in APFSDS ammunition?

Nevertheless, in the early development of APFSDS ammunition, existing rifled barrel cannons were used, (and are still in use), such as the 105 mm M68/M68E1 cannon mounted on the M60/A1/A3 main battle tank or the British 120 mm Royal Ordnance L30 of the Challenger 2 tank.

Can APFSDS be fired from a low twist barrel?

Even smooth-bore fired APFSDS projectiles incorporate fins that are slightly canted to provide some spin rate during flight; and very low twist rifled barrels have also been developed for the express purpose of firing APFSDS ammunition.

What is Kep ( kinetic energy penetrator)?

A kinetic energy penetrator ( KEP, KE weapon, long-rod penetrator or LRP) is a type of ammunition designed to penetrate vehicle armour. Like a bullet, this ammunition does not contain explosives and uses kinetic energy to penetrate the target. Modern KEP munitions are typically of the armour-piercing fin-stabilized discarding sabot (APFSDS) type.

For these reasons, armour-piercing fin-stabilized discarding sabot (APFSDS) projectiles are generally fired from smoothbore guns, a practice that has been taken up for tank guns by China, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, France, Germany, Pakistan, Turkey, Russia, and the United States.