Ivanov's shell vs. Roy's armor

[ewilen]

I know there's at least one ex-tanker on this board, so I thought I'd throw this out.

In that shot where we see Ivanov fire a shell that penetrates Roy's armored VF's shield before being defeated by the reactive armor, does anyone think that the animation doesn't look very much like we'd expect a HEAT round to behave? To me, the way it squashes looks more like HESH--but from what I've read, HESH isn't really all that great against modern armor, and reactive armor doesn't really help much against it.

Or could the "squashing" effect be the squashing of the aerodynamic "windshield" on the HEAT round?

Are there any high-speed photography shots of a HEAT round hitting a piece of armor?

Edit: If it's HESH, it should have caused (at most) some fragments to spall off the inside of the shield, and those wouldn't have posed any threat to the inherent armor of the battroid. If it were HEAT, I'd think the shield itself would be a very effective form of "spaced armor", and the jet would completely lose its focus before hitting the body of the battroid. Either way, reactive armor really wouldn't be needed.

Edited December 18, 2003 by ewilen