Re: Nuclear Weapons Material

["Perry E. Metzger" <perry@imsi.com>]

Mike McNally says:
> Mike Duvos writes:
>  >                                          The idea is that the
>  > uranium penetrates the armor and the charge then explodes once
>  > the round is inside.
> 
> I don't know much about modern munitions, but I do know that armor
> piercing rounds may have no charge in them at all.

The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Ammunition, a book that I actually
possess, makes this claim. According to it, there are two basic kinds
of armor piercing rounds -- one that involves having a potent thin
metal projectile usually made of a material like tungsten, that
penetrates the armor, and one involving having a shaped charge that
squirts a jet of hot metal through the armor. No one seems to have
attempted to get explosives through the armor in many many decades.

None of the forms of modern shells described in this book involve the
use of depleted uranium in shell casings.

Perry