General Question

RedDeerGuy1's avatar

Why does the United States military use depleted uranium in tanks?

Asked by RedDeerGuy1 (24882points) October 24th, 2021

Just wondering.

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6 Answers

gorillapaws's avatar

It’s the extremely high density which helps penetrate the armor of its target.

LuckyGuy's avatar

Lead has a density of 11 g/cc. Uraniuim has a density of 19 g/cc. Almost double.
It is also much harder, similar to titanium, so it penetrates objects that need to be penetrated.

kritiper's avatar

The speed of anti tank rounds made of depleted uranium and fired from a tank, usually, is about one mile per second. Just the round penetrating a tank’s armor, without an explosion, is enough to kill any one in the tank.

Lightlyseared's avatar

Because it makes blowing up the bad guys tanks easier when you use it in the shells and it makes it harder for bad guys to blow up your tanks when you use it in the armour.

kritiper's avatar

Some armor is reactive, which means it explodes outwards to absorb the force of the incoming round.

kritiper's avatar

A tank cannot be too heavy. The side armor is the thickest and anti-tank mines explode through the bottom where the armor is thinnest, and some anti-tank missiles attack the top where the armor is also relatively thin.

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