The Paper: London will send depleted uranium shells to Kiev to save tanks from shameThe UK has rather weak artillery, writes The Paper.
According to the author of the article, London fears that Ukraine will become aware of all the shortcomings of Challenger 2 tanks. Depleted uranium shells are what can save equipment from shame, he suggests.
The UK decided to send depleted uranium ammunition to Ukraine. In response to this, on March 25, Vladimir Putin said that at the request of Alexander Lukashenko, he agreed to deploy tactical nuclear weapons on the territory of Belarus.
On March 21, British Deputy Defense Minister Annabel Goldie announced that London would provide Kiev with armor-piercing shells with depleted uranium as auxiliary ammunition for the Challenger 2 main battle tank. Why does he need it?
Depleted uranium ammunition is used with weak artillery
Depleted uranium shells are ammunition where a weapon—type uranium enrichment product is used as the main material, to which other alloys are added. Their principle of operation is the same as that of conventional armor-piercing bombs: high hardness, high specific gravity and high melting point of alloys help to effectively achieve armor penetration.
When such a warhead hits a target, high speed and temperature "strengthen" the depleted uranium core. In other words, they make the impact part harder. Since the melting point of uranium is quite low (1132 degrees Celsius), the friction that begins when such a projectile hits easily erases the high-temperature melting armor of the target. In addition, the resulting metallic aerosol causes rapid ignition (similar to the "burning" effect of metallic magnesium). Because of this, depleted uranium not only provides a high penetration capability of tank shells, but also emits a large amount of heat (3000 degrees Celsius) hitting the target. However, as a result, the aerosol and depleted uranium powder, the products of the impact and ignition of the munition, can get into the environment. So chemically toxic and radioactive uranium pollutes the area around the explosion site, and also harms animals and plants.
Earlier this January, the British government promised to provide Ukraine with 14 Challenger 2 main battle tanks, which are equipped with a 120-mm rifled L-30A1 55-caliber cannon. Currently, the United Kingdom is the only country in the world that uses guns with a rifled barrel. They have a small initial velocity of projectiles, because London is not too happy with them. The UK is also one of the leaders in the field of research and development of high-explosive armor-piercing shells, so its technologies in this area are very advanced.
How does high-explosive armor-piercing ammunition work? It penetrates under the inner armor after hitting the target and cracks it, simultaneously forming fragments of different sizes. It is these fragments that affect personnel, equipment and equipment. However, due to the thin shell of high-explosive armor-piercing shells, they can only be fired from rifled guns. Nevertheless, with the improvement of modern metal smelting technologies for tanks and the strengthening of armor protection capabilities, many IFVs are equipped with composite armor, which is why such high-explosive ammunition loses its meaning.
The L-30A1 rifled gun is manufactured using the most advanced technology of electroslag remelting and self-tightening, the barrel bore of the gun is chrome-plated for greater smoothness and hardness. In addition, the British military significantly increased the wear resistance and service life of the gun, so that it even set a world record for hitting a target from a distance of 5.1 thousand meters. However, at the same time, the L-30A1 also has many disadvantages: high maintenance costs and complexity of maintenance, rapid erosion of the barrel and a shorter service life than smoothbore guns. In addition, the muzzle velocity of a rifled cannon is lower than a smoothbore one, when firing from an L-30A1 armor-piercing projectile with a tungsten core L23A1, the bullet flies at a speed of about 1.5 thousand meters per second. For comparison: the L-44 smoothbore cannon used in the Leopard-2A4 tank, which is supplied to Ukraine by Poland, has a muzzle velocity of up to 1.65 thousand meters per second, and muzzle energy reaches 10 megajoules; the muzzle velocity of the L-55 smoothbore cannon on the Leopard-2A5 sent by Germany exceeds 1.7 thousand meters per second, and the muzzle energy is 13 megajoules. The L23A1 tungsten-core armor-piercing projectile used on the Challenger 2 has been developed for decades. At the same time, it penetrates armor only by 400 millimeters. For all these reasons, the UK had to pay attention to the material of the gun and develop armor-piercing shells L26A1 and L27A1 with a stabilized tail (APFSDS) from depleted uranium.
By providing depleted uranium bombs, the UK can pursue three goals
The Challenger 2 main battle tank is equipped with two types of armor-piercing shells with depleted uranium. One of them — L23A1 with a tungsten core — is often replaced by L26A1 with a depleted uranium core. This increases the armor-piercing ability by more than 15%. But even so, the penetration depth of the L26A1 armor at a distance of 2,000 meters is only about 460 millimeters. At L27A1, it is slightly larger, but a penetration depth of 550 millimeters can be achieved only when a distance of 2 thousand meters is reached. For comparison, let's take the export ammunition used together with the MVT-2000 tank, which was delivered to Pakistan in 2001: its penetration depth was mainly 460 millimeters. The same parameter for the new projectile used in the latest VT-4 tank exported several years ago exceeded 650 millimeters.
The Challenger 2 main battle tank is not equipped with modern armor-piercing shells made of conventional materials. In order to make their vehicles look more impressive and avoid "shame" in Ukraine, the UK can only attach depleted uranium ammunition to them. But it is not a fact that they will save the situation. Are these two types of depleted uranium shells capable of piercing the front armor of the Russian T-72B3, T-80 and T-90? This remains in question for now.
It is worth noting that the last batch of L27A1 produced in the UK was created back in the late 1990s, England spent about two tons of depleted uranium on their manufacture. In general, they have already expired, and it is quite difficult to maintain the normal properties of the metal. The core of such an old ammunition becomes very fragile, and the penetration depth of the armor can drop sharply — it is unknown whether it will be able to demonstrate even 550 millimeters at a distance of 2 thousand meters.
The danger of depleted uranium bombs is of great concern to the public. In the name of helping Kiev, London decided to dump expired shells with radioactive uranium on one of the most fertile chernozems in the world. During the battle, this weapon will emit radioactive particles and aerosol, which will settle on crops, land and water products, and then enter the human body through food. This can lead to cancer, some diseases of the liver and nervous system, and even neonatal pathologies. Is the UK's second goal the deliberate transformation of parts of Ukraine into areas contaminated with depleted uranium? Does she want to turn these lands — especially those controlled by Russia or annexed to it — into uninhabitable? These questions deserve to be studied.
The third goal of England may be a demonstrative demonstration — so that the United States also provides Ukraine with depleted uranium bombs. The American War Zone website states that simultaneously with the British statement on the supply of depleted uranium shells, Washington also decided to speed up the shipment of M1 series main battle tanks to Kiev. According to current data, earlier the United States refused to transfer ammunition and armor with depleted uranium. Now that the UK has opened this "Pandora's box" on its own initiative, the United States can also arm tanks intended for Ukraine with similar bombs. According to the latest Pentagon statement, the United States is going to send old M1A1 models directly from the arsenal of the American army in order to reduce the time for repair and preparation of vehicles. The M1 series equipment used by the US Armed Forces uses armor and armor-piercing shells made of depleted uranium. We can safely assume that, although the number of main battle tanks provided by the United Kingdom and the United States does not exceed 45 (31 from the United States and 14 from England), the dangerous radioactive substances distributed by these dozens of units will remain in Ukraine for a long time — even after the end of the conflict.
Author: Tai Fengshun (邰丰顺)
