Hellfire Missiles as Tank Killers

choi

(1) AGM-114 Hellfire has many types of warheads, two of which are   
(a) high-explosive anti-tank (HEAT), and
(b) metal augmented charge (MAC).
(2) HEAT is a kind of shaped charge, which has been applied to many areas (from nuclear weapons to mining) and whose goal is directed explosion (and its shock wave) in one direction -- similar to flash light (both of which may use hyperbola for that purpose). Despite the acronym, HEAT does not really rely on heat, but on explosion (which does generate some heat).
(a) the concept of shaped charge is most easily understood with a concrete real-life example.

Explosively Formed Penetrators for Dummies. laststandonzombieisland, Aug 30, 2013
https://laststandonzombieisland. ... ed-penetrators-efp/
(b) Shaped charge was discovered in 1888 by an American chemist Charles Munroe. It was forgotten until World War II, for use by Germany to destroy tanks.
(3) The metal augmented charge (MAC) is more powerful than heat. Instead of a concave meat cap, MAC uses metal powder for the same principle (but with a more deadly outcome).

Metal augmented charge. Patent filed on Mar 7, 2014 and assigned to "US Secretary of Navy."
https://patents.google.com/patent/US8894783B2/en

Quote:

"The metal augmented charge (MAC) includes flaked aluminum powder and polytetrafluorethylene [(PTFE), whose best known brand is Teflon, used as a non-stick coating for pans]. The MAC is pressed into solid billets.

"This invention relates to an apparatus for explosively dispersing particles of combustible metals into the atmosphere to form a fuel-air explosive.

"Self-forming-fragment (SFF) [in MAC] munitions are similar to shaped charge explosives, in the sense that the metal liner forms a mass of hot metal which is propelled in the direction of a target by the explosive charge, however with a lesser degree of jet formation. Nevertheless, as in the case of conventional shaped charges, the metal [powder in MAC] forms a relatively cohesive body of hot material propelled away from the point of detonation toward a target, but largely together, as a glob of material. Although these shaped charge type explosive devices may employ reactive metals, they do not derive a meaningful amount of energy from the interaction of the reactive metal with the environment, because the metal moves as a cohesive mass of material.

* billet (n): "a bar of metal"https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/billet
(4) See also Tom Harris, How M1 Tanks Work. Howstuffworks, undated (at Web page 4 out of 6).
https://science.howstuffworks.com/m1-tank3.htm

Quote:

"The M1's primary weapon is a 120-mm M256 smoothbore cannon made by the German company Rheinmetall Landsysteme GmbH. The '120-mm' designates that the cannon fires 120-mm-wide rounds. 'Smoothbore' means the inside of the barrel is smooth, rather than rifled like most hand guns. Smoothbore guns don't stabilize rounds [for accuracy] as well as rifled guns, but they can fire rounds at higher velocities without suffering heavy damage.

"Sabot rounds work like a basic arrow. They don't have any explosive power; they penetrate armor with shear momentum. The heart of the sabot round is the penetrator -- a narrow metal rod (typically depleted uranium) with a pointed nose on one end and stabilizing fins on the other.

* The article also talks about HEAT (a weapon of M1 tank), but not well written.
* sabot (n; The Evolution of SABOT)https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sabot