Quote:
Originally Posted by Var
I based this on the availability of Composite, and maybe even Chobham, armors, but now that I think about it, the price of their creation as full armor for a vehicle would be restrictive to say the least.
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It's actually less a matter of cost than it is a matter of feasibility. In order to be effective, composite armors like Chobham and Drochester have to have a certain thickness. Armor is heavy, so only so much of a tank's mass can be used for armor; any of it used to defend the other arcs will hence reduce it from the front. This goes against the vast majority of MBT design philosophy, so most countries decide to just have relatively thin RHA on the less important arcs.
This limitation is partially the reason why the current trend is to develop more in the way of active defenses like electromagnetic armor, reactive armor, TROPHY, or laser defenses.