Anti-Armor Weapons

Dating back to World War I, anti-tank and anti-armor guns are defined as cannons or guns that are designed to destroy enemy armored vehicles normally from defensive positions. In order to penetrate vehicle armor, these weapons fire anti-tank ammunition from guns with longer barrels to achieve a higher muzzle velocity than other artillery weapons, such as howitzers. The higher velocity and flatter trajectory ballistics provide enough terminal kinetic energy to penetrate a target’s armor at a given contact angle and range. Any field artillery cannon with a barrel length that is in the range of 15 to 25 times longer than its caliber may also fire anti-tank ammunition.

Prior to World War II, there was no real need for anti-tank guns with calibers larger than 50mm. Light weapons, such as the German 37mm, US 37mm, British QF 2-pounder, and Soviet 45mm, could all penetrate the thin armor that was found on most pre-war and early tanks. Germany began to introduce more powerful anti-tank and anti-armor weapons, causing a need for more powerful weapons.

As these towed anti-tank cannons grew in weight and size, they became much more difficult to move and maneuver, and required even larger crews. As the war progressed, the disadvantage of having to handle such heavy artillery under fire caused a major issue. To remedy this problem, a self-propelled, lightly armored “tank destroyer” was developed. This tank destroyer was based on existing tank designs and used either an integrated gun on the hull or a fully rotating turret. These self-propelled anti-armor and anti-tank guns were then deployed as infantry support.