This simulation shows the impact of the 85mm BR-365K APHE-T with hardened steel body being fired from a Soviet T-34-85 tank at a range of 0.2km, targeting the front hull of a German Tiger I tank equipped with the Russian Relikt explosive reactive armour. We called the upgraded version Tiger IR.
The 85mm gun used on the T-34/85 was very similar to the Soviet 85mm AA gun, which was tested by the Soviets against the Tiger. This testing showed that the 85mm could penetrate the Tiger's front at 1000 meters.
The Soviets first started researching reactive armor in 1949 but a miscalculation resulted in all the test subjects being blown up and further research was canceled.
While recent ERA shows a great protection against APFSDS and tandem warheads, its effectiveness against old AP arounds was not tested. We can see that the high hardness plates of the Relikt reduced the impact velocity before even the detonation of the explosive element and worked as spaced armor.
The 4S23 explosive elements distorts the angle and velocity of impact which makes the 102mm armour job much easier.
The impact of such reactive armour on 122mm and higher AP rounds may be less but not negligible leaving the fact that the introduction of explosive reactive armour in world war 2 would have significant impact on the battlefield.
These experiments took more than 140 hours.
