​​What is Explosive Reactive Armour? How does it Work?

 ​​What is Explosive Reactive Armour? How does it Work?

Explosive reactive armour (ERA) is a type of armour that is used in modern tanks and other armoured vehicles to protect them from projectiles that employ shaped charged warheads. An ERA is extremely effective on HEAT and HESH rounds. It also protects the vehicle from APFSDS rounds up to some extent. However, some APFSDS rounds with tungsten or depleted Uranium cores are able to penetrate most of the modern ERAs.

Explosive Reactive Armour is a peculiar type of armour that uses explosive charges to defend from other explosives which are fired at it. So let us understand how it works.

Most of the well-protected tanks like the British Challenger, American Abrams, German Leopard and Indian Arjun use composite armours made of high strength materials like depleted uranium. Often these armours are covered by explosive reactive armours to complement the armour’s protection.

So now let us understand how the Explosive armour works. A typical explosive reactive armour consists of plastic explosives like C4 sandwiched between two metal plates. These are mounted on the top of the regular tank armour. When the warhead hits the upper plate, it ignites the explosive. The shockwave created by the explosion scatters the molten metal jet away. the upper plate flies in the outward direction and thus helps in scattering the molten metal jet.

The ERAs are often mounted on the areas which are most likely to hit like the front part of the hull, the entire turret, side skirts covering the tracks etc. ERAs are extremely useful in urban warfare where the RPGs and other anti-tank missiles carried by the infantry soldiers pose a maximum threat to the tanks.