Tungsten alloy armor piercing shell, which consists of a tungsten alloy core encased in a jacket of copper alloy, is a type of ammunition designed to penetrate armor. Such an armor piercing shell is also known as a kinetic energy armor-piercing projectile. It has been reported that the core of the former West Germany’s 105mm armor piercing discarding sabot was made of tungsten alloy containing 95%W-3.4%Ni-1.6%Fe. Its density can reach about 18 g/cm3.
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The reason why tungsten alloy can be used to make armor-piercing core materials in the military field is that tungsten alloy has comprehensive properties such as high melting point, high density, high strength, high corrosion resistance, low thermal expansion coefficient, and good mechanical processing. In fact, as early as the 1950s, the development of tungsten alloy armor piercing shells has begun. In the 1970s, the United Kingdom, the United States, and West Germany used liquid-phase sintered tungsten heavy alloys (W-Ni-Fe and W-Ni-Cu) as inner core of large-caliber armor piercing discarding sabot and warhead of grenade, therefore the toughness of the core and the power of armor penetration were greatly improved.
