projectile stabilization

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svtruth

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I've read that tanks fire smooth bore rounds.
Can someone please educate this ignorant, non tanker as to how those rounds are stabilized?
Thanks in advance.
 
Think lawn dart...

Not kidding. Fins are smaller but the projectiles, especially the armor piercing ones look remarkably similar.
 
Artillery barrels use rifling in the barrels, this I know personally, tanks used to shoot other tanks used rifling as well but are now moving back to smoothbore. "To reliably penetrate the thick armor of modern armored vehicles, a very long, thin kinetic energy projectile is required. The longer the projectile is in relation to its diameter, the higher the spin rate must be to provide stability. Practical rifling can only stabilize projectiles of a limited length to diameter ratio, and these modern rounds are simply too long. These rounds are instead formed into a dart shape, using fins for stabiliztion."
 
Tanks using smooth bore barrels are a trade off between accuracy and performance.

In order to penetrate the armour of modern tanks they are shooting sabot rounds where the "body" breaks away after it leaves the bore. You don't want these spinning as it would destabilize the separation and is counter productive to penetration. When the sabot breaks away, the long thin body of the penetrator is exposed. At the tail end of the body are a set of fins that keep the projectile flying true to target
 
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