Explosively Formed Projectiles (EFPs) are used to attack armored vehicles, on the other hands the armored vehicles use Explosive Reactive Armor (ERA) to enhance their protection. Using LS-DYNA software, this paper studies the problem of interaction of EFP with single sandwich ERA. The effect of various ERA configurations like the thickness of metal flyer plates/explosive and the inclination angle of ERA is analyzed against an EFP. The study concludes that the effect of light ERA i.e. with flyers upto 5mm is limited and the residual EFP still has enough energy to penetrate significant thickness of steel target, however when the ERA configuration is changed to heavier steel plates, most of the EFP is consumed during interaction with the ERA and only a small portion reaches the steel target, which does not have sufficient energy to penetrate the target. The simulation results were validated by testing the EFP against ERA.

Explosive reactive armour (ERA) is used to protect the armoured vehicles against chemical energy warheads and long-rod penetrators. ERA generally consists of an ERA sandwich and an outer steel cover to protect it from unintended initiation. Explosively formed projectiles (EFPs) are used as antiarmour warheads, and their use in top attack antiarmour weapons is increasing. Interaction of EFP with the ERA sandwich alone has been studied in the past. This paper studies the effect of the cover plate and its thickness on the interaction of the EFP and the ERA sandwich. Numerical simulations and experiments have been used to study the interaction. It has been found that the penetration in the target is reduced as the thickness of the cover plate increases. Moreover, the decrease in penetration is directly proportional to the thickness of the cover plate. Also it has been found that the residual EFP after penetrating the cover plate has sufficient energy to initiate the ERA sandwich. The results of the numerical simulation and the experiments are in close agreement.

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