Editing Reactive armour (section)

==History==
[[File:IDET2007 reactive armor DYNA.jpg|thumb|right|Reactive armour "DYNA" for T-72 MBT]]
The Australians were the first recorded to have conceptualized and developed methods to disrupt and spread the jet of a hollow charge shell to reduce its penetrating power. In a June 1944 report from the Explosives Manufacturing Practices Laboratory of the Explosives Factory Maribyrnong, an operational requirement for the defence against shaped charges was laid out. The focus was in regard to Japanese 75 mm hollow charge shells used against Allied tanks in the Pacific. The destructive effect of the shaped charge was identified as caused by a jet moving at high velocities, consisting of particles from the liner. The two methods developed were to destroy the jet by forcing it to act through a layer of explosives, disrupting the jet, and to make it act through a layer of oxidiser, destroying the jet by burning it with oxidising agents. 

The earliest trials were done with small charges able to defeat 2 inch of steel plate which were readily defeated by a layer of explosive (Baratol, R.D.X., Cordite, etc.) or a vigorous oxidising medium. Subsequent trials with British No.68 and American M9A1 grenades were carried out. However trials were done in few numbers which caused varied results. A mixture of Sodium and Potassium Nitrates explosives was seen as the most practical option due to their casting properties. The mixture acted as an oxidiser which may explode when dispersed and heated. The Explosives Manufacturing Practices Laboratory seemingly developed a more middle road between chemical armor and explosive reactive armor concepts to counter the hollow charge threat.<ref>{{cite web |title=POTASSIUM NITRATE AND SODIUM NITRITE MIXTURE |url=https://cameochemicals.noaa.gov/chemical/4320 |website=CAMEO Chemicals |publisher=National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration |access-date=3 August 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Coulson |first1=W.H. |title=1 0 Australian ERA, Archives from Ed Webster of Armoured Archives |url=https://imgur.com/gallery/australian-era-archives-from-ed-webster-of-armoured-archives-n8yAtvl |access-date=3 August 2024 |agency=Explosives Manufacture Practices Laboratory |publisher=Explosives Factory Maribyrnong/Ed Webster |date=June 1944}}</ref>

The idea of counterexplosion (''kontrvzryv'' in Russian) in armour was proposed in the USSR by the [[Scientific Research Institute of Steel]] (NII Stali) in 1949  by academician [[Bogdan Voitsekhovsky|Bogdan Vjacheslavovich Voitsekhovsky]].{{Citation needed|date=March 2023|reason=Citation needed for that "first idea" claim – apparently similar research was ongoing during the WWII even in the West.}} The first pre-production models were produced during the 1960s. However, insufficient theoretical analysis during one of the tests resulted in all of the prototype elements being detonated.{{Citation needed|date=March 2010}} For a number of reasons, including the aforementioned accident and a belief that Soviet tanks had sufficient armour, the research was ended. No more research was conducted until 1974, when the Ministry of the Defensive Industry announced a contest to find the best tank protection {{Citation needed|date=July 2022}}.

[[Picatinny Arsenal]], an American military research and manufacturing facility experimented with testing linear cutting charges against anti-tank ammunition in the 1950s, and concluded that they may be effective with an adequate sensing and triggering mechanism, but noted "tactical limitations"; the report was declassified in 1980.<ref>{{cite web | title=Preliminary Tests of Picatinny Arsenal Device (Linear Cutting Charge) Against, Dynamically Fired Ammunition | website=Defense Technical Information Center| url=https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/citations/tr/AD0105141 | access-date=3 March 2024}}</ref>

A West German researcher, Manfred Held, carried out similar work with the [[Israeli defence force|IDF]] in 1967–1969.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-TtpAgAAQBAJ&q=Israel%27s+Clandestine+Diplomacies+MANFRED+HELD&pg=PA176 |title=Israel's Clandestine Diplomacies |first1=Clive |last1=Jones |first2=Tore T. |last2=Petersen |year=2013 |publisher=Oxford University Press |via=Google Books |isbn=9780199365449|archive-date=18 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230218104751/https://books.google.com/books?id=-TtpAgAAQBAJ&q=Israel%27s+Clandestine+Diplomacies+MANFRED+HELD&pg=PA176 |url-status=live}}</ref> Reactive armour created on the basis of the joint research was first installed on Israeli tanks during the [[1982 Lebanon war]] and was judged very effective.{{by whom|date=June 2017}}