LVTP-7: Cupola


Using exclusive pictures of VAO #17, the vehicle Phillips claims was destroyed by the Royal Marines, this article demonstrates that the hole behind the cupola is the mounting point of a removed auxiliary vision periscope.

"A neat 66 mm hole"


Let’s start with the supposed impact hole behind the commander’s cupola.
Click on pictures to enlarge




That's a very neat hole indeed, maybe it’s because it’s the hole that’s left when you dismount this auxiliary vision periscope:

How the HEAT ammo works


But Phillips proposed another explanation, that somehow, the round “plunged down” and went right through that periscope, destroying it it and leaving just the mounting hole intact:

There's two problems with that hypothesis.

First, both the Carl Gustav 84 mm. recoiless rifle and the LAW 66 mm. RPG are direct fire weapons, they provide flat trajectory rounds that doesn’t “plunge down” unless malfunctioning or deviated by an external force or obstacle;  it might happen once in while, but two times in a row from different shooters and weapons is extremely unlikely. Maximum range is 1000 meters for the LAW with 145 m/s muzzle velocity, and 2000 meters for the Carl Gustav with around 245 m/s muzzle velocity, so it’s almost impossible that those shots were so depleted of kinetic force to fall down in such angles. In this video, the straight trajectory of the rounds is quite evident:



Second, it’s impossible that a HEAT ammunition goes straight through the periscope at a perpendicular angle and not doing any superficial damage to the vehicle. Even if it is a glancing shot that only takes out the periscope without exploding, it means that the crew compartment wasn’t compromised.

A HEAT round isn’t a solid projectile that penetrates armor by kinetic force alone, it’s a shaped charge that explodes immediately when it touches the surface, outside the objective, and projects a jet of molten copper that penetrates the armor, producing a small hole, much smaller that the grenade’s caliber. Here’s a slo-mo example:




It doesn’t matter if the object is thick or thin, it will explode on contact, because it needs a precise distance to the surface, to give better penetration capabilities to the molten jet. That’s why spaced armor exists:


That flimsy sheet on the sides is enough to prematurely detonate the RPGs and greatly reduce the jet penetration power. The next picture is from an M-113 APC hit by HEAT RPGs, and it’s relevant because it’s made with an aluminum alloy similar to the LVTP-7, and is 38 mm thick in the sides, while the Amtrac sides are 35 mm. As it can be seen, apart from the obvious penetration holes, the superficial damage is considerable:

New pictures of VAO 17


Thanks to the wonderful people of Quequén, I finally could get pictures of the infamous VAO 17, so we can evaluate them:



It’s obvious that there’s no evident damage at all, it’s just the hole left when the periscope was removed.


Smoke and Mirrors


But what about the thick plume of black smoke RM Mark Gibbs saw?


Maybe the answer is this:



The Amtrac has the exhaust right behind the commander’s cupola, and exactly above the place where Gibbs says he hit. In these videos you can see that the vehicle usually emits much thicker smoke when it’s standing still and starts to move


In brief, there’s no indication of any impact around the commander's cupola, and the proximity of the exhaust to the proposed impact point, coupled with the normal tendency of these engines to produce big plumes of dense black smoke, might have confused the shooters into the idea of hitting the vehicle.