Err well for HEAT rounds, the lethality comes from the warhead on say an RPG, detonating when it hits tank armor and sending a highly pressurized explosive jet that projects out the front of the warhead and into and through the tank armor into the interior.
With more sophisticated models of RPG and other shoulder launched HEAT rockets though, causing this jet to form 8 inches back from the actual surface of the tank armor doesn’t really help and can make it worse in some ways (depending on the design of the HEAT munition it might actually help the munition defeat a vehicle’s armor).
Err well for HEAT rounds, the lethality comes from the warhead on say an RPG, detonating when it hits tank armor and sending a highly pressurized explosive jet that projects out the front of the warhead and into and through the tank armor into the interior.
With more sophisticated models of RPG and other shoulder launched HEAT rockets though, causing this jet to form 8 inches back from the actual surface of the tank armor doesn’t really help and can make it worse in some ways (depending on the design of the HEAT munition it might actually help the munition defeat a vehicle’s armor).
Part of the pressure comes from the confining from the armor material.