High-explosive anti-tank

High-explosive anti-tank (HEAT) is a shaped-charge warhead that focuses explosive energy into a high-speed jet, enabling it to penetrate armor without relying on projectile speed.

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Shaped charge: An explosive charge shaped to focus its detonation effects into a directed jet or penetrator. HEAT is a weapon application of this broader charge design.
Metal liner: A shaped metal layer inside a charge that collapses under detonation to form a jet and slower-moving material. Its material and geometry strongly influence the HEAT jet's formation and penetration.
Bazooka: A U.S. shoulder-fired rocket launcher developed during World War II to deliver anti-tank warheads. Its early rockets used HEAT warheads against armored vehicles.
Armor-piercing fin-stabilized discarding sabot: A kinetic-energy tank projectile that discards a sabot and sends a long, dense penetrator toward its target. Unlike HEAT, it depends on projectile velocity and penetrator mass rather than a shaped-charge jet.
Munroe effect: The focusing of explosive energy by a cavity or indentation in an explosive charge. It explains why a shaped cavity can concentrate explosive effects toward armor.
Hydrodynamic penetration: A penetration regime in which impact pressures make projectile and target materials flow approximately like fluids. At high impact speeds, the HEAT jet penetrates armor through this flow-like interaction.
Panzerfaust: A German single-shot, disposable anti-tank weapon developed during World War II. Its warhead used a shaped charge to defeat armor at short range.
High-explosive squash head: A warhead that spreads plastic explosive against a target before detonation to produce shock effects. It defeats some armor by shock and spalling rather than a focused liner jet.
Detonation: A supersonic reaction front that propagates through an explosive and drives a strong pressure wave. The detonation wave collapses the liner and initiates jet formation.
Armor steel: Steel alloy engineered to resist penetration and impact in protective structures and vehicles. It is a common target material against which HEAT penetration is assessed.