ALso I have to admit I was wrong, I mentioned before [Misinterpreting what I said about it literally being 2x stronger than any steel its same thickness] this is wrong. Ill explain.
The layered armor asstated was stronger than any 1 BHN steel but was only stronger by 25% to hard 340+BHN steel and onlt 20% stronger than pure 210 BHn Steel...But what it did do was make it use peak performance on both HE and AP.
Lets take the M46 and T54 Lets say M46 has sameslope and thickness and al that changes is steel BHN rating.
Lets say M46 has 100mm@ 60 and T54 has 100mm @ 60
M46 has 210 BHn steel and is relatively soft which makes the metal give and bend and goes with HE/Heat rounds [since lower BHN also melts way faster but cools almost instantly stopping most Jet bursts]
So M46 has effective 200mm because slope and deflects [mostly heat/HE rounds], Now fire Ap rounds through it and its 20% weaker meaning 160mm effective, America was gonna change but thought heat was the future so they kept it, this is also alot better vs RPG`s etc and saves multiple crews because panels welds dont break [they are weakest point] and crush or burn entire crew or worse pop off welds and heat their and burn out the crews lungs.
Now with the 300 BHN+ 200mm Effective it is very hard alot harder than the weld and rivet points which become a problem if the entire surface area is attacked, but is so strong that it allows the tiny AP round with a solid core to either bounce the shot or slow it and crack the Armor plate itelf [being brittle] Note this is always ALWAYS HARDER ON THE CREWS BODIES its like wearing a cast iron suit and getting shot vs Kevlar 1 dissipates shock the other deflects but puts all the Joules in 1 tiny area shaking the crews up alot [USSR tankers had hi rate of traumatic spinal DMG and complete hearing loss] But when heat rounds come in they rely on the metal armor not changing form, a shaped charge as well needs a tight seal and since the panel wont budge at all it provides a perfect surface to melt or pop entire panel off, where as soft gave in to the blast and dented the armor.
So Hard steel protects vs hard rounds [for the tank not crew] and is 100% effective but loses 25% vs HE/Heat rounds for being to brittle and easily melted, and Soft Metals do great vs HE/Heat as they dont provide a "Seal" for the shaped charge or molten jet to shoot in straight [alot of times the armor would bend so bad on US tanks the Molten jet would shoot straight up or stright down, and alot of times not melt anything since the softer metal melted to fast and recooled.
So back to point rather than the Glas Armor being 3 plates of 300+BHN or 210 BHN they were 1st layer hard 400+ BHN to immediately defelect hardrounds and ifround Pen`d it would hit an even harder Glass Armor that shattered in a tiny spot but was 1550 BHN rating but was unique in the fact that the rounds friction melted it and deformed the hardened round, so at first it met the harder BHn material than the AP round and if it still got through melted and degraded the round, lastly the layer of 210 BHn steel was there to absorb the extra force like a kevlar vest so the crews suffered no shock damage.












