Armour-piercing ammunition

Requirements 1 and 3 follow immediately from the considerations of the theory of detonation when it is remembered that the purpose of the charge is to obtain maximum effect, both from the shock wave of the explosive and also from the destructive effect of expansion of the explosion products. Requirements 1 and 2 follow from the consideration that any reduction in size and weight of the warhead of a missile, or in a shell, immediately makes it possible to increase the range and therefore the usefulness of the weapon. Requirement 5 relates not only to safety, but also the desirability, particularly for armour-piercing ammunition, for the time of detonation to be determined solely by the functioning of an appropriate fuze. 

Practice ammunition can refer to blank ammunition, but is usually applied to fully operational large-calibre ammunition in which an otherwise extremely expensive payload has been substituted with less damaging or less complex payloads e.g., practice involving armour-piercing ammunition may include replicas. Small-arms practice ammunition may involve plastic bullets suitable for short-range target practice. 

Articles manufactured from natural thorium or depleted uranium (e.g., armour-piercing ammunition, alloys, light filaments). 

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