RT-20 Antimateriel Sniper Rifle Powerful 20mm Ammunition

RT-20 Antimateriel Sniper Rifle, Sniper rifles in 7.62 mm have been used by all armies for many years. The accepted U.S. definition of sniper is a “highly skilled military marksman detailed to spot and pick off enemy troops from a concealed position.” Most of these weapons have limited armor penetration ability (lightly armored vehicles). More recently sniper rifles in 12.7 mm (.50 cal) and above have proliferated to the point that any U.S. force is likely to encounter them in every combat environment. Within the past ten years another trend is to equip armies with anti-materiel rifles (a.k.a. hand cannons) generally in 14.5 to 20 mm. Some of these were designed not to destroy a vehicle but to neutralize a specific capability mounted externally on the vehicle (see Croatia’s RT-20 below).

The RT-20 is built around the very powerful 20mm ammunition, originally developed for Hispano Suiza HS404 anti-aircraft round of WW2 vintage. This ammunition is still used in anti-aircraft guns in some countries for AA guns and generally available in HE (explosive) and AP (anti-armor) loadings, both suitable for anti-material roles. The AP loading also can be successfully used against infantry fighting vehicles and armored personnel carriers. The 20x110mm round fires the 130 gram (2000 grains) projectile at muzzle velocities about 850 meters per second. This results in high terminal effectiveness but also imposes a serious problem of excessive recoil forces. The representative rifle in this caliber is the widely proliferated 7.62x54R SVD (Russian and clones). It can penetrate lightly armored vehicles.

A trend during the past ten years has been towards larger-caliber anti-materiel rifles. Although several are manufactured, the Croatian RT20 20-mm “hand cannon” is the most prevalent (range 1,800 m). It can fire either HE or API. The RT20 was developed primarily to penetrate the armored casing around the thermal sight head on M84 tanks (a 20-mm round was the smallest caliber that could penetrate the casing). During the war in the former Yugoslavia, M84s were frequently deployed to detect Croatian infantry moving at night, so a method of removing their night-vision capability was found with this RT20 “hand cannon”.