Composite armour is a term used to describe armour which uses a number of different techniques to defeat the anti-armour threat, e.g., rolled homogenous armour, explosive reactive armour, spaced armour.
If the form and type of attack is known, then it is possible to optimise tank armoured protection to give the highest protection levels against the specific attack. If, as is more usual, the tank has to protect itself against several varieties of attack then the choice of a suitable armour becomes a more difficult problem. If each separate threat were to be given the highest protection levels in the design without regard to other design factors, then the combination would undoubtedly give the best all-round performance but the penalty would be an excessively bulky and heavy armour leading to an impractical vehicle design.
Sergyi Way
20.11.2006