AP rounds fired by arty

[loktarr]

I just finished to play 'Lybia again' and it makes me ask a question about the 'AP' shells fired by arty...
It is very efficient against infantry, very very efficient against low armored target, but seems to be unefficient against soft vehicles like trucks.
I remarked it because I was trying to kill some truck arty and it didn't work at all...
I made some check after that and it was a confirmation of the previous...
So, is it normal? And what are 'AP' ammo for?
I suppose it's a mix of bomblet and anti tank ammo...

[thatguy96]

AP ammo for indirect fire units is a cluster munition round. Cluster munitions are usually more effective against exposed and unarmored targets unless they are purpose built to defeat armor. The majority of artillery launched cluster munitions are not, though there are ones designed to be more effective against armor.

[pdoktar]

Oh.. I thought all Western cluster bomblets in artillery shells had a small shaped charge warhead to make them kinda dual purpose..?

[serg3d]

Hmm I thought in-game cluster munition is not effective against infantry. Against tank, even heavily armored like Leclerc and Leopard it is very effective. I yhink I havn't seen it affect infantry ...

[thatguy96]

Maybe I've got it backwards, but I seem to remember artillery launched CMs being relatively effective against infantry.

As for artillery launched CM's intended targets, you're right too, that most of the modern ones are dual purpose in nature. Aircraft CMs follow more what I was talking about historically, though artillery launched CMs were initially what I said too...but that was 30 years ago. The development generally seems to have been toward dual purpose CMs over the last two decades or so.

[PlasmaKrab]

If you look at the orbats, you'll see that the AP (cluster) rounds tend to have both kill and penetration in various ratios, meaning that most are effective against both infantry and armor.
AFAIK these cluster weapons (both artillery and air) are meant to be more effective against infantry on the move and/or on open terrain, while basic HE shells work better against entrenched infantry.