The Russian ‘Mythbusters’ Shoots an RPG at 45 Layers of Bulletproof Glass

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The Russian ‘Mythbusters’ Shoots an RPG at 45 Layers of Bulletproof Glass

Well, that didn’t work.
Rachel Pick
New York, US

If you've ever wanted to watch a bunch of Russians play around with an RPG in a field, today is your day.

Mother Russia has its own Mythbusters-type show, and in this episode the hosts wonder why tanks don't just use bulletproof glass in the front, so the operators can see out. The answer quickly becomes clear.

Bulletproof glass, as its name indicates, is specially formulated to resist impact. Layers of plastic and different types of glass (including a "soft" glass designed to bend instead of shattering) are stacked together, providing an effective defense against small caliber firearms, but not much else.

As it turns out, even a whopping 45 layers of bulletproof glass stacked together to form a block 16 inches thick proves no match for an RPG, blowing the test dummy's arms clean off. Two grouped blocks of bulletproof glass several feet apart are no more successful.

In short, we doubt any tank redesigns are forthcoming based on this experiment, but the explosions are fun to watch if you can mentally disassociate them from the horrors of actual warfare.

Thanks to my Russian pal Ino for helping me figure out what exactly was going on in this video.