In Gurps, how powerful do you need to fight a tank?

[Anaraxes]

You'll want GURPS Supers, p. 123 ("Man versus Machine").

Originally Posted by Bathawk

bending cannon barrels

All else being equal, a hollow tube is stronger against bending than a solid bar of the same mass. It's also weaker than a solid bar of the same diameter. Here's a calculator if you really want to do the math.

Looking at a picture of an M1 Abrams 120mm gun bore, it looks like the wall thickness is around 15% of the outside diameter of the gun. Risking a bit of math this late at night, looks like a force of about 400,000 pounds to bend steel with your hands 36" apart. That's ST 500, or 400 with vanilla Extra Effort, or a mere +14 ST (Super-Effort) if you're using those rules.

tearing turrets off

A modern tank turret weighs somewhere in the neighborhood of 1/3 the weight of the entire tank. Typically nothing significant attaches the turret to the hull other than the turret's own weight. If you're strong enough to lift that ~20 ton weight, there's no additional "tearing" necessary. Grab it and fly away.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Anaraxes

A modern tank turret weighs somewhere in the neighborhood of 1/3 the weight of the entire tank. Typically nothing significant attaches the turret to the hull other than the turret's own weight. If you're strong enough to lift that ~20 ton weight, there's no additional "tearing" necessary. Grab it and fly away.

Or toss it on top of another tank's turret, as I had Stalina do.

[Bathawk]

Oh an additional thought or two...

What about prying the hatch open/off?

And I don't think you need to "explode" a tank to "kill" it right? If a punch is hard enough to cause a serious dent or hole in the vehicle wouldn't the kinetic impact cause a "kinetic kill" effect on the occupants? Or cause enough "internal injury" to the tanks mechanisms?

(Would also ask about HESH type attacks, but think that's a bit baroque for a supers campaign)

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Bathawk

Oh an additional thought or two...

What about prying the hatch open/off?

And I don't think you need to "explode" a tank to "kill" it right? If a punch is hard enough to cause a serious dent or hole in the vehicle wouldn't the kinetic impact cause a "kinetic kill" effect on the occupants? Or cause enough "internal injury" to the tanks mechanisms?

(Would also ask about HESH type attacks, but think that's a bit baroque for a supers campaign)

No, HESH causes "spalling" and that's what you were asking about in the previous paragraph. Gurps has rules for HESH and you could reasonably treat a super-punch like a HESH warhead of the same raw damage.

Tearing the hatch off uses the same mechanics as bending the barrel and obviously the hatch or the latch holding it closed is nowhere near as strong as the barrel.

[PTTG]

While more than a bit of a crock, don't forget you could get up to [-80%] for "Limitation: Only defends from/harms one specific tank."

Generally having an ability which only can be used against tanks in general is not likely to be worth more than -10% in a campaign where you fight a lot of tanks, but might be worth a bit more in a campaign where you live in classical Rome at the height of the Republic.

[Ulzgoroth]

Originally Posted by Bathawk

And I don't think you need to "explode" a tank to "kill" it right? If a punch is hard enough to cause a serious dent or hole in the vehicle wouldn't the kinetic impact cause a "kinetic kill" effect on the occupants? Or cause enough "internal injury" to the tanks mechanisms?

It's hard to say for sure but I really doubt it unless your punch literally hurls the tank. There's not a convincing mechanism I can see to cause damage to the crew or machinery based on a distant, narrow impact. (Except spalling, to some extent.)

Side note: flipping a tank over is likely much easier than punching through its armor.

[Rupert]

Originally Posted by Bathawk

Oh an additional thought or two...

What about prying the hatch open/off?

The problem there would be getting leverage - tank hatches don't generally have much you could grab onto or get your fingers under, though some have sights mounted through them, and smashing your hand into the sight would give you something to grip (either the sight or the hole it was mounted in). Pulling it off once you have a grip would be like ripping off any other solidly secured door/hatch.

[DeadParrot]

If your Superhero can fly or leap long distances, attack the relatively lightly armored top turret or engine compartment. That was the basic concept of the A10 Warthog aircraft. A few 30mm depleted uranium rounds rattling around inside the crew compartment renders the crew to goo and might cook off the ordnance or fuel. No need to reduce the HP to zero.

Substitute a superhero quality javelin in place of the 30mm gun and your SH doesn't even have to get near the tank.

Bonus of the air attack is most tank main guns can't elevate enough to be effective AA weapons.

A well prepared tank crew might have liberated some Stinger type AA missiles and attached them to the turret as ad-hoc SH defense.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by DeadParrot

A well prepared tank crew might have liberated some Stinger type AA missiles and attached them to the turret as ad-hoc SH defense.

You need to point the IR sensor in the nose of those at the target. So probably it's an alternate weapon for the commander to use from an open hatch. It'll only work on Supers who have a "super" heat signature (by human standards) anyway.

A note about open hatches. A tank with its' hatch down is pretty miserable inside and the visibility is bad. The hatch will be open and the commander will have his head out a _lot_ of the time.

This means that a very mobile super with a bag of grenades can probably take out a bunch of tanks.

[sir_pudding]

Dedicated AA vehicles almost always include a high ROf gun along with SAMs.