PTAB (Russian ПТАБ, short for Противотанковая Авиабомба, "Antitank Aviation Bomb") was a

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

high-explosive anti-tank High-explosive anti-tank (HEAT) is the effect of a shaped charge explosive that uses the Munroe effect to penetrate heavy armor. The warhead functions by having an explosive charge collapse a metal liner inside the warhead into a high-velocity ...

(HEAT)

shaped charge A shaped charge is an explosive charge shaped to form an explosively formed penetrator (EFP) to focus the effect of the explosive's energy. Different types of shaped charges are used for various purposes such as cutting and forming metal, ini ...

bomb.

Design

The bomb was designed within a case of 2.5 kg bomb with real weight of 1.5 kg and 0.62 kg of explosives. The

Ilyushin Il-2 The Ilyushin Il-2 ( Russian: Илью́шин Ил-2) is a ground-attack plane that was produced by the Soviet Union in large numbers during the Second World War. The word ''shturmovík'' (Cyrillic: штурмовик), the generic Russian term ...

ground

attack aircraft An attack aircraft, strike aircraft, or attack bomber is a tactical military aircraft that has a primary role of carrying out airstrikes with greater precision than bombers, and is prepared to encounter strong low-level air defenses while pre ...

could carry 280 PTAB bombs directly on the bomb-bay folds, or 4x48 in four cassettes. The PTAB 2.5 could penetrate 60 to 70 millimeter tank armor, at the time sufficient for the top armor of even heavy tanks.

Use

Introduced in 1943, PTABs were widely deployed from Il-2s, and due to the bomb's very low weight, from

Yakovlev Yak-9 The Yakovlev Yak-9 (russian: Яковлев Як-9) is a single-Piston engine, engine, single-seat multipurpose fighter aircraft used by the Soviet Union and its allies during World War II and the early Cold War. It was a development of the robu ...

fighters, specifically from the internal weapon bay in the Yak-9B (

fighter-bomber A fighter-bomber is a fighter aircraft that has been modified, or used primarily, as a light bomber or attack aircraft. It differs from bomber and attack aircraft primarily in its origins, as a fighter that has been adapted into other roles, ...

) modification. The

Polikarpov Po-2 The Polikarpov Po-2 (also U-2, for its initial ''uchebnyy'', 'training', role as a flight instruction aircraft) served as an all-weather multirole Soviet biplane, nicknamed ''Kukuruznik'' (russian: Кукурузник,Gunston 1995, p. 292. NA ...

could also carry and deploy PTABs. The number of PTABs dropped in a given time period steadily increased thereafter. By the end of 1943, Soviet records show that 1,171,340 PTABs were dropped. In 1944, the number rose to 5,024,822. In the first four months of 1945, a further 3,242,701 PTABs were used.Олег Растренин (2007) ''Штурмовик Ил-2. Летающий танк'', , p. 101

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ptab Bombs Submunitions Weapons and ammunition introduced in 1943