What makes a weapon anti-air or anti-tank? Would anti-air be effective against tanks? Could we create one weapon that covers both, or even all possible targets?

Question

What makes a weapon anti-air or anti-tank? Would anti-air be effective against tanks? Could we create one weapon that covers both, or even all possible targets?

In: 864

Answer 1

The answer is that it really depends on the munitions being used. A prime example of a dual purpose weapon is the German 88 mm Flak cannon. It was designed as an anti-air weapon but worked pretty well as an anti-anti weapon when the artillery shells were swapped for armor penetrating.

The big issue is anit-armor munitions typically don’t work very well against lightly armored or unarmored targets and most things that work well for anti-air…don’t penetrate armor.