HESH
A high explosive variant with much higher nominal penetration, which behaves like HE when it fails to penetrate.
Also known as high explosive squash head.
HESH keeps the explosive behaviour of HE and adds enough penetration to punch through moderate armor outright, where it deals full damage rather than a reduced blast amount.
Against thick or well-angled armor it falls back to being an expensive HE round, and against spaced armor it is stopped like any other explosive shell, so it is a situational premium round rather than a universal one.
Related terms
High explosiveA shell that explodes on contact, dealing reduced damage through armor it cannot penetrate and splashing everything nearby.Premium ammunitionThe higher-penetration round available on nearly every gun, bought with credits and named after the days when it cost gold.Spaced armorA thin plate mounted away from the hull, which strips explosive and shaped-charge shells before they reach the real armor.