turns out, that this is a result from testing impact of space debris, i cannot however find anything regarding the size of the ball or plate, but for shielding purposes, i doubt this was "12 inches", but not the first time a guy exaggerated
See that bulge on the bottom? That's called spalling. That's the principle behind HEAP ammo. It only works on solid armor though, so it's not effective against reactive or layered armor.
"The image above shows a 1.2-cm (0.47-in) aluminum sphere striking a seven inch (18 cm) thick aluminum plate at a velocity of 6.8 km/s (4.2 miles per second), giving some idea of the destructive power of hypervelocity impacts." http://www.gizmag.com/space-debris-kessler-syndrome-nasa-debrisat/24911/
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