Tanks to get anti-missile "force field"
Ecce Homo! Loquitur...
Thread Starter
Tanks to get anti-missile "force field"
Sunday Times - Tanks to get anti-missile "force field"
THE British Army’s next class of armoured vehicles will be protected by a “force field” of electrified armour that will vaporise rocket- propelled grenades, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has signalled, writes Michael Smith.
The electric armour, invented at the ministry’s scientific research centre, will transform armoured warfare, enabling vehicles to be more lightly protected and more easily moved around the world. It will also confound repeated claims from military experts that “the tank is dead” because more nimble forces are required for the war on terror.
The new armour will allow western armed forces to regain the upper hand against terrorists and insurgents armed with the ubiquitous RPG7 rocket-propelled grenade, which can penetrate most current heavy armour. The invention is just as effective against the “shaped charge” roadside bombs used by insurgents in both Iraq and Afghanistan. The armour is also much lighter, with about two tons of it reckoned to provide protection equivalent to that of 20 tons of conventional armour.
The Army’s Challenger 2 tank, which weighs 62½ tons, and the 24½-ton Warrior armoured vehicle had to be ferried by sea to the Gulf for the Iraq war, a complex process taking many weeks. The new vehicles — which are expected to enter service early in the next decade — would be smaller and lighter, enabling them to be moved by C-17 Globemaster transport aircraft.
The MoD has now handed a contract to Lockheed Martin, the American company, to make a demonstration version of the British invention.
The electric armour is made up of several layers, the first of which is an earthed bulletproof outer skin. The second skin is live, although insulated, and has several thousand volts of electricity flowing through it, powered by the vehicle’s battery. The third skin is the normal vehicle hull. When an RPG7 grenade hits a tank with standard armour, its conical warhead fires a jet of hot copper into the target at about 1,000mph. This can penetrate more than a foot of conventional solid steel armour.
On the electric armour, the grenade penetrates the insulation on the live second skin, creating a sudden surge in electricity that vaporises the copper stream in the same way that a surge burns out a fuse wire. The effect is to leave the inner hull intact and the crew safe, with the vehicle capable of taking repeated hits.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Sounds unrealistic to me. Can´t really see how the field could possess enough charge to stop that much momentum. But what do I know, and it´s not the April 1st issue.....
THE British Army’s next class of armoured vehicles will be protected by a “force field” of electrified armour that will vaporise rocket- propelled grenades, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has signalled, writes Michael Smith.
The electric armour, invented at the ministry’s scientific research centre, will transform armoured warfare, enabling vehicles to be more lightly protected and more easily moved around the world. It will also confound repeated claims from military experts that “the tank is dead” because more nimble forces are required for the war on terror.
The new armour will allow western armed forces to regain the upper hand against terrorists and insurgents armed with the ubiquitous RPG7 rocket-propelled grenade, which can penetrate most current heavy armour. The invention is just as effective against the “shaped charge” roadside bombs used by insurgents in both Iraq and Afghanistan. The armour is also much lighter, with about two tons of it reckoned to provide protection equivalent to that of 20 tons of conventional armour.
The Army’s Challenger 2 tank, which weighs 62½ tons, and the 24½-ton Warrior armoured vehicle had to be ferried by sea to the Gulf for the Iraq war, a complex process taking many weeks. The new vehicles — which are expected to enter service early in the next decade — would be smaller and lighter, enabling them to be moved by C-17 Globemaster transport aircraft.
The MoD has now handed a contract to Lockheed Martin, the American company, to make a demonstration version of the British invention.
The electric armour is made up of several layers, the first of which is an earthed bulletproof outer skin. The second skin is live, although insulated, and has several thousand volts of electricity flowing through it, powered by the vehicle’s battery. The third skin is the normal vehicle hull. When an RPG7 grenade hits a tank with standard armour, its conical warhead fires a jet of hot copper into the target at about 1,000mph. This can penetrate more than a foot of conventional solid steel armour.
On the electric armour, the grenade penetrates the insulation on the live second skin, creating a sudden surge in electricity that vaporises the copper stream in the same way that a surge burns out a fuse wire. The effect is to leave the inner hull intact and the crew safe, with the vehicle capable of taking repeated hits.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Sounds unrealistic to me. Can´t really see how the field could possess enough charge to stop that much momentum. But what do I know, and it´s not the April 1st issue.....
Last edited by ORAC; 23rd Jan 2006 at 10:25.
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: WSM
Posts: 222
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Certainly a "no duff" story. I have seen some trials stuff on this in the past 18 months or so. What I can't remember is whether or not it's a one shot device for a round in the same area. I imagine it would trip the RCD at the very least.
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: earth
Posts: 1,397
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Wonder how it would perform against percussion warheads designed to cause 'spalling' on the inside and I guess against a hittile with enuff kinetic energy the tank would be history.
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Stoke
Posts: 112
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
This is very old news
http://www.armedforces-int.com/artic...=232&artID=451
The only thing new is that, as usual, novel british technology seems to have been handed straight to the septics . . .
http://www.armedforces-int.com/artic...=232&artID=451
The only thing new is that, as usual, novel british technology seems to have been handed straight to the septics . . .
Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: n/a
Posts: 1,425
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
RPG7 rocket-propelled grenade, which can penetrate most current heavy armour.
Anyhow from wilkpedia
Electric reactive armour
A new technology of Electric Reactive Armour is in development, where the armour is made up of two or more conductive plates separated by an insulator, creating a high-power capacitor. In operation, a high-voltage power source charges the armour. When an incoming body penetrates the plates and closes the circuit, the capacitor discharges, dumping a great deal of energy into the penetrator, which may vaporize it or even turn it into a plasma, significantly diffusing the attack. It is not public knowledge whether this is supposed to function against both KE-penetrators and shaped charge jets, or only the latter. This technology has not been introduced on any operational platform.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reactive_armor
Last edited by Daysleeper; 23rd Jan 2006 at 18:12.
I think it only works against HEAT weapons. That is weapons that direct a plasma jet through the armor (RPG!). Certainly wouldn't stop a good ol' iron round. Also, I'd guess that the metal grating you see on vehicles in Iraq would be similiar in effectiveness. HEAT rounds need a very good flat hit in order to do damage. If anything gets in the way of the plasma jet it gets very screwed up.
But hey, I'm not an expert at anything.
But hey, I'm not an expert at anything.
Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: n/a
Posts: 1,425
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
he armour is also much lighter, with about two tons of it reckoned to provide protection equivalent to that of 20 tons of conventional armour.
Such a shame that the retail investor is excluded from the impending QinetiQ Float then! Seems a few million quid will be made here if they had anything to do with it!!
Scandal that we have been barred, especially those serving. UK Tax payers own the company and are excluded from owning any shares in the IPO. Fat cats do all right out of it tho, usual Tony Cronies, inc a few bankers etc.
Scandal that we have been barred, especially those serving. UK Tax payers own the company and are excluded from owning any shares in the IPO. Fat cats do all right out of it tho, usual Tony Cronies, inc a few bankers etc.
