Slashdot Mirror
Electric Armor Tested For Light Armored Vehicles
joncrie writes "The Telegraph is reporting that British MoD scientists are now testing a new electric armor to protect light armored vehicles against RPGs.
The new electric armour is made up of a highly-charged capacitor that is connected to two separate metal plates on the tank's exterior. When an RPG warhead fires its jet of molten copper, it penetrates both the outer plate and the insulation of the inner plate. This makes a connection and thousands of amps of electricity vaporises most of the molten copper. The rest of the copper is dispersed harmlessly against the vehicle's hull. The initial development was mentioned previously."
"'Electric armour' vaporises anti-tank grenades and shells
By Michael Smith, Defence Correspondent
(Filed: 19/08/2002) "
take a HARD look at that date. the 'initial development' link dates Aug. 22, 2002 PT.
like, wtf???? really?????
sorry for sounding so trollish but REALLY.
ok, at least proves some ways for some poor souls to copypaste stuff from years ago and get modded to the sky.
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
'Electric armour' vaporises anti-tank grenades and shells By Michael Smith, Defence Correspondent (Filed: 19/08/2002)
... polarise the hull plating?
The heavily armoured divisions of the US and British armies had little to fear of the iraqi armed forces RPGs, the most "devastating" weapon in their limited arsenal.
However once the initial resistance was swiftly dealt with, the all new threat came from roadside bombs, suicide bombers, and mines. This will make some difference, but most terrorists will strike at the troops outside of their vehicles anyway.
I see that Slashdot is finally posting more up to date stuff.
This is cool, just hope you aren't the soldier that shorts this device by accident!
So. if I understand correctly, this only vapourizes the incoming shot once it's most of the way through the armor. What happens when a second shot hits the same location? Alternatively, what if 2-3 shots are fired simultaneously at different locations in an attempt to overload the electrical system? It would be ironic if the electric armor protected the tank against these multiple shots only to kill its electrical system and immobilize it.
Alphanos
switch the live and earth and you make it impossible for terrorists to climb on the tank
If you have nothing useful to say post as AC.
Could a similar method be used to weld a breach in a ship's hull while at sea?
;-)
Suppose you made a ship with an insulated two-layer outer hull. The two layers are both insulated from the ship. In between the layers put something like coated metal pellets with a low melting point.
Something breaches the hull and you apply a massize but _localized_ charge around the area to melt the metal and seal the breach.
I think the biggest problem, duh, is how much of the charge gets leached into the water or the internals of the ship when sealing is taking place.
Then there's that whole frying the occupants things...
I never said it was foolproof!
"Bah!" - Dogbert
This sounds familiar, they come up with something to get us, then we come up with something to stop them...
Napster - centralized server (shut down)
Kazaa - Decentralized server (lawsuits pending)
Encrypted p2p networks (riaa = screwed)
Bazooka - (heavy plating neutralized)
RPG - (liquid copper spewing heads!)
Electric Field - (emp? = screwed)
Once you come up with a fix, you force the technology to evolve to its next form faster tahn it would have on its own.
Just MHO.
Although this is a step in the right direction, terrorists also seem to be advancing in their use of tank-busting mechanisms. As weapons proliferation continues, and more advanced technologies become readily available in the world's "hot spots", the greater threat is posed by ever-popular depleted uranium shells.
These DU shells have become a large problem because of the amount of R&D that went into these weapons - weapons that were subsequently banned by most of the western world for their hazardous properties (see also: http://www.sundayherald.com/32522). Then again, when has banning munitions ever stopped fundamentalists from using/supporting these devices?
So if I understand this right, a direct hit from an RPG would cause a breech in the outter hull, exposing the inner, charged hull. While teh rpg would apparently not affect the vehicle, whay happens if they use those grenade looking water balloons on the hole the RPG made? will this short circuit the system, and possibly fry anyone inside? We need impenetrable EMP forcefields or adamantium hulls instead I think. :P
Not only that, but the "previously mentioned development" on Wired happened 3 days after this story was filed.
Electric armour will never match my Great Sword +4!
...down to -1, Offtopic because you can't handle criticism, michael, but you know what? I just don't care. This is the last straw. I used to wonder why all of the trolls would constantly take the piss out of you over all of the other editors. Sometimes you posted blurbs that had egregious spelling errors, blatant plugs for Apple products or just outright filled with false information. I always just put it down to misjudgement and figured that it wasn't so bad - Slashdot's standards are fairly high compared to other sites.
But godammnit, michael, how hard would it have been to actually read the fucking article and realise - "Hey! This is a couple of years old! Maybe this isn't worth posting!" - and this is also a dupe . Isn't that what an editor's supposed to do? Check the leads people give them to make sure they're not bullshit ? You get paid to do this, for God's sake, and you're just not taking it seriously. Not at all. And as soon as anyone points it out you bitchslap them to shut them up. Who the hell do you think you are?
By the time you read this my subscription will have been cancelled. I'm fed up, michael. I'm not subsidising this site so you can post this trash.
Much is now made of local wireless networks and data terminals being used by army units to share targeting and strategic information.
I wonder how well a wireless computer works when sealed within a highly polarised electronic cage? None too well, I suspect.
I have been a user for about 10 years. This ends Feb 2014. The site's been ruined. I'm off. Dice, FU
Well, it seems that an anti-tank rocket filled with non-conductive charge would be able to defeat this armor, but is such warhead feasible to make?
One would need material that is as dense as metal, can be vaporized easily but is still a poor conductor. Any slahdotters aware of something like this?
Man someones got an RPG up their ass and its shooting its molten copper!
This comment does not represent the views or opinions of the user.
Seeing as how submissions of old stories are getting front page attention now on Slashdot...
As reported by The San Fransico Chronicle: BRAVES WIN THE WORLD SERIES! Congrats to the Atlanta nine as they walked off the field triumphant.
-JT
Isn't the current technique for assaulting an armored vehicle to hit it with multiple RPGs from different sides until destroyed?
"Polarize the hull plating!"
"Derp de derp."
RIGHT ON THE MONEY, I have mod points, but I posted in this discussion, sorry. Don't want to see this post smacked down to -1? Mod it up, editor censorship is not welcome.
Excuse me, I don't mean to impose, but I am the ocean
... "19th Century News Coming Online" (2nd previous story)... there will be even older stories soon.
Sound cool - when can we see this deploy to Iraq?
:O
Now those tank commander can act like capt kirk
"...down to -1, Offtopic because you can't handle criticism, michael, but you know what? I just don't care."
."
Heh you think Michael did it? Doubtful.
A.) You should just email him or the staff directly.
B.) Bitching about it here can only cause other people to bitch, and really the discussion is about the armor. Go through the right channels before making a public stink. This little lesson in life will help you down the road.
"But godammnit, michael, how hard would it have been to actually read the fucking article and realise - "Hey! This is a couple of years old! Maybe this isn't worth posting!" - and this is also a dupe
Why is one story pissing you off? I mean, yeesh, it's not like you cancel cable because Will and Grace is on. Lighten up, man.
"By the time you read this my subscription will have been cancelled. I'm fed up, michael. I'm not subsidising this site so you can post this trash."
Why did you even subscribe in the first place? It's not like Slashdot was misrepresented to you. It's not like you paid to have access here. It's not like new content was revealed to you as a result of it. Honestly man, calm down.
I agree with some of the complaints you have about Slashdot, but you threw money at them out of your own stupidity. Retard.
"Derp de derp."
Tanks do use regular packages of explosives on their sides for doing this exact thing. When the copper hits it the explosive deflects it. This is just evolution. Don't know if it's any better though. Plastic explosive is safe stuff while high volt capacitors are an unknown.
I'm always suspicious of "defenses" that are too specific.
What if the vehicle is hit with regulare AK-47 rounds prior to the RPG attack? How large would a round have to be to cause the armour to discharge?
I think it would even more ironic if the vehicle went over mine and the crew was killed when the electrical armour discharged through the vehicle's interior.
Always believe that you'll be fighting against an enemy who will learn and exploit your weaknesses.
Or you could have a inbetween layer of nanites, sewing the hull back together.
Polarize the hull plating!
If the dielectric is breached at all, it'll never be able to reach it's full capacity. Bullets, if they can penetrate the outer plate, could then short the capacitor... And once the arc starts and a plasma channel is open, the whole thing is going to discharge.
"'Polarize the hull plating!'"
We laughed even harder when it didn't work very well.
Its an execeptionally good riot control device since it leaves no physical evidence, especially if the antenna is somewhat concealed. No clouds of tear gas, no protesters eyes burning from mace, no batons swinging, no soldiers shooting rubber or lead bullets to stoke sympathy from TV viewers. The protester will just start screaming in pain and running away. Sure to be a big hit in Israel and Iraq.
I'm wondering if they are working on an indoor version since it is a perfect tool for torture, it leaves no marks. The victim wouldn't even know what was happening to them.
It appears I now have a good reason to wear a tin foil hat, or really a full body suit like everyone keeps telling me I should. Its not just a Bush Big Brother Weapon either. I believe it was started by Clinton and is roundly endorsed by John Kerry.
This weapon is perfect for a dictatorship wanting to keep its people in line.
@de_machina
nT
"Heh you think Michael did it? Doubtful."
While normal moderation is common, michael is infamous for having carried out a -1 on threads which have simply disagreed with him in the past.
"A.) You should just email him or the staff directly."
Because we all know they take emails seriously. They always do their best to fix the situation, don't they?
"B.) Bitching about it here can only cause other people to bitch, and really the discussion is about the armor. Go through the right channels before making a public stink. This little lesson in life will help you down the road."
Right. I've tried going through the public channels before. Has it helped my situation? Has, you know, VA Software told michael to sharpen up his act or else he'll get canned? No. michael keeps posting drivel.
"Why is one story pissing you off? I mean, yeesh, it's not like you cancel cable because Will and Grace is on. Lighten up, man."
It's not just one story. This is simply the most stellar example of michael's idiotic posting behaviour accumulated over the last few months. Besides, I don't get cable or Will and Grace.
"Why did you even subscribe in the first place?"
I subscribed in order to facilitate my zoo.pl use and to get in earlier on the Linux kernel release announcements.
"It's not like Slashdot was misrepresented to you. It's not like you paid to have access here. It's not like new content was revealed to you as a result of it. Honestly man, calm down."
Do you not understand? I'm not pissed off with Slashdot as a whole. Just michael's stupidity. I'm perfectly within my rights to withdraw some of their cashflow as a consequence. Do you not understand the concept of a boycott?
"I agree with some of the complaints you have about Slashdot, but you threw money at them out of your own stupidity. Retard."
Nice job on the ad hominem.
Link to a page (with even more links).
Ya know, you were doing real well there giving some helpful advice and then you call the poster a "Retard".
Nice going cork-nuts.
DU has too low of a density of radiation per cubic meter to ever create a high level of radioactivity anywhere.
Do you mind posting anything backing up these claims? I've heard the exact opposite and that DU shells aren't a radioactive hazard.
Yeah, we all know how tanks pop like balloons when you attack them with EverQuest.
If an ak47 is breaching your tank armor, you've got bigger problems.
I do security
My guess is that they'd make the outer armor thick enough to stop standard infantry calibers, up to .30 cal or so (light machine gun). 12.7mm/.50 cal might cause problems, but so can depleted uranium (valuable for its ultra dense mass, not the residual radioactivity, which is actually a crew/environmnetal liability) and some of the ultravelocity armor-piercing .30 cal sabots they put in .50 cal rounds.
But remember, they want to keep RPGs from immediately destroying or disabling _light_ armored vehicles; either protecting them enough that they can get out and fight back or keep traveling. RPGs don't cause much or any damage to our heavy battle tanks, and those have long carried reactive devices (usually explosives) for stopping missles and rockets.
Secure, _light_ armored vehicles are the real goal here. Light vehicles cost less (more vehicles and/or guns), use less fuel (less support drag, tactical advantage), are usually easier to drive (less training, better force utilization) and easier to maintain. With vehicles like these you can cover more territory with fewer troops. Bigger empire, smaller budget.
It's kind of what we have to look forward to for military conflicts -- long-lasting, low-grade, hostile civilian population, ugh.
"Ya know, you were doing real well there giving some helpful advice and then you call the poster a "Retard"."
Sometimes people need a slap with the reality stick. Otherwise they won't know just how silly they sound.
Get some education before you spew nonsense. Depleted Uranium is not particulary radio active but it is acting as a poison when ingested or inhaled.
"The likes of Facebook and WhatsApp are free to those whose privacy is of zero value."
I wander, what happen when a second RPG is fired to the vehicle half a second after the first, when capacitor is just discharged (and may be left shortened as well)...
How long it take to desert people go figure they just need to fire two rpgs at once?
There you are, staring at me again.
I RTA but I still don't understand how passing a current through a warhead is going to instantaneously change its momentum. A "jet of hot copper" traveling at 1000 mph with kinetic energy q is still traveling at 1000 mph in the same direction even if you do increase its total energy by increasing the temperature and phase shifting it from liquid to gas. Also copper is a very good conductor. But the system passes so much current through it that the power dissapated by P=I^2*R will vaporize copper within the microsecond it would take to travel the thickness of the armor?
Chewie! Put all power to forward deflectors.
But sir, the odds of surviving a direct assault against an RPG are-
SHUT UP
Never tell me the odds!
Click here for a free picture of an iPod!
"Besides, if the missile is big enough it won't matter. Either the hole will be too big to "flow into" to seal or it will have hit something vital."
:)
Does hitting the "captain's mess" count as vital?
More sophisticated anti-tank weapons already carry two explosive charges in the same projectile. The first charge triggers any active defences, the second charge penetrates the tank.
The idea of electric armour is new, but armour has been active for a long time. It isn't just a chunk of metal. Tank armour is designed, oddly, to explode in a small scale, controlled way when hit. This tends to break kinetic energy weapons such as DU penetrators.
Warheads which are based on a shaped charge can ordinarily deliver their explosive force to a very small area. However, an explosion from the tank's armour itself can disrupt this, dispersing the blast harmlessly.
Presumably a tandem round is likely to penetrate the new armour in the same way. However, this is not the threat model it is protecting against. There is a lot of difference between an Iraqi insurgent with an RPG launcher, and a Western marine firing the latest anti-tank missile.
Aww, when i first read the title i was thinking Starship Enterprise "divert power to forcefields!"
Too bad.
68.3% of all statistics are made up on the spot.
And we call ourselves the most intelligent species on the planet
[/cynicism]
Get paid to search..It's geniune and
I wonder if there are any non military useages of the idea. Perhaps in a storm shelter? Not sure.
Anyway, here is my translation from a couple of paragraphs in the story,as if the story was written from some poor peasants point of view, as opposed to joe stockbroker sipping latte and reading the latest mil industrial complex conglomerate quotes at his local "axis of profits, nothing personal it's just business" coffee house
"With the easy availability of RPG-7 rocket launchers-thank god we have at least something to defend our village with- "it only takes one individual on, say, a rooftop in a village to cause major damage or destroy passing armoured vehicles", he said.-Man, those tanks and soldiers from BigNation.Com, Inc. suck the big one. They come in here, invade, kill the people, every one of us is called a terrorist, they drive their tanks over our crops causing famine, smash our huts down, shoot all the men they can find, rape our wives and daughters then sit around and torture the remnants for sport. This is dismal. Glad I scraped up enough dough to get me an RPG. It's not much but it might stop them. Why don't they stay in their own country anyway? Oh ya, I forgot, we have oil/tin/gold/diamonds/whatever, and they want it, and they say our current dictator is worse than their dictator, so that makes us all terrorists. Silly me, how could I forget....
"But the use of electric armour, which will protect against all shaped-charge warheads including artillery and tank shells, would reduce the threat to zero."--Oh crap! Now, we have nothing to stop those invaders with! I guess we lose, might as well get out the black boot polish and rags and beg for some pennies from the nice soldier guys, when they get done with our wives and daughters that is. In the mean time I'll get back to whittling a wooden leg for one of my kids who was unfortunately a "collateral damage" statistic. I hope the new dictator the soldiers appoint to be our ruler will be better than the last one they appointed 10 years ago.
"Always believe that you'll be fighting against an enemy who will learn and exploit your weaknesses."
Like wheels or tracks?
I doubt that this sort of system will eve be applied to moving parts.
Go for the wheels or tracks, its pretty obvious.
(and surely applies to more than just light vehicles? I mean, how many RPG shots would it take to make an M1 Abrams slough a track and thereby immobilise it?)
In the free world the media isn't government run; the government is media run.
I wonder how long it'll take for non-conductive shaped charges to show up on the market. That would really mess this system up.
All you would need is a hose to down it. All armore d vehicles (even tanks) have air vents (or filtration systems for some bigger tanks).
If you hosed on that BZZZZZZTTTTT is what the drivers will feel when they get wet with water conducting electricity.
MOD HIM UP!
No, I'm not him.
Conversely, the Challenger 2 MBT is one of the most heavily-armoured tanks in the world, sporting both heavy solid armour and reactive plating.
;)
However, you can apparently stop one with a bucket of sand down the air-intake
I think that we (the UK) could do with, is getting our MBTs to work properly in all conditions as well as providing fancy-pants defence systems.
Ripping an new rectum in the fabric of spacetime.
Just fire two grenades one after the other. The capacitor won't have time to recharge if my camera flash is any example :)
12:50 - press return.
If they make the outer armour thick enough to stop small arms fire, then they're adding significant weight to the vehicle. Particularly the HMMWVs and such. If you add 2,000lbs of armour, you're facing other, structural, problems with the vehicles.
:(
If you use 1/4 of your carrying capacity for armour, then that means that your convoys are going need 25% more vehicles.
Which means 25% more targets and (at least) 25% more breakdowns.
Which is exactly what you do not want in the "long-lasting, low-grade, hostile civilian population," scenario you mentioned.
Corporal Capacitor: 'Hey Specialist, where'd the Sarge go?'
Specialist Sparks: 'He just climbed out on the deck to take a leak.'
Corporal Capacitor: (Charging plates) 'Oh really?'
Liberals call everyone Nazis yet they are the closest thing to it.
Plastic explosive is safe stuff while high volt capacitors are an unknown.
Absolute incredible tripe posts like this (as of the time I write this) are not modded into oblivion....
Seriously, your post reads like a manual for how to be a completel jackass with absolutely no base in reality....
It sure is good you posted ANYTHING to back up those wonderfull images of allies running over crops, raping wives and daughters and basicly being horrific monsters....I really hate you.
"The saddest words of mice and men, are not those which were, but should have been."
heh, sounds like what my ex spits at me
\x69 \x68\x69\x64 \x74\x68\x65 \x62\x6f\x64\x69\x65\x73 \x69\x6e \x74\x68\x65 \x66\x72\x65\x65\x7a\x65\x72
I would assume that the plate would be subdivided into sectors and sectors that arc continually would be de-activated. Also the arc is pretty strong so it wouldn't surprise me if they can evaporate the bullet by continually arcing
Instead of depending on wind to drive turbine blades for generating green electricty, put the turbines in the oceans in the path of those strong currents. That way the NIMBY folks don't complain about the beautiful countryside being blighted, and when the generation isn't dependant on the weather. Water currents will impart more force on the blades then air (so more power can be derived) and there are plenty of big currents in the oceans and just offshore. Negative points.. fish, whales,seals and boats... execpt if thery are deep enough the boats will probably pass over then and if the blades turn slowly then the fish and seals can swim around them.. I think this is where I type the /$$$$ signs!
Bummer its now open source!
Tanks don't operate alone, they usually have other tanks and infantry around. Folks popping up with RPGs usually end up dead very quickly since other tanks and infantry will fire on their position, modern tanks like the Abrams are vulnerable to RPGs in only a few spots (no armor is perfect). Radios and combined arms also means that airborne firepower to obliterate those firing on you is often only minutes away in the modern battlefield.
The problem in Occupied Iraq (and in Somalia of Blackhawk Down or Bosnia or Chechnya take your pick) is that lightly or non-armored vehicles are used for patrol. I don't understand how you'd armor a helicopter and make it useful, so helicopters would seem to need fighter escorts.
Many of the Humvees in Irag are still not armored, the "homebrewed" armor plating isn't effective against RPGs. Tanks and Bradleys (which can also to a lesser extent withstand RPGs) don't make good patrol vehicles since they are not built for extended patrol use (tank treads wear out quickly). Armoring the Humvees makes them more resistant but the vehicle isn't built for that extra weight and it's more difficult to handle.
What's needed is a patrol vehicle that can withstand RPGs, not only in Iraq but in Bosnia, Somalia, West Africa, Chechnya, where Western Forces face RPG-armed insurgencies that can't stand against regular forces but can engage in attrition attacks against occupiers variously trying to stop genocide or assert central authority against separatists. Sooner or later someone will come up with a solution. [IEDs also fall in this category]
But this technology seems more aimed at army-on-army force, a tank defense against other tanks with whopping 125 mm guns or such. NOT RPGs.
Here's a link where folks are talking about the need for purpose built armored patrol vehicles, seems pretty informative: www.sftt.org
UK time format: DD/MM/YYYY
I believe the US is the only place that uses MM/DD/YYYY. Most other countries use DD/MM/YYYY or YYYY/MM/DD.
After wiping my ass with toilet paper.. I tun the paper over and use it again! Genius!I have halved my toilet paper bill!
Except that you've now doubled your water bill from all the hand washing you do after using the other side of the toilet paper.
an article from July 2002 explaining the "electric armor" process in more detail (though not called that at the time), and providing some predictions that we see are now coming true.
More power to the shields!
where the hell did I lose one funny moderation? I'm pretty sure I had it.. miiichaeeel don't hide the truth.
please, if you want to mod the parent down mod it down as troll, not as 'overrated'.
well, at least several people took the cue to essentially copypaste the comments from the old stories..
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
...they'd actually test for that before putting them into the field.
then go give T'pol another, uh, decontamination rub down, will ya?
i could live a little longer in this prison
Shields up, Mr Sulu !
I was just posting generally speaking, but if you have a more specific request, I can find references to atrocities committed by militarily superior invading forces from about any war you might care to mention. It is more common than not. If you mean the current conflicts in iraq and afghanistan, or the previous balkans war, those are easy to find. Gulf war 1, or iran/iraq war, easy to find. Google, atrocities, iraq, afghanistan, serbia for a starter, you get hits. If you want to go back to say viet nam, geez, then it becomes even easier, just google for the term "free fire zone". If you want south or central american references, again, easy to find. Africa? man, it's daily. India/pakistan/kashmir/bangladesh/ceylon, again, easy.
It is more common than not.
And my other point is true too,most dictators get stuck in places,placed-in, they commit atrocities on their own people, larger nations support and train them and sell them stuff like the latest gee whizz fighter jets and tanks and whatnot, until such a time as for some reason they become "bad guys",usually from some high level business double crossing going on, then they get removed, they get called bad guys,"regime changed" is the current buzzword this century, then the cycle repeats itself someplace else. Hmm, there's a dude called noriega sitting in a US fed jail cell now, but at one time he was our bosom buddy,our ally, we sold him weapons and our soldiers trained with his soldiers, all great sport and fun,etc, but his peasants seem to suffer and whoops he seemed to be a big CIA asset in drug smuggling operations as well. Same thing happened in nicaragua, then in el salvador, and in chile and argentina and.... I guess Noriega got greedy with the dope cut or something because we had to go invade panama to remove our previous "strong ally and friend". Collateral damage, atrocities, check.
So anyway, which war ya want? Or do you really think atrocities aren't committed in your average war? Russia into afghanistan, atrocities, check. Into chechnya, check. America into viet nam, mega-check. Hmm, no viet nam into america though, funny...I remember being told if we didn't stop them there they would be in dubuque within weeks or sumthin... hmm, anyway, Germany into wherever in ww2, atrocities, check. Japan into china and southeast asia, atrocities, check. Russia back into poland and the ukraine and germany and finland in ww2, atrocities, check. Germany in the air into london, atrocities, random civilian genocide, check. Allies back into dresden, random civilian genocide, check. US cavalry into various indian villages, atrocities, check. British army into who knows how many nations over the centuries, atrocities, check. Spain into the new world, atrocities, check. Union army, sherman, through the south, atrocities, check.
On and on. It's real man, and your hate will never bring a one of those folks back.
I'm just not impressed anymore with superior ways for conscripted military serfs or uncaring paid mercenaries to be superior and more efficient killers for some politician/bankers purposes, sorry, I'm just not. When I was much younger I was quite different,very different, I was just the biggest flag waving fire breathin John Wayne clone you can imagine-but then I found about "real life". Whoops. Gee, I actually accumulated some real life data. Sort of blew all that jingoism I was brainwashed into. And guess I'm not real sorry it happened to me either, in fact, kinda greatful for it now.
Sorry, no longer impressed by more efficient ways to murder people so some huge international conglomerates can make more profits. I'm not a pacifist, I am a strong supporter of legitimate self defense, I think every dude out there has a born-with right to self defense, to be armed, and to resist being murdered, exploited, ripped off, and etc, and unfortunately, it's far more likely on a generic planetary scale to happen to people-I mean, getting murdered, blown up, raped, "detained", have your house smashed, etc, etc, from either their own
or, more precisely, a "bande dessinee" (cartoon ?)
the hero is a military warrior, goes in his trainig throught all phase of armament upgrade, from powder pistol with a swor to lightsaber fights with exosquelletons and shoulder mounted energy weapons...
Until science goes one step ahead again, creating an osmosis field effect allowing neither high velocity nor high energy, and they go with clubs and sword again...
This reminds me of the William Gibson novel "Virtual Light" where the police were cruising around in electrically charged Armored Vehicles. Authors play a large part of things to come, even if it only seems like dreams when they write it.
This is not saying that Gibson came up with this kind of idea first, but rather pointing out how things from books make their way into reality with a surprising regularity.
The Ro Factor - Jeep/Linux Weblog
This is not funny. Personally I find British MaD scientists and their RPG electric armor +1 quite frightening. "The new electric armour is made up of a highly-charged capacitor that is connected to two separate metal plates on the tank's exterior. When an RPG warhead fires its jet of molten copper, it penetrates both the outer plate and the insulation of the inner plate." Just imagine a cluster of those capacitors... Scary.
Sincerely,
Pan Tarhei Hosé, PhD.
"Homo sum et cogito ergo odi profanum vulgus et libido."
I just know you'll come and bitchslap this post...
... what? Fifth? Incarnation of a well-known idiot troll who posts GNAA & the Goatse man at +2 whenever you get the chance?
:P
----
Perchance because you're the
Yes, this story is stale. I've even read it before. But I don't think you deserve karma for whining when I know you'll blow it all on a FP of that ASCII picture of the Goatse man
I'd tell you to get a life, but you'd get mod'd up for saying "you're new here, right?"
Because its based on no reality whatsoever. We have a huge problem over there with light armored vehicles that are quite vulnerable to RPG attacks (and our enemies know this). Indeed, soldiers are forced to resort to their own methods -- strapping old flak jackets to the outside, welding steel plates, etc..
What I don't understand with this electric armor is if it is only a one-shot deal. Once the "capacitor" is compromised from a shot, the entire plate of armor would be rendered inoperable would it not?
--
om Shanti
That might be one way to do it. A few ways I had thought of were to wrap a big kevlar patch around the hull where the breach is and pump the water out. Another would be to fill the breached section with expanding foam to displace the water. It would be a mess to clean up, but you could save your ship.
As somebody else pointed out there is the issue of water pressure to deal with.
I did come up with another simple system that would work but I don't know how it could be implemented.
You could have a sandwich of three sliding panels of steel inside the double hull. The outer two slide across the hole horizontally while the third one is split in two and slides vertically up and down. This would make the hole much smaller and much easier to patch with standard methods. Unfortunately you'd have to deal with making the hole a clean hole with no jagged turns inward or outward so the panels would slide across it.
In light of the thread it sounds odd but you might be able to use a directed explosive charge to ram the horizontal panels into place through the damaged section.
Again, I'm just pondering ideas. All ideas have flaws - it's how we deal with them that makes all the difference.
"Bah!" - Dogbert
Ceramic is an excellent choice.
Something very hard and brittle works well.
Glass is quite good. Steel is OK, and plastic
is fairly poor. Copper is a funny choice; I do
note that it is somewhat dense though.
I suppose depleted uranium would be good...
First shot: initial blaster/penetrator.
Second, nearly-simultaneous shot: pile of metal shards, similar to the stuff that knocks out enemy powerplants.
So, if a military opponent has the finances or resources, they might consider letting the first round be "sacrificial" so that the tank's/vehicle's defensive electric circuit is activated.
Then, the death-blow might be the two-seconds-later drop of grounding/shorting chips.
Alternatively, here is another type of weapon: Close-In-Shorting-Weapon... CISW...
The enemy (whomever it is) has cabled or tethered missiles that don't aim to penetrate sabot-style. It just fuses itself upon an immediate slow-down at the tank or vehicle. Upon fusing, it activates a mega-amp/mega-watt, mega-joule "special delivery" to zap the shit out of whomever and whatever is in the tank. It could ignite fuel, any liquids such as blood, coolants, lubricants, and even external equipment.
I imagine the deliver payload would have to come in subsonic, near-to-overhead, brake, then deploy a zap-net onto the target, and then activate itself from the cabled launching vehicle. But, this means an immense power supply, probably a tank with an auxiliary turbine just to deliver the charge.
On the other hand, a small nuclear cell could non-explosion-wise activate delivered huge, melting capacitor that fuzes onto the tank some electrically-activated goo. Maybe it seals the air intakes to immobilize the tank. Maybe it melts or obstructs the driver's view ports; maybe it welds the turret so it cannot turn nor permit elevation of the gun barrel. Maybe it welds the struck tracks so the tank or tracked vehicle pushes it's own ass into a violent, vulnerable circular path.
David Syes,
TAO (Tactical Action Officer, (by nickname))
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
This was actually posted on the register early this week sometime..on top of that the original article is nearly 2 years old, but I won't get into that.
I would like to say though, wouldn't it be a great idea to use this concept to protect our skyscrapers? How hard would it have been to retrofit simplistic buildings like the WTC with this type of technology, on the most vulnerable parts of the building? I mean, granted the windows would have been difficuilt to protect, but if you could have kept a good portion of the fuel and raw momentum of the planes from crushing into the inside of the buildings, could they have been saved? I'm saying apply this idea to a greater scale..like our buildings to protect against GIANT-ASS (tm) projectiles.
The Telegraph is reporting that British MoD scientists are now testing a new electric armor to protect light armored vehicles against RPGs.
never though RPG could be so dangerous...
* hagnat throws away his shotgun and hides his D&D books under the bed
* hagnat places several d20 dices as ammo in his drawer
lol
"life is a joke, and someone is laughing at me"
Shaped charges don't do the trick against modern armor.
The way it works is this: the outer shell is made of some very hard material that cracks the armor, destroying the outer shell in the process. inside is a depleted uranium slug clad with copper. The heavy slug penetrates the cracked armor at such a high velocity that the copper boils, acting as a lubricant to allow the slug to continue to penetrate the armor.
You'd have a heck of a time developing a non-metallic material with the right characteristics to replace the copper in these rounds.
Clear, Dark Skies
Shortly before dawn on Aug. 28, an M1A1 Abrams tank on routine patrol in Baghdad "was hit by something" that crippled the 69-ton behemoth.
Army officials still are puzzling over what that "something" was.
According to an unclassified Army report, the mystery projectile punched through the vehicle's skirt and drilled a pencil-sized hole through the hull. The hole was so small that "my little finger will not go into it," the report's author noted.
The "something" continued into the crew compartment, where it passed through the gunner's seatback, grazed the kidney area of the gunner's flak jacket and finally came to rest after boring a hole 1½ to 2 inches deep in the hull on the far side of the tank.
As it passed through the interior, it hit enough critical components to knock the tank out of action. That made the tank one of only two Abrams disabled by enemy fire during the Iraq war and one of only a handful of "mobility kills" since they first rumbled onto the scene 20 years ago. The other Abrams knocked out this year in Iraq was hit by an RPG-7, a rocket-propelled grenade.
Experts believe whatever it is that knocked out the tank in August was not an RPG-7 but most likely something new -- and that worries tank drivers.
Here is the full article
Our crusading Irish Author is just a troll. He might have points (I think michael needs to actually earn his check too), but he's just playing a part in a recent trolling trend. Check his posting history, browse at -1 for a bit, you'll see how it ties in.
Losers. It's why I don't bother with anonymous posting on my own boards anymore.
I'm sorry.... RPG? Role Playing Games? This armoured vehicle is going to be protected from Paper Mario, Link, and the protagonists of Final Fantasy???
But what about RTSs, FPSs, and TBSs? They can also do a lot of damage to one's social life.
Jokes aside, if you switch live and ground, you would have a tank (metal) with the outer plate live, and connected to ground via the threads (conveniently made out of metal, too). And you would be trying to keep the inner plate grounded (so it would have to be touching the ground, but without touching the outer plate... difficult).
Might work on wheeled vehicles though.
GPG 0x1B479C78
Heh, dude, you don't have to subscribe to slashdot to see those early.
Try http://www.linux.org/docs/lists.html with the list "linux-kernel-announce - Kernel announcements".
I think you might even find an RSS feed somewhere.
A current design (for last 100 years or so) is to have air-filled compartments that are sealed. These compartments actually absorb the energy of explosion, and since they are small they don't weigh too much when they are filled with water.
But given that in an [unlikely] major battle an anti-ship weapon will be nuclear-tipped, one hit will be enough to sink whatever pieces of the ship haven't vaporized yet. Modern ships are already sufficiently protected from the minor hits. So the current situation is kind of acceptable.
just shoot twice...
r.
Hmmm ... 95GHz range microwave burst sounds
pretty effective for an anti-personnel device.
Wonder when commercial products will be available
for use in automotive and home burglar alarms?
Even if it is as expensive as a "Lo-Jack" system,
your auto would be vacated too quickly to get
too far away, or stripped for that matter.
"You could avoid them altogether by resolving those differences before resorting to the trigger fingers, if only the politicians had the guts to do it."
You seem to think wars are caused by a disagreements between nations.
They're not.
Wars are typically started over competition for natural resources, or because one country would like to control the other.
Or did you think Hitler could be reasoned with?
you lose! But thanks for playing.
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
PFC: Hey Sarge, why does the Lieutenant dance and yell when he pees?
RPGs? Why in the world would anyone want to protect themselves from Role Playing Games? Ooo! I guess that copy of Ultima Online can really do damage!
I hope the development order isn't handled by Lucas.
"Do not lick."