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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)
...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.
To continue on DU..... places where the US have used DU shells are now contaminated with long-lasting radioactivity, and vehicles attacked with these shells show very high levels of radioactivity.... these things are monsters and unnessesary, I've worked with people trying to stop their use, but there seems to be a deaf ear listening.
Excuse me, I don't mean to impose, but I am the ocean
Link to a page (with even more links).
The liner material has to be very ductile so it will flow from its initial hollow cone shape to form the slug and penetrating jet. The wavefront of explosives detonating behind the cone (explosive is on the pointy side of the cone) forms the slug and jet.
You can demo this for yourself by putting shaving cream between your palms, holding your wrists together, and then claping your hands. The foam will shoot out at a velocity much higher than the speed you push your hands together.
Most very ductile materials are metals, so a non-conductive liner is unlikely.
Some other posts have mentioned discharging the system with the first hit, but this may not be a problem because the the full charge is not necessarily used up, since the current flow will cease when the jet is burned away.. In fact the system might work with two paralell screens, without the need for solid sheets.
The older anti-shaped-charge system is called reactive armor, which means the tank is covered with many explosive sheets, whichever one is hit detonates, thus disrupting the jet when it explodes.
The problem there is that the sheet must be replaced manually after a hit. This electrical system should keep on working.
IT ISNT
The current only flows when the circuit is closed by the impact of weapon.
The current only flows for an instant until the capacitor is drained.
Otherwise there IS NO elecromagnetic field or 'polarization' present to affect the electronics.
George Bush + Linux = "I will not let information get in the way of the fight against Windows"
.. not gonna work. Not becoause of the concept, but because some recent* anti-ship weapons may work in a different way. Some missiles sink right before hitting the ship, and explode under it. So the "vacuum" generated produces huge stresses in the hull, breaking it in two (think of breaking an egg...).
*recent: new to my knowledge, probably actual technonoly is way more advanced.
Depleted uranium dust is only dangerous if inhaled or ingested, and the dust forms particles large and heavy enough that it settles out of the atmosphere quickly. This is just another example of environmentalist propaganda that isn't based on fact.
(A little light reading on the subject)
They have also been classed as a "Weapon of Mass Destruction" by the UN, because they have an effect outside the intended target, but the US still uses them. The UK and most other countries switched to tungsten after the first gulf war.
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.
This weapon is perfect for a dictatorship wanting to keep its people in line.
Well, not that I'm particularly disagreeing with you, but that's true of most weapons--there are ways to use them for good, and ways to use them for evil.
Personally, I think that this can be a much more humane method of breaking up protests gone violent than tear gas or rubber bullets. Note that this is all assuming that the protestors have gone beyond civil disobedience into violence. So long as it is, indeed, nonlethal, it won't (obviously) kill anyone--which tear gas can do if you inhale too much of it or if you have a nasty reaction to it, and rubber bullets can do if they hit in the wrong places--or even leave scars or bruises. Using this could help keep violence down more, too, as you wouldn't have to send out policemen, who could be shot at (if anyone in the mob had a gun), just turn the devices on. It could also be useful to keep protestors outside a certain area--for instance, keep a buffer zone around the embassy or whatever that if they come inside it, they get a nasty shock.
I can certainly see how it could be dangerous in the hands of a despot, but so can guns and tear gas. If they want to stop protests, they're going to do it, and if they use this rather than "policemen" armed with machine guns, it could save lives. If this device can decrease injuries and deaths in protests, of which there are not huge numbers, but some, it sounds like a good thing in my book.
In the end, it is a tool, whose purpose is only determined by the person using it. It's not even one designed to kill, only to hurt, and therefore keep someone away.
Dan Aris
Fun. Free. Online. RPG. BattleMaster.
I guess you don't realise that every 747 on the planet contains thousands of pounds of depleted uranium as balance weights. I believe that's true of many other airliners too, so if you're too scared of depleted uranium to get within a few feet of it I hope you don't plan to fly anywhere soon.
Just to clarify, U. S. light armor isn't HUMVEEs, it's mostly Bradley APCs and the occsional modified M-113 still in the system. The Bradley is treated as both an Infantry vehicle and a Cavalry scout vehicle, so you may see it refered to as an APC (armored personnel carrier) or an IFV (Infantry fighting vehicle), while the old M-113 chassis is still used for some communications and ambulance/field hospital vehicles and possibly still by MP units. You might also include M-88 tank recovery vehicles since they are modified from what was heavy armor in the WWW2 era, but isn't really up to grade now. Arguably, even some artillery systems, i.e. Palladin howitzers, can count as light armor if in a direct fire environment. All of these have tracks, not tires. There's also a few vehicles used by the U. S. Marines which fill roughly simiar roles, but include some amphibious capabilities.
Who is John Cabal?
The linked article speculates that it might have been a Russian PG-7VR which has a dual warhead but it would not have to be in this case. A dual warhead is designed to pentrate reactive armour(explosive blocks designed to disrupt the jet). The first small charge on an extended probe sets off the reactive armour which allows the main charge to pass through the main armour.
In this case though the M1 does not have reactive armour. It has an advance form of Chobham armour which uses ceramic plates laminated in layers between layers of depleted uranium armour which can defeat shaped charge weapons and kinetic energy rounds. Unfortunately there are a small number of areas not covered by the special armour and this round appears to have found one. See a diagram here. The jet hit the top of the side protective skirt which denotated the warhead as it is designed to do. The jet then penetrated the thin side armour behind the suspension and entered the crew compartment missing the crew but damaging a number of turret controls. Technically it was not a 'mobility kill' as it only knocked out the turret but the crew was unharmed and the tank was able to drive back on its own power. It is worrying that an RPG jet could travel that far after hitting the side skirt but then again the tank is so well designed that any ammo that could have caused a catastrophic explosion was protected by further saftey systems. The worst that could have happened in this case was if one of the crew would have been in the path of the jet. It was in all likelyhood not a mystery projectile but just a regular RPG round whose gunner made a lucky shot to penetrate a vulnarable part of the hull. It is such a rare event that it is not worth worrying much about.
Today's vices may be tomorrow's virtues.