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.
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
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.
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?
"Polarize the hull plating!"
"Derp de derp."
... "19th Century News Coming Online" (2nd previous story)... there will be even older stories soon.
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
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)
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.
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.
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.
when thousands of amps flow, anything it flows thru (unless it's a super conductor) is going to heat up, melt, and vaporize in a fraction of a second. so instead of having a narrowly-focused stream of copper traveling at super-sonic speeds, you have a dispursed cloud (heat causes expansion -- hence 'unfocusing' the force) of copper vapor (and whatever the capacitor is made of) with a little unvaporized (or condensing?) liquid copper left over that is harmless to the vehicle's ordinary armor. it's a cleaver device. the reaction (the short circuit that causes the current to flow) starts before the projectile even fully penetrates the insulation between plates. i'm sure it wouldn't stop a heavy round like what tanks fire, but for RPGs it sounds like a great idea.
okay, I'll rise to the bait. I work at a Veteran's Affairs Clinic and have seen in patient charts "Vet has been exposed to high levels of depleted uranium from [combat in some location]." Doctors then go on to suggest that it may play a part in the following symptoms that the Vet is experiencing, and they have a long list...
This is just another example of environmentalist propaganda that isn't based on fact.
Uh huh. There is a lot of research to the contrary.
"What do you think?" "I think 'What, do you think?!'"
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.
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"
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
But what about RTSs, FPSs, and TBSs? They can also do a lot of damage to one's social life.