Mysterious 'Forcefield' Tested on US Tanks

Posted by ryuzaki0 on Wednesday April 12, 2006 @05:18AM from the shields-up dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Not too long ago General Dynamics announced a successful test of their new Trophy Active Defense System (ADS). The Trophy ADS generates something similar to a force field around one half of a vehicle as a direct reaction to incoming fire. From the article: 'The Threat Detection and Warning subsystem consists of several sensors, including flat-panel radars, placed at strategic locations around the protected vehicle, to provide full hemispherical coverage. Once an incoming threat is detected identified and verified, the Countermeasure Assembly is opened, the countermeasure device is positioned in the direction where it can effectively intercept the threat. Then, it is launched automatically into a ballistic trajectory to intercept the incoming threat at a relatively long distance.'"

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Force Field? by rk · 2006-04-12 05:21 · Score: 5, Informative

Calling this a "force field" is a bit of a misnomer. It looks more like a point defense system for tanks and other armored vehicles. Very cool, but not as cool as a real force field.

As much as we might like to blame the summary, but the term occurs in the FA, too.
1. Re:Force Field? by wgnorm · 2006-04-12 06:53 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  Just a guess, but I wonder if you could defeat it by shooting 3 RPGs from 3 different directions at it? Can it act that quickly against all of them?
  From TFA:
  
  The system can simultaneously engage several threats, arriving from different directions, is effective on stationary or moving platforms, and is effective against short and long range threats (such as RPGs and ATGM).
  
  So yes, it can handle that... even while moving.