Boffins invent grenade vaporising 'electric force field'

The Register (UK) ^ | 8.19.02 | John Leyden

[mhking]

Boffins invent grenade vaporising 'electric force field'

By John Leyden

Posted: 19/08/2002 at 10:18 GMT

Boffins at Britain's Ministry of Defence have invented an electric 'force field' designed to protect armoured vehicles against anti-tank grenades.

The 'electrical armour' is designed to vaporise copper projectiles released from grenades on impact before they are able to penetrate a tank's inner hull, the Daily Telegraph reports. The idea is to make tanks less vulnerable to anti-tank launchers, such the RPG-7, which is commonly and cheaply available in the world's trouble spots, such as Afghanistan.

When armaments like RPG-7 grenades hit a tank, a "shaped-charge" warhead blasts a jet of hot copper into a target at around 1,000mph - capable of slicing through a foot of conventional solid steel armour.

The new electric armour is based on a highly charged capacitor connected to two separate metal plates on the tank's exterior. The outer (armour-plated) plate is earthed while the insulated inner plate is live.

When the crew of a tank feel they are under danger, they switch on current to the inner plate, using the tank's internal power supply.

If the tank is unfortunate enough to be hit by a grenade, the jet of copper produced will penetrate both the outer plate and the insulation of the inner plate completing a circuit, which results in the discharge of the capacitor and the vaporisation of most of the copper.

The Telegraph reports that despite the high charge generated by the system, the "electrical load on the battery is no more than that caused by starting the engine on a cold morning".

It sounds bizarre, but the paper reports that in a recent demonstration an armoured personnel carrier protected by the system withstood repeated attacks by rocket grenades that would normally have destroyed it many times over.

Boffins hope to develop the armour further and fit it in Britain's next generation of tanks and armoured personnel carrier. The Pentagon is also reportedly showing a keen interest in work on the technology.

[mhking]

Paging Mr. Bell...Mr. Art Bell...white courtesy phone, please...

[sigSEGV]

Polarize the hull plating!!

[freebilly]

Shields up, Mr. Sulu!

[PoorMuttly]

How does it work in the rain?

[AF68]

If you think the Boffins are good, just wait until you see what the Hobbits have come up with.

[Samwise]

Shhhhh. Sauron will hear you.

[socal_parrot]

"I'm a Doctor, not a Boffin!"

[BOBTHENAILER]

I read something about this technology a few years back in Popular Science. It's real!!!

[Kermit]

It seems to me, they've about reached the limit of metal armor. Maybe they can come up with Kevlar or some artifical fiber to block anti-tank round. Maybe that spider web material produced in the milk of those genetically modified goats.

[reagan_fanatic]

The name is Bond...James Bond.

[operation clinton cleanup]

Are Boffins related to the Grays?

[VaBthang4]

(((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((PING))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))

[mhking]

[RightWhale]

This could be so. Even a car battery can do a fine job of vaporizing metal until the circuit is broken. Your watch, a ring, a screwdriver.

[glc1173@aol.com]

What happens if two RPGs hit within milliseconds? The first discharges the capacitor = no more juice to affect the second RPG.

[ASOC]

David Drake had the answer - small strips which blow out on sensor ID of "buzzbomb" exhaust...sorta a strip Claymore.
Pull the trigger, you and your mates are pulp. Worked in the book anyway - and so did the plasma cannons
hoo-ah

[DB]

Wouldn't call it a "force field" but with enough current to discharge through the object causing the "short" it could well vaporize it. Something very dense but an insulator for the projectile would defeat the added protection.

Wonder how it works with depleted uranium...

[Justa]

How about if they replace the copper core with a metal having a higher melting temperature? Or mix-in a dielectric like lithium sulphate? They'd have to increase the amperage, significantly in the case of the latter. That is when the Pinheads figure it out.

[templar]

Man, that must be some capacitor. Wonder what it's recharge time is? Does seem to me, though, that the vaporizing (exploding) copper would do a lot of damage. It has all of the energy of its' initial explosive plus the energy of the capacitive dischage added to it. Wonder how large an area, if any, is thus rendered vulnerable to a second hit? How hard to make a two phase grenade to finish the penetration?

[spitz]

Telegraph Article

'Electric armour' vaporises anti-tank grenades and shells

An electric "force field" for armoured vehicles that vaporises anti-tank grenades and shells on impact has been developed by scientists at the Ministry of Defence.

The "electric armour" has been developed in an attempt to make tanks and other armoured vehicles lighter and less vulnerable to anti-tank grenade launchers such as those used by the Taliban and al-Qa'eda fighters in Afghanistan.

It could be fitted to the light tanks and armoured personnel carriers that will replace the heavy Challenger II tanks and Warrior APCs in one of the two British armoured divisions.

The ubiquitous RPG-7 anti-tank grenade launcher can be picked up for a mere $10 in most of the world's trouble spots but is capable of destroying a tank and killing its crew. When the grenade hits the tank, its "shaped-charge" warhead fires a jet of hot copper into the target at around 1,000mph. This is capable of penetrating more than a foot of conventional solid steel armour.

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. The outer plate, which is bullet-proof and made from an unspecified alloy, is earthed while the insulated inner plate is live.

The electric armour runs off the tank's own power supply. When the tank commander feels he is in a dangerous area, he simply switches on the current to the inner plate.

When the 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.

But despite the high charge, the electrical load on the battery is no more than that caused by starting the engine on a cold morning.

In a recent demonstration of the electric armour for senior Army officers, an APC protected by the new British system survived repeated attacks by rocket-propelled grenades that would normally have destroyed it several times over.

Many of the grenades were fired from point-blank range but the only damage to the APC was cosmetic. The vehicle was driven away under its own power.

Prof John Brown, of the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, which developed the Pulsed Power System at its R&D site at Fort Halstead, Kent, said it was attracting a lot of interest from both the MoD and the Pentagon.

With the easy availability of RPG-7 rocket launchers "it only takes one individual on, say, a rooftop in a village to cause major damage or destroy passing armoured vehicles", he said.

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.