News of the cool: Tank Force Fields
Written by: Beck
When an explosive anti-tank weapon such as an RPG hits its target, the shaped charge explosive blasts a spray of copper forward capable of carving through a foot of conventional steel plating. It's a bad thing when a weapon costing less than $1000 can take out a piece of machinery costing as much as $9 million to build(for an M1A2, thanks to Murdock for researching prices for me). The clever people at Boffins in Britain have invented a
nifty electric device capable of foiling such shaped-charge weapons. Essentially, two adjacent plates of armor are put in place, the outer plate grounded, the inner connected to a powerful capacitor.
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.