U.S. Military Uses the Force (to counter RPG's)

[Jared Moya]

One of the most dangerous and pervasive threats facing American and British troops in combat zones is a primitive grenade launcher that only sets your typical terrorist back about $10.


The Anglo-American defense against this no-tech threat: an electrical force field that's costing hundreds of millions of dollars to develop.


Fitted on light armored vehicles such as personnel carriers, the force field uses a series of charged metal plates to dissipate the effects of rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs), a weapon found by the thousands from Mogadishu to Kabul to Baghdad.


RPGs and other "shape charge" munitions derive their destructive power from cones of copper embedded in their noses. When the warhead explodes, it crushes the cone, shooting out a jet of hot copper at 5,000 mph -- instantly destroying anything short of a tank.


The electrical armor system, powered by the vehicle's regular supply of electricity, stops the jets by zapping them with tens of thousands of amps of current. This vaporizes some of the deadly copper jets and reduces the rest to a relatively harmless mixture of melted and pulverized debris that disperses around the vehicle.


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[Fudge Tunnel]

So no peeing on the APC during break times.

[Lord_of_the_Dense]

I miss driving APC's.

[fleecy]

So no peeing on the APC during break times.

kinda like whizzing on an electric fence :O

[mountain_rage]

I was thinking a few months back that a force shield would have to work on electricity. This is kind of playing on that idea. Part of me still thinks that using magnets and electricity there must be a way to build a solid energy field.

[phil11]

until someone builds a plastic or ceramic munition with the density of depleted uranium slugs