Scientists Work on Force Fields for Tanks

theultimateend

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Flying-Emu said:
I can see MW3 already.

"SHIELDS UP"
Master Chief get over here!

JMV said:
OMG, OMG, OMG, the future is here! And only ten years late! Well, they don't fly yet, but whatever! Wait. Wait, wait... is this a good thing?
They probably do and just don't want you knowing. ;)
 

AceDiamond

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This sort of reminds me of the Paladin tank from the C&C Generals games. Of course it used a laser to intercept incoming missiles but the concept is sort of the same right down to needing a very sophisticated tracking system.
 

Twistur

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Apr 16, 2009
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So how does this shield react to (makeshift) bombs? According to 'The Hurt Locker', bombs are creating some serious trouble in the urban warzones.
 

Pompey71

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May 31, 2009
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personally they should research Materia so the troops can just summon Bahamut or Ifrit to fight alongside them!
 

MadMechanic

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I don't think this specific project is terribly new.
Another British company (maybe the same) did the same thing about 2 years ago. It was shown on one of those weaponolgy type programs on the history and future of tanks.
It was talking about the Challenger 2 with its ChobhamII/Dorchester armour being one of the best around, and saying how this project, a 'forcefield' would protect it even futher.
Que film footage of RPGs being fired at an R/C FV432 APC covered in said armour and forcefield, and surviving, as the RPGs exploded before they could hit.
That said, it could just be that The Telegraph are very slow at getting defence news...

This looks interesting. If it actually works.
 

Wicky_42

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Kollega said:
Arkhangelsk said:
The future is closer than we might think.
You are wrong! THE FUTURE IS ALREADY HERE!
Well, it is now... or at least it was o.0

Put this tech on ships and one of their key weakness is ironed out :D

This tech's got some nice potential - I wonder how long such a system would take to recharge, or whether individual segments could be triggered separately from the whole, allowing protection from multi-directional attacks. What would happen to the projectile, as well? Is it merely deflected, turning a glancing hit into a miss? Would a direct, 90 degree hit prove harder to deflect? What if the warhead isn't magnetic or conductive? Presumably a plastic warhead would be immune to electro-magnetic deflection.

Gah, so many questions, so many possibilities... it's developments like this that serve to throw out people's projections of future warfare - if tanks were rendered resistant/immune to missiles, then they have a reason to exist! If planes are likewise protected Anti-Air would be in the shit, and little could stop a tactical nuclear bomber from reaching its target :O We could see an increased reliance on dogfighting - WW2 air warfare anyone?

Of course, tactical missiles would be unaffected - they tend to explode above the target anyhow (and a similar problem would apply to torpedoes. Would that affect air-to-air missiles as well? Are they proximity burst?) - but an electromagnetic bunker protection system could be useful against ground penetrating missiles.
 

Agayek

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Oct 23, 2008
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Aby_Z said:
Please tell me they plan on calling this an AT field...
Wasn't the AT field more a creation of the mind/physical manifestation of Will than an actual EM field?
 

delet

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Agayek said:
Aby_Z said:
Please tell me they plan on calling this an AT field...
Wasn't the AT field more a creation of the mind/physical manifestation of Will than an actual EM field?
Well, the AT field was more the boundaries keeping us humans separate from each other. It's much stronger in Angels and so they can keep missiles and the like from damaging them.

I just think the idea of creating a real life AT field, even if it's not exactly accurate to the original idea, would be quite awesome.
 

Cowabungaa

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There already is something like this. It's called Trophy:
Heck, that thing is better than a regular Star Trek forcefield who have to be kept up all the time. This one only activates when you're actually shot at. Take that Enterprise, thát's efficiency!
 

JWAN

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IamQ said:
I would say "hell yeah!" but since this is military warfare, I don't know if I should be happy or not.

[small]hell yeah![/small]
as opposed to non military warfare
----------------------
This is actually old news, electromagnets were also tried to deflect torpedoes from ships hulls but it didn't work real well...meaning it didn't work at all. and if you cannot screw up a slow moving torpedo I doubt you can screw up a tank round going as fast as a rifle round.

plus if you just turned on a TON of electromagnets wouldn't that fuck up your communications and your computer targeting systems?
 

Agayek

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Oct 23, 2008
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Wicky_42 said:
This tech's got some nice potential - I wonder how long such a system would take to recharge, or whether individual segments could be triggered separately from the whole, allowing protection from multi-directional attacks. What would happen to the projectile, as well? Is it merely deflected, turning a glancing hit into a miss? Would a direct, 90 degree hit prove harder to deflect? What if the warhead isn't magnetic or conductive? Presumably a plastic warhead would be immune to electro-magnetic deflection.
I doubt it would take more than a few microseconds to recharge. Supercapacitors are awesome like that.

A 90* hit would indeed be harder to deflect, but only in the sense that it has to move further in order to be deflected. If the warhead had enough forward velocity, it could get through the EM field (though something tells me that "enough forward velocity" would end up being beyond current propellant-based technology).

As for non-magnetic warheads, that's a possibility, but I don't think it would be too much of a threat. There will almost assuredly be some kind of magnetic field in any kind of advanced technology (and unless I'm vastly mistaken, which is a possibility, many RPGs/explosive projectiles have some kind of electronics embedded in them). The electronics could then be used as the magnetized element, or the EM field from the shield could short-circuit any unshielded electronics within, rendering the thing a dud (I think, not 100% sure on explosives tech).
 

JWAN

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Cowabungaa said:
There already is something like this. It's called Trophy:
Heck, that thing is better than a regular Star Trek forcefield who have to be kept up all the time. This one only activates when you're actually shot at. Take that Enterprise, thát's efficiency!
what if your launching rockets FROM or NEAR the weapons systems with TROPHY, wouldn't that also fuck your weapons?

Still badass, thanks for the video!
 

internetzealot1

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Well, between this and DARPA trying to engineer organisms with indeffinite lifespans, we might be living in our video games sooner than we think.
 

JWAN

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Kollega said:
Ooooh Eeeem Geeee!!! DO WANT! Magnetic shields - that's just awesome!

Yeeeeeah yeaaaaah yeaaaaah!
IamQ said:
I would say "hell yeah!" but since this is military warfare, I don't know if I should be happy or not.
It's for defense. It's supposed to prevent deaths, rather than cause them. Theoretically, at least.

Arkhangelsk said:
The future is closer than we might think.
You are wrong! THE FUTURE IS ALREADY HERE!
When was then?
Just now.
When is the future?
Soon.
 

Voodoomancer

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Jun 8, 2009
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That's not really a shield, more like a kind of "energized armor"...

...which sounds awesome anyway. Whee!
 

Usurpurus

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PurpleLeafRave said:
Wow! It's great to think that stuff like this and even hovercars could be seen in our lifetimes.
Scientists say that the first hovercar will be avaliable in 10 years time. :)
Hah, you do realise they said that exact same thing about 15 years ago. They say that every 10 years but it never happens. Sure it will someday but not for quite a while.

OT: This looks awesome, but expensive...
 

Murlin

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Jul 15, 2009
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Seems pretty tough, can we get ones for normal cars to?

These shields will probably become obsolete when we invented the particle beam.