British Army Developing Force Field

[darkguset]

That is old news... The Crysis nanosuit has been doing this for the last 2 years!

 

[victomofreality]

sounds more like the charged armor from enterprise then a proper force field but it's a step in the right direction imho.

 

[JohnnyLucky]

truth stranger than fiction? Believe it!

 

[koga73]

why rely on humans reactions to activate it. It should automatically activate a "sector" of the armor as the bullet is approaching, or right when it strikes even.

 

[jamesedgeuk2000]

This is rubbish, we cant even afford land rovers that are properly armoured in the first place (were using ones designed for fighting the IRA in Afghanistan) and half our soldiers went into Iraq without enough body armour we will never be able to afford to do this lol.

The British empire has fallen a long way since we invented the jet engine, the harrier, etc

 

[mitch074]

Erm... As much a trekkie as anybody, I'll add a few details.

NX-01 Enterprise used polarized hull plating. This was imagined after the real-world experiment done on some kinds of ceramics, that get a LOT harder and thus more sturdy when submitted to an electrical current. It is unrelated to this technology at all.

Why Voyager. The Intrepid class is the first Federation starship with adaptive shield emitters. It saves energy by 'molding' the shield bubble closer to the hull, and allows for much faster shield balancing in case a shield emitter bank gets overloaded (through sustained fire, for example).

Why Star Trek like. If 'Generations' and other TNG episodes are any indication, field emitters don't work as a continuous stream of energy, but have an operating frequency - that, when matched, makes the force field inoperative.

The Brit's invention could very well be based on the same principle: proximity-triggered pulse-based force field emitters. Now the problem is refining the emitters enough that they can reach a high frequency.

 

[safcmanfr]

duh, why would they be using this to stop bullets??

Think people! no tank commander is going to worry about bullets. It is RPG's and others they need to deflect.

 

[silverblue]

[citation][nom]mitch074[/nom]If 'Generations' and other TNG episodes are any indication, field emitters don't work as a continuous stream of energy, but have an operating frequency - that, when matched, makes the force field inoperative.[/citation]

And after their encounters with the Borg, you'd think they'd have kept the frequency rotating instead of fixed. Plot hole!

 

[falchard]

Something tells me this forcefield is going to end up weighing 5000 tons.

 

[razercultmember1]

"Maximum Armor...Cloak Engaged..."

 

[silverblue]

[citation][nom]razercultmember1[/nom]"Maximum Armor...Cloak Engaged..."[/citation]

People were supposedly researching cloaking, or at the very least, better stealth technology. If we're talking a force field permeating the armour itself, that wouldn't hinder the implementation of stealth technology, would it?

Essentially, if we push things to their very limit (imaginary or otherwise), could we have a cloaked, shielded vehicle with the ability to fire in that configuration? (Star Trek: Nemesis, anyone?)

 

[Hope Slayer]

[citation][nom]tomtompiper[/nom]Eight words, try reading other posts before you post nonsense. Any conductive material will be affected. Non conductive material like plastic and ceramic will not have enough delta v to do damage.[/citation]

What does change in velocity have to do with it's ability to do damage? Damage is based on density/density and the transfer or disperstion of momentum between the two colliding objects.

Ever seen where a tornado has driven a piece of straw through a tree? density vs momentum

 

[znegval]

Take that Protoss people!

 

[nekatreven]

[citation][nom]tomtompiper[/nom]Eight words, try reading other posts before you post nonsense. Any conductive material will be affected. Non conductive material like plastic and ceramic will not have enough delta v to do damage.[/citation]

There are plenty of materials that conduct electricity that have no iron in them (non-ferrous). However, those that are non-ferrous (like I just posted) would have an awful hard time being affected by the electromagnetic field that this shield uses.

Go take a science class.

 

[falconqc]

Polarize the tank plating!

More like the NX-01's defenses than a force field.

 

[Guest]

There are two types of shielding involved in this technology. The first is like polarizing the outer skin of the armored vehicle. This will render any HEAT rounds completely useless. HEAT rounds work by ejecting molten copper upon impact. A strong enough electrical discharge on impact will vaporize the liquid copper forcing it away from the vehicle. The easiest way to get this to work would be to complete the circuit in the armored plating itself; not at all a difficult feat to accomplish mind you.
The second shielding involved in this technology is the field or motion of electrons or electrical energy away from the vehicle. This I’m more skeptical about. Is the force really going to be enough to deflect or explode munitions’ before impacting the vehicle? I guess we will know someday. Ideally, if the electrical energy is rather low, and the charging of super capacitors is rapid, a computer controlled discharger coupled with independent circuits at various intervals would create the ideal protection. Think of it in Star Trek: the shield modulation is the frequency between shield pulses. If you know the modulation, you can bypass it altogether by matching the frequency of downtime between events. Anyway, with limited power on a small vehicle it would be best to time the discharge with a radar or laser tracker so that the pulse or discharge goes off at the ideal maximum effective range of the round as it approaches the vehicle.