British Army Developing Force Field

[Railgun1369]

[citation][nom]FATAL STR1K3[/nom]Thats no biggie.. they just have to log on to Bad Company 2 and they had their pick of thousands..Just hook up the controls to a mouse n' keyboard and we're set to go![/citation]

Heh...we knew all those years of video games growing up would pay off someday.

It's interesting though. It takes a small amount of power, but only lasts a few seconds. So, why not add more capacitors and cycle through them, basically like a rotating...pulse...field generator...or something.

 

[Tomtompiper]

[citation][nom]pocketdrummer[/nom]This won't work. If you've ever watched mythbusters, you've probably seen the episode about the James Bond watch. The watch failed miserably, but they also tried REALLY big magnets, and they also failed to change the bullet's path more than a little bit.[/citation]

Magnets will not affect bullets as they are non magnetic, this field will be electromagnetic and dynamic which will induce eddy currents in anything conductive thereby making them susceptible to strong magnetic fields. Fields a lot stronger than shop bought magnets.

 

[Railgun1369]

[citation][nom]Hellbound[/nom]I wonder who will be the first to say "shields up"[/citation]

It they're too slow, they may get off the "SHI" but you may as well end it for them with a "T."

 

[chomlee]

I could see them developing sensors that will be able to tell in milliseconds if an object is approaching and calculate when the field would need to be turned on.

Of course what the enemy could do to counter act that is to develope a launcher that fires a much smaller projectile before the larger one with just enough time for the field to trip on and go back off and time it right when the shield goes into the off cycle.

As for if the shield even works in the first place, I would have to see it to believe it.

 

[sliem]

forcing the soldiers to time the force field's activation... right... that's not good. Hopefully the next one will just flicker itself on and off automatically since its recharge is quick.

 

[reconspartan]

Seems unsafe and generally retarded. This kind of tech won't stop projectiles, just alter their direction by pi/2. So itstead of the tanks getting hit by bullets, all of the foot soldiers standing around it will take the hits. Genius.

 

[Micropat]

[citation][nom]mavanhel[/nom]Ya, that's definitely a deal breaker. So now the military has to train someone with mad reflexes to press a button everytime a bullet is close enough?[/citation]

Sounds just like what hard core gamers are made for.

 

[nekatreven]

two words (or three depending on how you look at it) :

non-ferrous bullets

 

[gumbedamit]

Simultaneous Bombardment

 

[MisterJohnnyT]

The Enterprise from that crappy tv show "Enterprise", with the guy from Quantum Leap, had a similar shield... "POLARIZE THE HULL PLATING." That sounds almost exactly like what they are doing here... So why show Voyager??? Show that crappy Enterprise instead!

 

[zorky9]

Tip: Counter with the science vessel's EMP shockwave, and finish off with a Yamato gun.

 

[invlem]

[citation][nom]Reconspartan[/nom]Seems unsafe and generally retarded. This kind of tech won't stop projectiles, just alter their direction by pi/2. So itstead of the tanks getting hit by bullets, all of the foot soldiers standing around it will take the hits. Genius.[/citation]

Cost of tank > cost of soldier. I'm sure thats already in the equation.

To even consider that this device would be manually operated by a human is just silly, I'm not sure why the article would even suggest that the tank crew has control over the shield.

The shield would be part of a sensory system designed to detect incoming projectiles which would then trigger the pulse to deflect / destroy the projectile. These types of sensors exist already, its nothing new.

 

[warezme]

1) as a Trekkie everyone knows Voyager was an advanced vessel with the all encompasing force shield.

2) However, the original Enterprise NCC-1701 used a very similar form of shielding as is being developed by the British. It was a capacitive charging of the bulk plates. This makes me wonder if this is where they got the idea.

 

[Atari800xl]

I wouldn't want to be the first tank driver going into battle with it. Bye bye boys! Have fun storming the castle!

 

[Pailin]

Shouldn't be Voyager up there...

Sounds like the early Enterprise's defensive system ^^

"Enterprise added to the defensive power of the duranium hull through electromagnetic polarization, a form of reactive armor."

 

[Pailin]

ahh, warezme snuck it in there while I was preparing my post

 

[LLJones]

This also reminds me of the force fields in renegade legion. Just flicker it on and off really fast, forever.

You hit the nail perfect. That's one of the biggest problems, flicking the field fast enough. It may recharge fairly fast, but you are still getting a micro second of use for a few minutes of charge.

Can you imagine a tank with the same Armor rating but 70% lighter. They can already do 60+ MPH. Talk about a blitzkrieg attack.

More importantly, the first step is there. If they can prove it works,or have proven, easy to do, then we are on our way to real force fields. The best we could hope for in the near future is that maybe they can get a full second of shield/cloth use before recharge.

 

[wawa sxm]

All this sounds really odd to me..if you can build a force field capable of stopping bullets, why is it so difficult to have turn on by itself when a projectile is coming??

 

[eyemaster]

Remember folks, this is in research stage. Eventually, it'll be longer lasting and automatic (if not already). Over time, it will get better.

 

[soccerplayer88]

Why is everyone ragging on this technology?! This is just but a mere step towards the bigger picture! Maybe 20-30 years from now, they may have a prototype tank that can actually fully withstand an incoming tank round repeatedly. Who knows, maybe they'll develop a personal magnetized armored suit! I for one find this fascinating. On par with personal cloaking devices.