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Posted by Hari Seldon on 08-14-2006 at 15:59:

Attention Proposed Nuclear Super / Megaweapons / Adv. Units

Project Orion
Timeline: 1955-1965
practical speed (ship only about 1000 tons test vehicle or 4000 tons for easy interplanetary travel): travel around the solar system in a few weeks or months
maximum speed (fission, large spacecraft, something less than 150 km wide pusher plate): 3-5% the speed of light
maximum speed (thermonuclear, REALLY large spacecraft+pusher plate spread out intense heat ex: 150 km or more wide): 8-10% the speed of light
maximum speed (matter-antimatter bombs, currently highly impractical, and again you need a LARGER ship and pusher plate to spread out the intense heat): 50-80% the speed of light

Hypothetical Nuclear Bomb-powered Spacecraft ("Mars by 1965" and "Saturn by 1970" was the motto), a project started by the General Atomic Division of the General Dynamics Corporation
Project Orion: The True Story of the Atomic Spaceship (320 page book)
Project Orion Links, Interviews, Documentaries
Project Orion Links and Images
(some) Orion-Related PDFs
Nuclear Space: gallery
Model Rocket simulating "Hot Rod" Test Vehicle

VIDEOS:
Successful launch of "Hot Rod" Test Vehicle (Video)
Project Orion: a re-imagining (Video)

http://www.nuclearspace.com/images/gallery/Orion/rt/18_1109113547.jpg

The above ball of fire is the nuclear explosion, The above beam-like cone is the propellant, which Orion scientists say can be collinated to ~25 degrees. The nuclear explosion itself is mostly neutrons and gamma/x-rays, etc., which mostly just heat up materials, so the thin pancake-shaped propellant is heated and thereby turned into high-velocity plasma by the nuclear explosion and then when the propellant hits the pusher plate that is what causes the spacecraft to move forward in space.

-----------------------------Orion "satellite"-------Orion "midrange"--------Orion "super"
Ship diameter------------------17-20 m---------------40 m-------------------400 m
Ship mass----------------------300 t-----------------1-2000 t----------------8,000,000 t
Number of bombs---------------540-------------------1080-------------------1080
Individual bomb mass-----------0.22 t---------------0.37-0.75 t---------------3000 t
Wikipedia: Project Orion

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/glenn/images/content/84514main_warp10.gif

Project Orion is designed to use its shaped nuclear charges to vaporize a thin layer of its' "pusher plate" to propel itself forward. A thin layer of liquid could also be sprayed on the pusher plate, so the liquid vaporizes, instead of the pusher plate.

Nuclear Bomb-powered gamma-ray and x-ray lasers

Ted Taylor (U.S. physicist and weapons designer who participated in Project Orion (gained fame for designing small, efficient nuclear weapons):

"I had a dream last night, about a new form of nuclear weapon, and I'm not telling anybody what this is, because I'm really scared of it," Taylor told me in 1999, "I have tried, I thought successfully, to hold on to a vow of just not thinking about new types of nuclear weapons any more. And what's happened, to put it simply, is that it has gone from my conscious to my unconscious, and it's emerging as a dream; I cannot shut it off. I woke up at 2 a.m. and went back to bed at about 6 o'clock, and wound up filling up a page with notes. It makes me think of the prototypical example of what directed energy can do, making the transition from a pile of high explosive to a gun, as the Chinese did, after they invented it. What I am afraid is in the offing is people figuring out how to make a transition that's as spectacular as trying to kill a deer at 200 yards with a pile of high explosive, or by shooting at it."
Taylor had the time of his life designing bombs, and spent the remainder of it trying to get the madness of threatening to use them stopped. His final words to me: "I am searching for the truth as long as I can."
Project Orion: The True Story of the Atomic Spaceship, page 286
Strange Love (pdf) - excerpt

Washington Post: Scary Things Come in Small Packages (2004)
New Scientist: Gamma-ray weapons could trigger next arms race (2003)

The nuclear explosions from the shaped nuclear charges might be designed to power one-shot x-ray or gamma-ray lasers (placed near the nuclear explosion, they absorb tremendous energy and create a powerful laser before they vaporize):
X-ray lasers
Wikipedia: Project Excalibur
Gama-ray lasers
Study of a Nuclear Gamma-ray Laser
X-ray driven gamma-ray laser research at YSU

This idea was featured in the science fiction book Footfall, by Larry Niven (1986)
(see the lower-left corner of the below picture):

Fictional Project Orion spaceship "Michael"

http://www.up-ship.com/apr/michael.htm

The main problem with this fictional ship is that the pusher plate is not flat or curved away from the nuclear blast; it is curved toward the nuclear blast (in an attempt to harness more of the nuclear blast's energy), which is likely to be physically impractical, not withstand the nuclear explosions, and fail explosively - destroying the spacecraft.

"Hot Rod" test prototype retired at the Smithsonian

http://www.nasm.si.edu/research/dsh/artifacts/images/RM/A19721008000.jpg

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Somewhere ages and ages hence:
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And that has made all the difference.

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Posted by Hari Seldon on 08-14-2006 at 16:01:

Project Pluto / Supersonic Low-Altitude Missile (SLAM)
Timeline: January 1957 - July 1964

SLAM Analysis
SLAM Specifications
Vought SLAM (Pluto) history and specifications
Astronautix: Vought SLAM (Pluto)
Wikipedia: Project Pluto
Wikipedia: Nuclear Thermal Rocket
"The Flying Crowbar" (mirror of Air & Space Mag. article)
Air & Space Mag. members only (you have to log in), original article: "The Flying Crowbar" Air & Space Magazine, April/May 1990, Volume 5 No. 1, page 28
Digg: SLAM Powered by Nuclear Ramjet

http://www.bisbos.com/rocketscience/pluto/pluto-history.html

The hypothetical nuclear missile SLAM has an amazing flight distance made possible by its nuclear ramjet engine, which heats the air with the heat given off by the nuclear reactor exposed to the airflow (but the engine's vibration causes friction on the nuclear material and unfortunately creates a radioactive cloud coming out of the engine, which I think might be minimized if they used today's technology (that they didn't have in the 50s-60s) to diamond-coat the nuclear material since diamond is very hard, heat-conductive, and can withstand very high temperatures).

Effective range of SLAM:
quote:
After launch, SLAM would cruise at around Mach 4 at high altitude (10700 m (35000 ft)) to the general target area. Effective range at high altitude was so large (more than 100000 km), that the missile could actually loiter at a "fail safe" point for some time, before it was ordered either to abort the mission or continue to the target. Close to enemy air defenses, SLAM would descend to low level, and use its TERCOM (Terrain Contour Matching) guidance system to find its way to the targets. TERCOM uses pre-stored radar maps of the ground under the planned flight path, which are constantly compared by the missile's guidance system to the actual radar images. SLAM was to be equipped with multiple (between 14 and 26) thermonuclear warheads which would be ejected one by one as the missile flew over its assigned targets. The warheads were to be ejected from hatches on the top of the missile to follow a lofted trajectory to the ground. This would give the low-flying SLAM a few seconds of time to escape the blast of its own bombs.
Astronautix: Vought SLAM (Pluto)

SLAM as a weapon:

http://www.merkle.com/pluto/pluto.html

Payload: 14-26 one-megaton bombs
Astronautix: Vought SLAM (Pluto)

quote:
Apart from the thermonuclear warheads, SLAM itself was also a very formidable weapon. The sonic boom of a 25+ m long vehicle flying at Mach 3+ at 300 m altitude would cause severe destruction in non-hardened structures on the ground. Additionally, the nuclear ramjet continuously left a trail of highly radioactive dust, which would seriously contaminate the area below the missile. Finally, when the SLAM eventually crashed itself at the end of the mission, it would leave a wreckage of a very hot and radioactive ("dirty") nuclear reactor.
Astronautix: Vought SLAM (Pluto)

SLAM/Project Pluto Accomplishments:

quote:
On May 14, 1961, the world's first nuclear ramjet engine, "Tory-IIA," mounted on a railroad car, roared to life for just a few seconds. Three years later, "Tory-IIC" was run for five minutes at full power, producing 513 megawatts and the equivalent of over 35,000 pounds force (156 kN) thrust. But despite these and other successful tests the Pentagon, sponsor of the "Pluto project," had second thoughts; Intercontinental ballistic missile technology had proved to be more easily developed than previously thought, reducing the need for such highly capable cruise missiles. On July 1, 1964, seven years and six months after it was born, "Project Pluto" was cancelled.
Wikipedia: Project Pluto

"Tory-IIC" nuclear ramjet engine, prior to testing on Jackass Flats, at the Nevada Proving Ground

Wikipedia: Project Pluto

Model Rocket SLAM Missile

This reference says that the SLAM missile was planned to be gold-plated to dissipate heat.

Posted by Hari Seldon on 08-14-2006 at 16:03:

Nuclear Subterrene
Timeline: 1970s
(the design was also looked at briefly in the 1980s for possible applications for any planned lunar base, while George Bush Sr.'s lunar base initiative stayed afloat)

Index of Los Alamos National Laboratory Technical Reports
Reports related to Nuclear Subterrenes:
A Preliminary Study of the Nuclear Subterrene (Apr. 1971)
Systems and Cost Analysis for a Nuclear Subterrene Tunneling Machine (Sept. 1973)
NASA/URSA Analysis for Nuclear Subterrenes' possible application for any planned lunar base:
Subselenean Tunneler Melting Head Design (May 1988)

SUMMARY OF DATA FOR A TYPE 1 SUBTERRENE EXCAVATING A TUNNEL OF -7 m DIAMETER AND PROGRESSING AT A RATE OF 100 m/day
Maximum Depth < 3 km
Maximum Rock Temperature < 200C
Total Rock Mass Flow ~ 10,000 tons/day
Power Required to Melt 25% of Rock ~ 50MW
Velocity of Subterrene 100m/day ~ 12 ft/hr
A Preliminary Study of the Nuclear Suberrene

Nuclear subterrenes are designed to melt their way through the rock and soil, actually vitrifying it and leaving a neat, solidly glass-lined tunnel behind.

The heat is supplied by a compact nuclear reactor that circulates (in one design) liquid lithium from the reactor core to the tunnel face, where it melts the rock. In the process of melting the rock the lithium loses some of its heat. It is then circulated back along the exterior of the tunneling machine to help cool the vitrified rock as the tunneling machine melts its way forward. The cooled lithium then circulates back to the reactor where the whole cycle starts over.

There is no drill bit to wear out, therefore the nuclear subterrene's tunneling depth is only limited by how much underground pressure the nuclear subterrene can take. All of this would be much cheaper than mechanical tunnelling, but would still be slow (see above table).

US Patent Office: Patent # 3,693,731

http://www.tomswift.info/homepage/aearth.html

US Patent Office: Patent # 3,885,832

http://www.tomswift.info/homepage/aearth.html

Posted by Matthew2c4u on 08-17-2006 at 12:47:

WHat bought Project Omega
Uses magnectic acceleration 2 Fire Cannon shots from deep space
These are resiedent to heat so they hit Saltus at INcredible high speeds and they can wipe out cites easilly without the lasting Radiation of nukes
Example: if a meteor the size of a House it the earth Then it would level the range of the united states

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Posted by Hari Seldon on 08-18-2006 at 10:42:

High-Altitude Research Project (HARP)
Timeline: 1950s-1960s
Astronautix: A Brief History of the HARP Project
Wikipedia: Project HARP
Wikipedia: Gerald Bull

Video
CBC Archives: Dr. Gerald Bull (video) (Canadian Broadcast Corporation (CBC) Archives)

Dr. Gerald Bull had planned to eventually launch satallites into orbit, but funding ran dry before he could build a long-enough gun (but he did shoot projectiles up 180 km, into space.).

quote:
the team was able to fire a 180 kilogram slug at 3600 meters per second, reaching an altitude of 180 kilometers. While the speed was not nearly enough to reach orbit (just 32% of Earth's 11.2 km/s escape velocity), it was a major achievement at much lower cost than most ballistic missile programs.
...
While it is questionable whether projectiles could ever be directly fired as a single stage from Earth without the use of exotic materials in construction, HARP demonstrated an efficient way to launch a projectile part of the way. Additionally, it showed that electronics could survive such a launch, making it possible that a sabot-fired rocket could launch once it reaches its peak altitude, and continue the rest of the way into orbit.
Wikipedia: Project HARP

HARP 16 in diameter Gun

http://www.astronautix.com/graphics/m/mart3gun.jpg

Planned but never built:

Astronautix: Marlet 4

quote:
Martlet 4 - Two versions of full scale orbital launch vehicle projectiles were proposed in the Martlet 4 series. The first used three solid rocket motor stages and was planned to orbit about 50 pounds of payload. The second used liquid rocket motors and was planned to have orbited 200 pounds of payload. Both were about 28 feet long and 16 inches in diameter, weighing about 1,300 kilograms at launch. No Martlet 4 vehicles were built; the project halted before the design was completed.
Wikipedia: Project HARP

Posted by TYRQ on 08-18-2006 at 11:10:

Hari Seldon i'm impressed good job with what ever your doing.

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Posted by Hari Seldon on 08-21-2006 at 08:47:

I'm posting these units because they are so cool Cool .

Miles:

quote:
Evangelos Strike-Bomber is probably the most devastating unit in the game (aside from some ... "insane" FTA ships that will be featured in the single player story of POJ

I'm hoping that the units that I post here might either end up as one of those "insane" FTA ships (which would be awesome Cool ), or an SDK unit.

Project Orion seems ideal for Phoenix One because Project Orion vaporizes a thin layer of its' "pusher plate" to propel itself forward, almost like a Phoenix being able to fly and burn itself to death. I hope that Project Orion (PO) is considered as a possible Phoenix One (PO) unit, if the PO faction is allowed to have nukes (and new units), and use them for their PO nuclear megaweapon spacecraft (a megaweapon because it has hundreds of small nukes) Wink . However, Orion seems too powerful and may just be qualified to be an "insane FTA unit."

SLAM is almost like what an Apostle Uplink would be like. But Project Orion would have more nukes, and certainly be faster than a nuclear jet engine (Project Orion is a spacecraft design), but Project Orion have a flight time limited by the number of nuclear weapons that it has, while Project Pluto would not.

A current Nuclear Subterrene design has been estimated to be able to travel < 3 km (just under 3 km) under the earth (at that distance underground it would be protected from a lot of weapons), and if a QL Nuclear Subterrene could take even more underground pressure, so again, because this unit is so powerful, it might either be an "insane" FTA unit, or SDK unit.

Project HARP is already included in the game. It's the FTA's Farseer Cannon (except that the Farseer Cannon does not assist in the launch of small rockets into space).

Posted by Hari Seldon on 10-22-2006 at 13:49:

Lamp Technology in development

Various Sonic Weapons
Timeline - Wikipedia: Various Sonic Weapon designs

Vortex Ring Gun
Bradford Non-Lethal Weapons Research Project
Timeline- In Development

quote:
The vortex ring gun is currently (as of early 2006) being developed. It fires a blank cartridge into a barrel which widens towards its muzzle. The pressure accelerates the air or gas in the barrel at high speed and it becomes a high-speed travelling vortex ring.
Wikipedia: Vortex ring gun

Defense Update - Vortex Ring Gun

Hypersonic Sound (HSS)
American Technology Corporation
Holosonics (company)
Timeline - HHS (NY Times Article March 23, 2003)
HSS as a weapon (excerpt from NY Times)

Artist's conception:

quote:
Researchers since the early 1960's have been experimenting with creating directive low-frequency sound from nonlinear interaction of an aimed beam of ultrasound waves produced by a parametric array. Ultrasound has wavelengths much less than audible sound and thus can be aimed in a much tighter narrow beam than any traditional audible loudspeaker system.

The first modern device was published in 1998 (105th AES Conv, Preprint 4853, 1998), and is now known by the trademark name "Audio Spotlight".

A transducer can be made to project a narrow beam of modulated ultrasound that is powerful enough, (100 to 110 dBSPL) to change the speed of sound in the air that it passes through. The air within the beam behaves nonlinearly and demodulates the ultrasound, resulting in sound that is can be heard only along the path of the beam, or that appears to radiate from any surface that the beam strikes. The practical effect of this technology is that a beam of sound can be projected over a long distance to be heard only in a small well-defined area. A listener outside the beam hears nothing. This effect cannot be achieved with conventional loudspeakers, because sound at audible frequencies cannot be focused into such a narrow beam.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HyperSonic_Sound#History

Prototype

quote:
HyperSonic Sound, on its face, has some very alluring features for major companies. With HSS, there is no piston-like action that moves the air and causes the distortions heard from conventional speakers; there are virtually no moving parts at all, so the device generates next to no heat. All of which actually makes HSS equipment cheaper. More to the point, an HSS transmission can travel 450 feet -- at pratically the same volume all along its path. Translated: at a concert, there's no need to melt the eyebrows of people sitting in the front rows. They'd hear the music at the same level as those lounging a football field away. ''A multibillion-dollar company we're dealing with wants one that'll carry for a mile,'' Norris says. ''And that is easily possible.''

In past months, Norris and his staff have made a further, key improvement to HSS -- instead of sending out a column of sound, they can now project a single sphere of it, self-contained, like a bubble.

HHS (NY Times Article March 23, 2003)

http://img.timeinc.net/popsci/images/science/sci1002audio_A.gif

quote:
1. Virtual Home Theater
How about 3.1-speaker Dolby Digital sound? With hypersonic, you can eliminate the rear speakers in a 5.1 setup. Instead, you create virtual speakers on the back wall.

2. Targeted Advertising
"Get $1 off your next purchase of Wheaties," you might hear at the supermarket. Take a step to the right, and a different voice hawks Crunch Berries.

3. Sound Bullets
Jack the sound level up to 145 decibels, or 50 times the human threshold of pain, and an offshoot of hypersonic sound technology becomes a nonlethal weapon.

4. Moving Movie voices
For heightened realism, an array of directional speakers could follow actors as they walk across the silver screen, the sound shifting subtly as they turn their heads.

5. Pointed Messages
"You're out too far," a lifeguard could yell into his hypersonic megaphone, disturbing none of the bathing beauties nearby.

6. Discreet Speakerphone
With its adjustable reach, a hypersonic speakerphone wouldn't disturb your cube neighbors.

Audio's Next Big Thing?

Supposedly demonstrated infrasonic weapon -
this rumor shows that a weapon like would be believable in a SciFi game like QL, even though it may not exist

quote:
Demonstrated infrasonic weapon
The U.S. DOD has demonstrated phased arrays of infrasonic emitters. The weapon usually consists of a device that generates sound at about 7 Hz. The output from the device is routed (by pipes) to an array of open emitters, which are usually one wavelength apart. At this frequency, armor and concrete walls and other common building materials vibrate, and therefore provide no defense.

As a defense to such a weapon, mechanical "diode walls" to convert the oscillating air into a steady flow have been demonstrated.

Wikipedia: Various Sonic Weapon designs

Posted by Hari Seldon on 10-22-2006 at 14:19:

Lamp Technology in development

Laser-Induced Plasma Channel (LIPC) / Electrolaser
Applied Energetics, aka "Ionatron" (company)
Timeline - American Scientist (July-August 2005)
Fox News (August 2004)
Wikipedia: Electrolaser

Prototype

quote:
Ionatron's prototype weapon uses laser light to ionize the air and channel a high-voltage electric discharge, which could be adjusted to disable a person without killing. - Ionatron
American Scientist (July-August 2005)

XADIS StunstrikeTM - proposed

http://www.xtremeads.com/stunstrike.htm

quote:
StunStrike", a Department of Defense SBIR-awarded program, is a patent-pending technology which delivers aimed electrical energy to a specific target in order to effectively deter or disable the target in a non-lethal manner.

XADS is currently researching and developing a number of prototypes, which include:

Close Quarters rifle unit with a range of up to 15 feet

Vehicle mounted and/or Fixed-Position unit with a range of up to 100 feet

The XADS StunStrike units maintain the major potential functions of various security applications, including, but not limited to:

Area Denial

Vehicle Disabling

Rescue Operations

Defense of Military Convoys and Outposts

Further development of StunStrike technologies includes an effective perimeter defense system against incoming Rocket Propelled Grenades (RPGs), which can detonate or neutralize incoming RPGs as they enter the StunStrike's spark stream. XADS received a contract from the Navy in the Summer of 2004 to develop this application further.

The StunStrike technology also carries the potential of being a viable and economical solution for protection against Vehicle Borne and other IEDs, as well as the clearance of landmines and unexploded ordnance in conflict-laden countries throughout the world.
http://www.xtremeads.com/stunstrike.htm

How an Electrolaser Works

quote:
An electrolaser is a type of directed-energy weapon. It uses lasers (sometimes laser diodes) to let blooming occur, or operating at wavelengths which cause atmosphere (or its component oxygen) to form a plasma. (This technology is also called Laser-Induced Plasma Channel (LIPC).)

It then sends a powerful electric current down the conducting ionized track of plasma so formed, somewhat like lightning. It functions as a giant high energy long-distance version of the Taser or stun gun.

Because it relies on the blooming effect, there must be air or some other gas between the electrolaser weapon and the target: it will not work in space vacuum.

Alternating current is sent through a series of step-up transformers, increasing the voltage and decreasing the amperage. The final voltage may be between 108 and 109 volts. This current is fed into the laser beam. To complete the electric circuit, there should be either a second laser beam, or a ground return, from the target to the last transformer in the step-up series.
Wikipedia: Electrolaser

quote:
The only defenses against electron particle beam weapons are magnetic fields, electrical insulators, capacitors, electrostatic fields, and Faraday cages.
Wikipedia: Electrolaser

Posted by 12w34r on 10-22-2006 at 14:27:

Good job Hari Seldon! Pleased Happy Happy You are doing a great job! Pleased Happy Happy

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Posted by need2 on 10-24-2006 at 01:03:

This is quite refreshing, to know that others are able to come across the same information that I am (I AM NOT CRAZY!! YAY!!!).

Hari Seldon, this is impressive. I have heard of a couple more projects:

-> HAARP (VERY different from HARP. It took me a while to figure out why I kept coming across a project for high altitude projectiles when I was looking for ions and antennas).

-> Israel's ball lightning expereiments.

-> Neutron and Proton bombs.

I would search myself, but I have absolutely no time. Even coming here to post this took too much time.

EDIT:
Thinking back over everything Hari posted... I just recalled something: I went to High school with a couple kids whose father works on the HHS stuff. I remembered this because I was good friends with those kids, and his daughter is HOT. Aparently, a couple years ago he took a business trip to China with regards to this HHS (there was a different project name used for it... I can't recal it though). I didn't believe them at the time because, I mean, we were a pretty rural area... they owned a small farm... but their father was out of town for a couple weeks... and the details the kid gave were very close to what was put forth by the article Hari quoted, yet different enough to show he didn't read that article. ANYWAYS, I digress. My point is that if business trips were being made to China about this HHS tech, we can probably expect to see many of the big electronic entertainment industries releasing systems and such with HHS to the public in the next couple years.

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Posted by 12w34r on 10-25-2006 at 17:23:

Nice avatar! Happy Happy Happy Happy

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Posted by tysonm1 on 10-26-2006 at 08:13:

where do u get all that info cause i seen all sorts of websites with pictures of rockets and that but i havent seen anyone with that much detail in it

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Posted by Hari Seldon on 10-26-2006 at 09:46:

You're all welcome Happy .

tysonm1 - Wikipedia helps a lot, but I also like to search the internet about all of the above (like a hobby), and that's how I found that AWESOME Project Orion picture and the videos at the top of the page (from nuclearspace.com), etc.

Posted by Hari Seldon on 10-26-2006 at 19:15:

Lamp Technologies in development

US Department of Defense 95-page future military technology report:
USA DOD - Developing Science and Technologies List (pdf)

Wikipedia: United States Department of Defense

Posted by Hari Seldon on 10-26-2006 at 19:18:

Lamp Technology in development

Electric Armor ("Smart Armor")
Timeline - UK Telegraph (2002)
Electric Armor against Shaped Charges (pdf)

Electric Armor tested and RPGs have practically no effect

http://www.defence.gov.au/news/armynews/editions/1063/images/images600/10electricarmourdemo.jpg

quote:
When an enemy round breaks the fiberoptic mesh, the defenses instantly activate.

Electricity may protect tanks more effectively than steel, ceramics or outward-exploding reactive armor. Army scientists are investigating two technologies. Both use a fiberoptic sensor to detect when a round has struck, and then respond by turning on electricity. In one approach, the current alters the thickness of a special shape-memory alloy, thereby increasing its resistance to penetration. The second method, shown above, uses electricity to create a powerful magnetic field. The magnetic force pulls apart the concentrated jet of metal created when a round strikes a tank's armor. Instead of streaming into the tank, the molten metal expands and dissipates harmlessly. Specifics of both projects remain classified.
Popular Mechanics - Electric Armor Blunts The Blow (2002)

quote:
Fitted on light armored vehicles such as personnel carriers, the "force field" (catchphrase) 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.

In recent proof-of-concept tests by the British military, RPG attacks on an electric-armor-equipped personnel carrier left only dents and scratches.

"We knew that just a few amps blows a household fuse. So we scaled it all up to fry these copper jets," said John Brown, the physicist at the Defense Science and Technology Laboratory who heads up British electric armor research.
Wired News - US Military Uses the Force

Posted by talk2farley:

quote:
"Electric armor" only defeats liquid copper penetrators, as used in the Russian shape charged RPGs. It is a specific solution to a specific problem, and not, by any means, a force field in the Star Wars sense. The molten copper penetrator is vaporized only because it conducts the strong electric field. Less accomodating metals, such as the tungsten or uranium used in long rod penetrators, have too high a resistance for this method to work.

In regards to the M1 tank series, all models (M1A1, M1A2, and the proposed M1A2 SEP, or Systems Enhancement Package) use the British-design Chobham armor, which is simply an advanced materials composite. The principle players are steel plates sandwiched between plastic spacers, with the idea being that a long rod penetrator will breach the outer steel shell, vaporizing it. A great deal of forward, penetrating energy will be lost as it liquifies and expands to fill the empty plastic spacer, with the remaining thermal energy contained by an inner steel layer.

The famed depleted uranium is not native to any specific model in the M1 series (A1, A2, SEP), but is instead available as an add-on kit (like explosive reactive armor) in something called the Enhanced Protection Package, or EPP. The details are classified. It is believed, however, that the kit features four DU plates, which are mounted on the turret (Two forward, left and right of the main gun, and a pair of larger plates on the port and starboard sides), which is otherwise the least well protected part of the MBT.

The Stryker series of LAVs features a composite of ceramic outer plates sandwiched on top of traditional hard steel armor. The ceramic, which is itself composed of numerous individual tiles, is not designed to resist the forward energy of a kinetic round. Instead, the tile itself will shatter on impact, transfering the forward energy over the surface of the entire tile, rather than a specific low-diameter area. This works well against long rod penetrators, but not so well against shape-charged weapons, ala the aforementioned RPG.

For those, we have Explosive Reactive Armor, or ERA. Developed by the Israelis following the Six Day War, ERA is an addon kit for armored vehicles using "shape charges in a box." On impact, the shape charge detonates, funneling its explosive energy outwards, and away from the tank. The energy is sufficient to defeat its brethen, shape charged penetrators, which rely more on their near-plasma state to burn through armor than on their forward energy to pierce it. However, long rod penetrators have sufficient forward energy to carry themselves through this and still defeat any reasonable thickness of hard steel.

There really is no be-all-end-all to modern armor. The doctrine of choice is composite kits, which can be added or removed from an armored vehicle as a given situation requires, and each of which defeats a specific weapon. It would be nice to build a vehicle which had the design concessions to naturally defeat any conceivable threat. Unfortunately, weight, cost, and the nature of the armors themselves are somewhat prohibitive.
http://www.sciforums.com/showthread.php?t=33459&page=3

Posted by Hari Seldon on 10-26-2006 at 19:41:

Lamp Technology in development

Active Protection Systems
Timeline - 1970s-now
Defense Update: Active Protection Systems for AFVs
Wikipedia: Active protection system
Russian Drozd (1977-78, then 1981-82: deployment)

TROPHY Active Protection System
Defense Update: TROPHY Active Protection System
Wikipedia: TROPHY Active Protection System

Videos:
Fox News - TROPHY (video)
YouTube: TROPHY Active Protection System (video #2)

Defense Update: TROPHY Active Protection System

Posted by D4U2 on 10-26-2006 at 19:56:

Wowww Shocked This is great. I think I found a avatar I probably like. Smile Department Of Defence

__________________
love a great war game

>Nice Game<

Posted by Hari Seldon on 10-26-2006 at 20:00:

Lamp Technology in development

We already have this weapon in QL:

Laser Weapons
(Tactical High-Energy Laser (THEL) / Mobile Tactical High Energy Laser (M-THEL) / Airborne Laser (ABL) / Skyguard)
Timeline - Late 1990s-now

Videos:
A simultaneous salvo of 3 Artillery shells shot down by the M-THEL:
YouTube: M-THEL Technology Demonstration Program

THEL
Wikipedia: Tactical High Energy Laser

http://www.defense-update.com/images/scenario-thel.jpg

quote:
The Nautilus Tactical High Energy Laser, seen in this photo taken during an earlier test, shot down its biggest rocket yet during a test this week, U.S. and Israeli military spokesmen say.
MSNBC - Laser weapon passes biggest test

M-THEL
MSNBC - Laser weapon passes biggest test
Defense Update: M-THEL Technology Demonstration Program

Defense Update: M-THEL

Airborne Laser (ABL) / Boeing YAL-1

Designed to shoot down TBMs, possibly could be used against faster ICBMs (ex: nuclear ICBMs)

Has not shot down anything as of 2006

Globalsecurity: ABL
Wikipedia: YAL-1 ABL

http://www.militarypictures.info/d/549-2/abl_takeoff.jpg

Skyguard
Defense Update: Skyguard

Posted by Hari Seldon on 10-26-2006 at 20:29:

Lamp Technology in development

Metal Storm
Popular Mechanics: Metal Storm
Wikipedia: Metal Storm
Company Trademark

Timeline - 1994-now

quote:
"The 15 shots was a big step for us from two, and electronically firing those 15 shots from a single barrel allowed us to experiment immediately with rates of fire," O'Dwyer says. The smoothbore prototype allowed electronically variable rates of fire ranging from semiauto to the equivalent of 45,000 rounds per minute.
Popular Mechanics: Metal Storm

quote:
The picture above is a high speed photograph of a 40mm projectile emerging from RedbackTM during testing.
http://www.metalstorm.com/

quote:
All Metal Storm weapon systems are fully reloadable. Reload options include fully individual round reload, a click together "stack" of rounds for multiple reload capability, or where required a reloadable multi shot cartridge is available.

Reloading Metal Storm technology is as straightforward and as simple as any other weapon system.

http://www.metalstorm.com/content/view/66/110/