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| Home Front: Tech |
| Shields Up! |
| 2004-11-09 |
| November 8, 2004: Rocket propelled grenades (RPGs) are the typical weapons of choice when someone wants to attack trucks and armored vehicles in Iraq. RPGs are cheap, simple to operate, and if used properly can inflict significant damage on Stryker and Bradley armored vehicles. Unarmed and armored Hummers are especially vulnerable, since the various armor kits for the Hummer are designed to protect occupants from small arms and machine gun fire, not anti-tank grenades. One quick fix to protect the Hummer is a unique airbag system developed by a small California company that deploys a "curtain" down outside the side of the vehicle being attacked. Four bags are needed to protect all quadrants and are held in place with simple Velcro straps. A small radar detects the incoming RPG or RPGs and inflates the airbag with a carbon dioxide gas cartridge. The RPG is literally "caught" by the airbag like a pillow and slowed enough so the nose-mounted fuse doesn't detonate the warhead. Instead, the RPG ends up collapsing upon itself, shredding the secondary self-destruct fuse and looking like a stomped-on beer can. Currently, the airbag and cartridge have to be replaced after one use, but the designers are working on a reusable airbag that can simply be rolled up and put back into place. |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #9 There could be a lucrative civilian application to this technology if they can find a way to install them on the ceilings of all Middle Eastern Wedding Halls. |
| Posted by: tu3031 2004-11-09 3:06:14 PM |
| #8 The second uniform system, the Vision 2020 Future Warrior concept, will follow the 2010 Future Force Warrior with more advanced nanotechnology. "If we were in Detroit, the 2020 Future Warrior system would be the concept car. It leverages a lot of the nano-work being done by the Massachusetts Institute for Technology," DeGay said, noting the Army just awarded MIT a five- year, $50 million program to establish the Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies. "What we hope to gain from this program is body armor that wears like a traditional textile impregnated with nanomachines connected to an onboard computer, DeGay explained. "So when you shoot a round into the uniform system, it's normally pliable until it senses the strike of a round -- it becomes rigid, defeats the strike of the round and becomes soft again." A shortcoming of traditional body armor is that it can only absorb so many strikes from machine-gun rounds. "When you have a uniform with this new nanotechnology, it can absorb unlimited numbers of machine-gun rounds," DeGay pointed out. Another potential development is inserting "nanomuscle fibers" that can actually simulate muscles, giving soldiers more strength. Fabric is impregnated with nanomachines that create the same weight, lift and feel as a muscle. "So I coat the outside of the armor with a nanomuscle fiber that gives me 25 to 35 percent better lifting capability," DeGay explained. The uniform from the waist down will have a robotic-powered system that is connected directly to the soldier. This system could use pistons to actually replicate the lower body, giving the soldier "upwards of about 300 percent greater lifting and load-carriage capability," DeGay said. "We are looking at potentially mounting a weapon directly to the uniform system and now the soldier becomes a walking gun platform." Join the Mobile Infantry! |
| Posted by: Steve 2004-11-09 3:02:02 PM |
| #7 trailing wife: I wish I had your confidence. I have too much faith in human ingenuity to believe that war can ever be safe. |
| Posted by: James 2004-11-09 2:44:28 PM |
| #6 Whats next? We have directed energy weapons, methods to explode enemy artillery shells in mid air, and now electronic shields. Maybe it will be individual powered armor. I have heard a few mutterings about that so don't be suprised. |
| Posted by: Old Fogey 2004-11-09 2:36:10 PM |
| #5 The radar would detect the speed of incoming rounds and only deploy when the signature and speed band is within RPG velocity (ie. not rocks or bullets) |
| Posted by: ed 2004-11-09 2:22:10 PM |
| #4 The radar system might be the weak link here. I can see a well thrown rock or a low altitude pigeon deploying the airbags, and what have you got then? An all-terrain bouncy castle. |
| Posted by: Grunter 2004-11-09 2:11:32 PM |
| #3 #3, something about wrapping the rpg warhead would defeat the magnetic shield or some shit like that. That's why their warheads were never hitting. It's not that the jihadi's were bad shots, it was because of the zionist deflector screens. LOL. |
| Posted by: Anon4021 2004-11-09 1:22:54 PM |
| #2 Haven't there been stories of jihadis wrapping their RPGs in shiny tape to defeat the magnetic shielding around US armored vehicles? The airbag system is classic, too. Will the soldiers be allowed to put some custom designs on the airbags -- maybe some great big eyes, or a tooth-filled mouth? |
| Posted by: Robert Crawford 2004-11-09 10:45:35 AM |
| #1 Technology always leaps ahead in times of war. If they keep up this trend, in time waging war as an American will be no more dangerous than playing video games. At least for the regulars -- Special Forces will always find ways to get dirt under their fingernails. ;-) |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2004-11-09 10:24:44 AM |