Humvee RPG shield

Most of the deaths in Iraq come from 2 things, IED's referred to as a road side bomb which are becoming easier to detect, and the other is the RPG, which seems to the weapon of choise for the enemy. The RPG is a hard weapon to counter, because all they need is a lucky shot off and it can rip threw an up-armored Humvee. But in a few years our Humvee's could have an RPG shield, basically they shoot a rocket propelled grenade at it and the sensors on the humvee pick it up and shoot at it, not with a bullet but what I would call a directional air-burst grenade, so the fragment pieces would hit the rpg before it hits the vehicle

In another few years, Hummers' roofs could be covered with a dozen tubes, each filled with a foot-long mini-rocket called the FCLAS -- short for Full Spectrum Active Protection Close-In Shield.

Every FCLAS would have a pair of radio-frequency sensors inside. One in the nose would detect incoming RPGs and fire off a counterstrike. A second sensor, in the rocket's side, would go off when the RPG comes within range. The FCLAS would then detonate, letting loose a hail of explosive fragments, destroying the grenade in the process. The whole attack and response would take no more than a few seconds.

RPG Shield

They could save a whole bunch of money (and eliminate the chance of electronic failure) by copying their British counterparts.

All of the Black Watch Warriors,for example, have a large grill on the side. The theory being, that the RPG will just get stuck in it, without detonating. To this day, i don't think a Warrior has been lost to an RPG.

Any links on that stumason?

I have seen this slat armour before but never seen it mounted on something like a Humvee. Mostly on bigger stuff like this



They already use this on Strykers. Slat armour is a old concept, The idea behind the cage armor goes back to World War II and Vietnam. Troops in that war improvised with chicken wire and other means to counter the RPG threat

www.defense-update.com...

Good find though Murcielago this type of stuff is very interesting, The way it must be able to react so fast to stop a RPG in mid air would be amazing.



[edit on 5-12-2004 by ShadowXIX]

Vargas was one of five soldiers - all of them New Yorkers - riding in an armored Humvee that was bombed Monday by insurgents outside Baghdad.

this is a piece from a post i did an hour ago ...about a soldier coming back home after being injured ..

Yet no one has yet said a word about it ...replied and only twenty looked...

If it is RPG tested as they say ....then what happend to this particular one..???..........

So we (as in the British) have got a few of these?



Learn something new everyday!

I don't believe we have them as of yet (at least i haven't seen any at the base I live near), but i do believe we are getting some Strykers or something similar, as the Army wants a wheeled IFV for the future.

We have Warriors at present, that is the picture above the Stryker that Shadow posted

Originally posted by Nexus
So we (as in the British) have got a few of these?



Learn something new everyday!

Thats a US Styker in the picture the picture above that one is a British one. Im not sure if the UK plans to buy any Styker as the program has had some problems like it being way to heavy then it was designed to be so they might be making something on their own.

If there are foot soldiers around the vehicle when the rpg shield goes off, wouldn't they experience the brunt of injury or maybe an airburst would have no effect. Seems hard to believe the airburst would be strong enough to stop it.

[edit on 12/5/2004 by infinite8]

Originally posted by infinite8
If there are foot soldiers around the vehicle when the rpg shield goes off, wouldn't they experience the brunt of injury from shrapnel, etc?

I would assume you wouldnt wan't to be near a RPG hitting slat armour. The charge would hit the slat armour so the shape charge effect wouldnt work like it was designed so I would think alot of the shrapnel would bounce off the armour.

Many Strykers have been hit by RPGs so far I only know of one loss with one using slat armour. The official story goes that the RPG hit the slat armor and was defeated, except the burning shrapnel hit a gas can stored outside the hull and ignited it. The vehicle was a total loss

[edit on 5-12-2004 by ShadowXIX]

Heres a picture of it, notice the fire extinguishers sitting in front of it they must have tried to fight the fire at first.

The slating armor is most ingenius in its simplicity, thanks for the pictures!

The FCLAS/metalstorm like shields could have additional value not to stop only RPG but also larger rockets with advanced warheds.

Maybe both could be even combined, where the slating matrix not only serves as RPG buster, but also as detector for larger missiles breaching the grid and maybe put like a million volts thru the warhed or have them FCLAS boxes fired, the only missiles that would remian highly dangerous would be the high-kinetic energy Javelins and the like, but those are a bit above budget for many insurgants....

this would mean insurgants would to move more to pre-planned roadside bombs, but it certainly limits their ad-hoc response attack effectivity.



[edit on 5-12-2004 by Countermeasures]

[edit on 5-12-2004 by Countermeasures]

I cant believe that the slat armour would work that well. It just reduces the chances of the head hitting something solid. I still wouldnt like to be sitting inside a humvee with this sort of protection.

What about the idea of of using very strong magnets to pull the projectile of target? I'm not sure what technology is in this area at present but it could work in theory.

Infinite8
If there are foot soldiers around the vehicle when the rpg shield goes off, wouldn't they experience the brunt of injury

Possible, it depends on where they are standing according to the grenades path. But if the grenade hit the humvee there is still that same possibility. This system is only to protect the humvee's occupants.

Originally posted by shmick25
I cant believe that the slat armour would work that well. It just reduces the chances of the head hitting something solid. I still wouldnt like to be sitting inside a humvee with this sort of protection.

.

The whole reason a RPG is dangerous to armour is because it is a shape charge . For a shape charge to work it has to come into direct contact with the armour. The RPG hits the cage and blows up before it has made contact with the armour.

Its really a simple concept if you know how shape charges work.

Originally posted by ShadowXIX

Originally posted by shmick25
I cant believe that the slat armour would work that well. It just reduces the chances of the head hitting something solid. I still wouldnt like to be sitting inside a humvee with this sort of protection.

.

The whole reason a RPG is dangerous to armour is because it is a shape charge . For a shape charge to work it has to come into direct contact with the armour. The RPG hits the cage and blows up before it has made contact with the armour.

Its really a simple concept if you know how shape charges work.

And from the pictures shown the cage is only a couple of inchs from the armour. I am by no means an expert when it comes to these things, however, I would have thought that the explosion would be enough to rip through the thin cage (grate) and armour that a humvee has. The force of the explosion in any event would be enough to immobalise a humvee thus making it an easy target for further attacks.

Any additional armour is better than none but I would question the usefullnes of it in this situation.

Who even said they put this stuff on humvees? I never seen this on a up-armored Humvee, I have only seen it on APCs like the Stryker for example.

This slat armour turns a RPG from a shape charge to a grenade which wont do much to a APC.

I've seen an RPG hit an electric wire and go off. The Slat armor isnt made to catch the RPG without it exploding. Also, there are lots of strikers on the ground in Iraq now. RPG's are a pain in the @$$ no matter what.

From what I read on troop blogs and other places they seem to like the Stryker over in Iraq. One guy was talking about seeing one take a 500lb road bomb and nobody was killed inside. They also got the thing back on the road in the same day.

Originally posted by ShadowXIX
From what I read on troop blogs and other places they seem to like the Stryker over in Iraq. One guy was talking about seeing one take a 500lb road bomb and nobody was killed inside. They also got the thing back on the road in the same day.

lol, no...no styker or humvee can take a dead on hit of 500lb bomb, if it blew up underneath there vehicle the entire styker vehicle would of been lifted off the ground from its power. Its more then likely that the soldier who saw it is just bad at judging distance and the explosion was near the vehicle.