Scientists Work on Force Fields for Tanks

British military scientists are working on a new method of protecting military vehicles from rocket attacks, that relies on electro-magnetism rather than honking great pieces of armor.

The 'Defence Science and Technology Laboratory', or Dstl, the R&D arm of the British Ministry of Defence, is developing a system to protect tanks and other vehicles from enemy fire with electro-magnetic pulses.

The system involves covering vehicles with a thin cloth-like supercapacitor material which would use a stored electrical charge to generate pulses capable of pushing back dangerous projectiles like RPG rounds, which require a huge amount of traditional armor to properly protect against.

The new system would allow army vehicles to be better protected against RPG attacks while significantly reducing the weight of the vehicle, but would require a sophisticated tracking system to be used in conjunction with it, so it's unlikely to be standard-issue any time soon.

It's not quite the same as raising the shields on the Enterprise, but in my mind, it's a good first step towards it.

Source: The Telegraph