rigorousintuition.ca

This story <!--EZCODE LINK START--><a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/04/12/trophy_system/" target="top">is wierd</a><!--EZCODE LINK END--> but true! Just how far ahead ARE these people? --And with that kind of money spent in R&D, why aren't soldiers properly armored? (Okay, rhetorical question. --MaryK <p></p><i></i>

Mary,<br>Maybe there is more to this.<br>Something caught my eye during the invasion of Iraq.<br><br>An Abrams was advancing on Baghdad when suddenly it got hit by something. The crew felt it - "What was THAT?". But the tank was not destroyed, just disabled. Smething went straight through.<br><br>Much later I read a few reports that suggested that the Russians had taken the opportunity to test a gas plasma weapon under combat conditions. Just once.<br><br>The Russians are already far ahead in missile technology. That's what Putin demonstrated to Chirac.<br><br>I would guess that the US military would be seriously concerned about the Russian weapon.<br>And looking for a defence. <p></p><i></i>

<br> A friend of mine tells me on a regular basis, to imagine the worst case scenario regarding the breadth of our knowledge, and then multiply by 10.<br><br> This IMHO unquestionably extends to black technology too.<br><br> But of course, thats just my opinion. <p></p><i></i>

from the article,nothing special about this...<br><br><!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>The system, dubbed "Trophy", uses radar to track incoming threats and then destroys them when they're in range by attacking the warheads with an <!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>"invisible force"</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END-->, according to Fox. Quite how it does this is, unsurprisingly, classified, but Defense Update understands Trophy is "designed to form a <!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>'beam' of fragments</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END-->, which will intercept any incoming HEAT threat, including RPG rockets at a range of 10 metres to 30 meters from the protected platform".<br><br><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>The countermeasure is, then, actually physical</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--> - a fact confirmed by Defense Update, which explains the system has "an automatic reload mechanism to handle multiple attacks", although that's about as specific as it gets.<hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--><br><br>a grenade is a beam of fragments that are physical?<br>this looks like a improvement in targeting electronics, or BS to justify budgets... <p></p><i></i>

<!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.defense-update.com/products/t/trophy.htm">www.defense-update.com/pr...trophy.htm</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr> Specific details about the composition and mechanism of this explosive interceptor device are vague. From the briefing provided by US sources, Defense Update understands that Trophy is design to form a "beam" of fragments, which will intercept any incoming HEAT threat, including RPG rockets at a range of 10 – 30 meters from the protected platform. The Trophy development roadmap considers an enhanced countermeasure unit to be available in the future, and protect against kinetic energy (KE) threats. Trophy was designed to effectively operate in a dense urban environment, where armored vehicles operate closely with integrated infantry forces. Therefore, direction, formation and energy of the fragments are Merkava 3 with prototype Trophy APS Ssytem demonstrated at LIC 2005 designed to ensure effective target kill with low collateral damage, and low risk to nearby troops. While not in use, the system is maintained in the stowed position, protected by an armor shield. The system has an automatic reload mechanism to handle multiple attacks.<hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--><br>But yeah, it does sound entirely physical. "Kinetic energy," if I remember my high school science right, is the energy something has when it's smashing into you. <p></p><i></i>

<!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>The Trophy development roadmap considers an enhanced countermeasure unit to be available in the future, and protect against kinetic energy (KE) threats.<hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--><br><br>starroute,<br>I read that differently.<br>I read that the protection against KE threats is an enhancement, to be available in the future.<br><br>Trophy, as now is, "will intercept any incoming HEAT threat".<br>I know they SAY RPG. <br>But that may just be to deflect questions.<br>Gas plasma is essentially heat, no? <p></p><i></i>

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HEAT stands for:<br><br>High Explosive, Anti-Tank<br><br>Read the paragraph with this in mind. <p></p><i></i>

And animation depicting some sort of energy bubble around a tank stirs up all kinds of scifi notions, in the way they called aircraft with very low radar profiles "invisible", and I sure wouldn't characterize a water cannon as a "Molecular Projection Beam" unless I wanted to frighten you. But it looks to me more like a fancy robotic shotgun. Take a look at the video-<br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www3.youtube.com/watch?v=-yVdwvodPo8">www3.youtube.com/watch?v=-yVdwvodPo8</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--> <br><br>We have been spending a lot of SDI money learning to hit bullets with bullets, a really, really hard thing to do, I'd guess a shotgun style approach might be a bit more effective. No matter what sort of "kinetic energy projectiles" you used, if you can get enough of them pointed in the right direction, and accelerated fast enough, you could stop a rocket with birdshot or gravel. Or even frozen peas, If you can get them moving fast enough.<br>In one of the videos' hits, you can see bit of the missile blasted back towards the direction of its orgin, and as the missile erupts in flame another blurry "round" is seen (Is that a can? Canned peas, maybe?) flying past the target. In several shots it appears that the target missile is not completely destroyed, but detonated and slowed down. Which suggests to me a spray or "beam" of small projectiles.<br>I'm still puzzling over the "can" though.<br>The real wow factor is the recognition and tracking part. I remember seeing a German robot that could catch a fast pitch baseball several years ago, and can only assume that such technologies have only improved.<br><br>They mention water, and it's no good against torpedoes, but didn't say anything about smoke or fog.<br>Just a matter of time till someone flips a cigarette butt in it's general direction though, and POW! another smoking related death.<br><br>I too, remember the report of the "mystery projectile" that made a clean hole in several layers of armor on a US vehicle, but doubt it was related to this weapon. <br><br><br><br><br> <p></p><i></i>