Talk:Tank research and development
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[edit] Source for Stirling cycle engine research?
Do you have any kind of source for Stirling cycle engine research for armoured vehicles or tanks? There are a lot of such engines in the US armed forces but the only ones I could find were involved in cooling the driver's ultra sophisticated Thermal Viewer on the M1A2 Abrams tanks and other vehicles. Just .25 watts of power, but an impressive high-tech machine. No sign of any R and D on their use for propulsion. --AlainV 02:52, 29 November 2005 (UTC)
[edit] Don't believe this needs further wikification
As a regular reviewer of the "T" wikification requests, I have read thru this article and have done some minor wikification and editing. At this point, I firmly believe that this article is wikified enough. It could use some images, certainly, but that's a problem with most Wikipedia articles IMHO.
I also believe that this article's subject is of higher importance than the thousands of school, band, album, athlete, &/or town/village articles I've seen. Madman 05:10, 5 January 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Armour Research
"One technology under development is electro-magnetic armour. Used to defeat shaped charge warheads, the armour uses a massive magnetic charge to break apart and disperse shaped charge jets. One proposed system uses a sensor net of fibre optics covering the vehicle. An impacting warhead will interrupt the flow of light through the fibre optics, registering a hit. An automated system registers the location and sends a signal to energise a powerful electric coil located behind the armour.
The spiralling electrons in the coil give rise to an intense magnetic field that interacts with the particles within the shaped charge jet. Although shape charges generate enormous forces by travelling at up to 9 km/s, the stream maintains its penetrating power over a very short, and specific, distance. The magnetic field "pinches" the charge jet, making it unstable and dispersing its force so the warheads penetration power is significantly degraded. Other proposals use a layered electrified armor underneath standard armor. Penetration of the armor by a shaped charge results in a massive discharge of electricity powered by a capacitor array in the tank. The electricity discharges into the incoming jet of explosive gas/plasma and this disrupts its flow and direction by adding extra heat and electric charge. The electric discharge can also vaporize the molten metal used in some shape charges to increase penetration.
Using such systems could reduce main battle tanks from their current scale-tipping weight of 70 tons, down to a more manageable 20 tons, while providing superior protection. This would also have strategic implications. Current U.S. heavy armour divisions can take months to move from the continental United States to locations around the world. A lighter MBT could make deployment faster."
How would a 20 ton tank with these systems protect against HESH and KE penetrators,or a large HE round exploding under the tank? Dudtz 9/29/06 9:48 PM EST They can't, that why there is greater focus on KE rounds in the future, advance composite armors won’t shatter from the HESH, they will simple fail and implode. --BerserkerBen 15:06, 11 October 2006 (UTC)
As far as I know,magnets,electro and non electro,are not attracted to the copper used in shaped charges,the only way the copper could be magnetic,is if it was alloyed with a magnetic metal. As far as elctro magnets go,I am not sure if the copper is magneticly charged with the metal that is usually attracted to magnets. Dudtz 10/9/06 6:29 PM EST
