Trohoy: Active protection system..

[Tobian]

This looks super cool! http://www.techeblog.com/index.php/t...ble-forcefield almost like a forcefield, I'm gonna have to read up on it!

[Phoenix]

It looks more like reactive armor than force field tech, cool none the less.

[Captain Otto]

A quick googel search reveals that the system works like this.

Sensors guard the vehicle against incoming missiles. Once a missile is detected the system launches a countermeasure device that intercepts the missile detonating it prematurely in the process.
While good for the vehicle and its crew GD has admittedly problems with collateral damage in urban areas.

[Tobian]

Well yes and no - a missile exploding in mid air will ultimatelly cause the least damage - aka the firecracker on your palm or in your clenched fist! Depending on the type of missile, some of them don't actually 'go off' when the countermeasure hits them... and it's hardly the fault of the tank driver, if an enemy missile hits him, that it causes collateral damage! The collateral damage would happen anyway, it's just it's a little firther away from the tank!

The whole thing reminds me of some of the cooler scenes in BSG, with thousands of bits of flack flying off the ships to stop missiles hitting them. For the forseable future it's more likelly than actual forcefields!

[Captain Otto]

Yes i agree, but the whole thing is also to be mounted on APC's and IFV's, and any troops not within the Vehicle could get in the way of any stray shrapnel that flies around. I think its that kind of collateral damage that worries DG the most.

In theory this "point defense system" certainly increases the survival chances an armored vehicle has on the battlefield