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The Miracle of Electromagnetic Armor: How to Repel Enemy Weapons with Electricity?
With the rapid development of modern warfare technology, the protective capabilities of military equipment are constantly improving. As a new reactive armor technology, electromagnetic armor is attracting widespread attention from armed forces around the world. This electric current-driven armor not only has the advantage of being lightweight, but can also effectively resist attacks from various weapons. This article will explore in depth the operating principles, advantages and disadvantages of electromagnetic armor and its future development potential.
The working principle of electromagnetic armor
Electromagnetic armor is a new type of reactive armor, which consists of two or more conductive plates separated by air gaps or insulating materials to form a high-power capacitor. When the armor is in operation, the power source charges it. When a foreign object penetrates these plates, the circuit is closed, causing the capacitor to release a huge amount of energy, instantly vaporizing the penetrating object or turning it into essential plasma, thereby greatly Reduces the power of attacks.
The activation speed of electromagnetic armor is comparable to the speed of electric current, allowing it to react in time to rapid attacks to protect moving vehicles.
Advantage Analysis
Weight advantage
One of the main advantages of electromagnetic armor is its light weight, which can provide strong protection without adding too much burden compared to traditional explosive reactive armor (ERA). Since ERA's explosive materials may add 10 to 20 tons of weight to the tank, while electromagnetic armor may only require a few tons to be effective, this frees up the carrying capacity of other equipment and further improves mobility.
Full Armor
The lightweight nature of the electromagnetic armor enables its protective effect to cover the entire vehicle, which means that the entire vehicle can be adequately protected even at the back and top, which are not easily protected. This prevents the enemy from using light vehicles to attack the side or top of the tank, which is of great significance in modern asymmetric warfare.
Operational safety
Compared with traditional ERA, electromagnetic armor also has significant advantages in operational safety. When ERA is attacked, its explosion may produce a large amount of fragments, posing a threat to the safety of surrounding troops. Electromagnetic armor effectively reduces such risks and ensures the safety of the operator and surrounding troops.
Possible Disadvantages
Although electromagnetic armor has shown many advantages, its current technology is still in the exploratory stage, and it is not clear how well it can protect against different types of attacks (such as kinetic penetrating bullets). Some information indicates that this technology currently provides better protection against reactive attacks or numbered ammunition than against kinetic ammunition, but there is still a lack of comprehensive evidence on its specific actual combat effectiveness.
The effectiveness of the electromagnetic armor system is limited by its power supply capacity, which directly affects its protection performance against high-energy attacks.
Development status of various countries
Exploration of Britain
In the UK, the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory is developing an electromagnetic armour called a "pulsed electric power" system. The principle is to set up two thin shells. The outer shell stores huge electrical energy. Once a conductive metal attack penetrates the outer shell, a pathway will be formed, triggering the instantaneous release of current to provide effective protection.
Research progress in the United States
Scientists at the U.S. Army Research Laboratory have described their concept for electromagnetic armor, which uses a combination of materials to direct electrical current into metal coils to respond to powerful attacks. They have already developed a prototype for the Bradley Tested on combat vehicles.Future Outlook
Electromagnetic armor technology has broad potential applications. It can not only greatly enhance the protection capabilities of ground vehicles, but also be expanded to a variety of military and civilian fields, and is even expected to further promote the evolution of intelligent automated combat systems. However, as safety requirements grow, the development of this technology still needs to overcome various power and efficiency challenges. This makes people wonder, in future wars, how will electromagnetic armor reshape the battlefield?
