Sea Skimmer wrote:High tech solution are great, sometimes, but this is using way too much technology to defeat way too simple a threat. ...As it is for TUSK, some reactive tiles we type classified before the war even started along with spaced armor do everything Trophy could.
The problem with cagework armor and standoff plates is that they frequently add up to three feet of width to the vehicle they are protecting. Not a problem in open terrain, but in urban or forested terrain that limits mobility, making some narrow areas off-limits to a vehicle so equipped. Armored vehicles have a hard enough time already without being further restricted to only main arteries.
Reactive armor plates aren't as bad as cagework; were I in charge of procurements I'd combine reactive armor with Trophy (or a like system). This would increase mobility at an (admitted) decrease in armor protection, particularly from EFPs which are probably not affected by Trophy. If a convoy is traveling on a route where EFPs are a regular hazard, then it'd be worth it to keep the vehicle-widening cage & plate system. But for in-city work, anything that lessens the vehicle's horizontal profile would be welcome.
Something about Libertarianism always bothered me. Then one day, I realized what it was:
Libertarian philosophy can be boiled down to the phrase, "Work Will Make You Free."
In Libertarianism, there is no Government, so the Bosses are free to exploit the Workers.
In Communism, there is no Government, so the Workers are free to exploit the Bosses.
So in Libertarianism, man exploits man, but in Communism, its the other way around! If all you want to do is have some harmless, mindless fun, go H3RE INST3ADZ0RZ!! Grrr! Fight my Brute, you pansy!
Coyote wrote:
The problem with cagework armor and standoff plates is that they frequently add up to three feet of width to the vehicle they are protecting. Not a problem in open terrain, but in urban or forested terrain that limits mobility, making some narrow areas off-limits to a vehicle so equipped. Armored vehicles have a hard enough time already without being further restricted to only main arteries.
Yeah, but then active protection doesn’t work in close quarters either, so your screwed any way about it. I’d still rather have the reliability of protection that doesn’t depend on a computer.
Reactive armor plates aren't as bad as cagework; were I in charge of procurements I'd combine reactive armor with Trophy (or a like system). This would increase mobility at an (admitted) decrease in armor protection, particularly from EFPs which are probably not affected by Trophy.
They certainly aren’t. The slug from an EFP mine is too fast, too dense, too low and they always come from too short a range. If the EFP comes from a smart artillery or aircraft dropped bomblet falling overhead meanwhile, not a threat in Iraq but certainly a relevant one in other wars, then Trophy will simply be unable to see it coming since it doesn’t look up.
"This cult of special forces is as sensible as to form a Royal Corps of Tree Climbers and say that no soldier who does not wear its green hat with a bunch of oak leaves stuck in it should be expected to climb a tree"
— Field Marshal William Slim 1956
