Russia's newest hardware Armata unveiled

The Russian Defense Ministry has for the first time fully revealed the new Armata tank in a series of photographs published on its website in the run-up to the Victory Day parade in Moscow.

 

T-14 Armata Tank.

All the previous images obtained by the media showed T-14 Armata with its turret draped in protective canvas. Now, the Defense Ministry has published images of the tank, as well as several other new armored vehicles, in high definition, accompanied with brief descriptions, for anyone to view and download.

Armata is actually a tracked platform capable of hosting a tank, APC, artillery piece and missile launcher. The Armata medium tank is a cutting-edge vehicle with an unmanned turret armed with a brand new 125 mm smoothbore cannon, which is the most powerful gun of its kind to date in terms of muzzle energy.

A crew of two can operate the tank. It is fully computerized and equipped with a wide variety of sensors and other electronic systems that allow for network-centric warfare.

Armata will be taking part in the grand Victory Day Parade in Moscow on May 9, marking the 70th anniversary of the Soviet Union's victory over Nazi Germany. A total of 194 armored vehicles will participate in the event, ranging from the cutting-edge to historic pieces. The Russian Air Force will be represented by 143 aircraft.

As the Victory Day celebrations draw near across Russia, take a look at our special project detailing the Soviet Union's fight against Nazism during World War II.

Other new pieces of kit participating in the V-Day parade, which have been unveiled at the Defense Ministry's website, are the Armata infantry combat vehicle, the Boomerang armored personnel carrier, the Koalitsiya-SV self-propelled artillery piece, the Kurganets-25 IFV and APC, and the Kornet-D self-propelled anti-tank complex.

Boeing has patented a plasma ‘force field’ to protect against shock waves

If it’s ever realised, it could protect military vehicles from energy emitted by nearby blasts. 

 

As weapons get more sophisticated, researchers are trying to build defence systems that can keep pace, and what’s better than a force field?

Aerospace and defence giant Boeing has been awarded a patent to develop a force field-like system that could protect military vehicles from shockwaves following explosions from missiles or improvised explosive devices.

Boeing’s proposed system involves using a combination of lasers, electricity and microwaves to rapidly heat up the air between the vehicle and a blast. This heat creates a plasma shield that's denser than the surrounding air and able to deflect or absorb the energy from the incoming shockwave.

Unlike the impenetrable force fields of science fiction movies, the system is not designed to prevent direct impacts or shrapnel. Instead, Boeing’s system is designed to protect a target - which could be a vehicle carrying troops, or a building such as a command centre or a hospital - from the after-effects of nearby explosions.

The system, which would likely be mounted on a military vehicle, or some other target, would have sensors that can detect the velocity and shape of an incoming threat. The system would also be able to determine the size and force of the resulting explosion.

Its sensors and computers would be able to calculate the time it would take the shock wave from an explosion to reach the target, and from what direction. This is important, as the generated force field would only protect a small region of the target, rather than enveloping the entire thing.

Once it has determined the timing of the shock wave, the system’s objective is to somehow heat the air around the target, generating what Boeing terms a “transient medium” that intercepts the shock wave and reduces the energy density. 

 

As Evan Ackerman from IEEE Spectrum explains:

"The general concept is to use an electromagnetic arc to create this intermediate medium in mid-air on very short notice by using a stupendous amount of energy to heat the air into a plasma.“

The plasma, which is much hotter than the surrounding air, also has a different density and composition. Boeing believes this plasma field is enough to divert, reflect or absorb the energy passing through.

In its application, Boeing outlines several different embodiments of the systems, with different methods for detecting threats, and for rapidly creating the plasma field.

One option uses converging lasers or microwave beams to generate a spherical region of plasma. Alternatively, the force field could be generated by firing lasers that induce plasma channels in the air, which provide a path for an electric discharge to create the plasma shield. These same pathways could be created by launching metal pellets that leave conductive trails as they fly.

However they decide to make it work, it's a pretty cool idea. We'll be waiting for the first the prototype, which may or may not be able to defend against shock waves from this crazy new weapon.

Source: IEEE Spectrum