The Perfect Soldier: Special Operations, Commandos, and the Future of Us Warfare by James F. Dunnigan
More Books by James Dunnigan
|
Dirty Little Secrets
Airbags Versus RPGs
by James Dunnigan
November 25, 2006
Discussion Board on this DLS topic
A U.S. manufacturer is trying to interest the U.S. Army in a new RPG defense system. The Tactical RPG Airbag Protection System (TRAPS) uses a vehicle airbag system, coupled with a cheap, small radar and microprocessor. The radar can recognize the flight profile of an RPG (a rocket that travels at about 150 meters a second) and activate the airbag. The RPG warhead hits the airbag and usually bounces off without even exploding. If it does explode, there is much less damage to the vehicle, than if the warhead had hit the vehicle itself. Since most RPG warheads are armor piercing, this would make it possible to put just enough armor on vehicles to stop bullets, and use several TRAPS units to protect against RPGs. The manufacturer (Textron) wants to get some TRAPS units into a combat zone, so it can be seen how the equipment operates under combat (not test) conditions.
|
|
