RPG Protection for Mowags.

[yellowjacket]

The US Army has developed a bolt-on interim proctection system for their Strykers against RPGs. Is there a case for similar work to Irish ones going in harm's way?

[Rommel]

As far as I know it probably all depends on the enemies reliance of RPG's (cheap, cheerful and plentiful) as opposed to dedicated Anti amour weapons.

I would imagine in Iraq most attacks would be from Russian made RPG's

Any caging or bars as shown above are very effective at deflecting RPG's, but I'm not so sure if it offers any protection against dedicated anti amour rounds (e.g. 84 HEAT)

I do know that such caging was found to be very effective against RPG attacks in the six counties. Many a Sanger survived as a result of the caging.

The paramilitaries on both sides had easy access to RPG's

Interestingly I remember that even several pubs survived sectarian RPG attacks as window security grills had somehow deflected the round.

[Come-quickly]

I think it would be a very practical COIN solution for missions like Liberia, where heavier weapons are scarce.

[California Tanker]

And what, pray tell, is the practical difference between an RPG-7 and an 84mm HEAT round? Bearing in mind that an RPG is also a dedicated anti-armour round (with exception to the thermobaric warheads recently developed but not in service in the MidEast). Other than about 11mm.

RPGs, ATGMs (Exception of LOSAT), and other LAAWs/SRAAWs all work on the same principle: That of a conical warhead forming a chemical effect penetration. The slats/spaced armour and their effects on shaped charge warheads have been around for years.. actually since WWII. By and large, the developments of composite and reactive armours have resulted in the preference of these techniques over slats (Due to space requirements) but when space isn't an issue, such as the balls and chains on Merkava, or the 'fence' on this S-tank, the concept is still valid.


The slats will have two effects. Either (1) it will detonate the RPG at a further stand-off range than the optimum (There needs to be a certain amount of space for the shaped charge to take effect, but too far away will reduce effectiveness), or (2)It will simply shred the warhead like a french fry slicer resulting in a HE round instead of an anti-armour one.

NTM

[Docman]

The system has been around since WWII. Russian tankers used to bolt bed springs to their tanks before adopting a production wire mesh system.