Compendium-2 April13.qxp:Armada
4/1/13
11:19 AM
Page 18
A damaged cage armour fixed onto a Danish BV206. Cage armour are a statistic protection system, the average probability being around 60%. (Danish MoD)
RPG Shields Approximately 40 countries are using RPGs, which are manufactured in a number of variants by nine countries, the estimated overall production being in excess of nine million systems. It is thus hardly surprising it became one of the most frequent threats posed by rogue armies and terrorists in both urban and open terrain situations.
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ne of the most widely used protective solutions is to equip vehicles with systems that allow to mitigate or as much as possible distort the jet generated by the shaped charge. This can be done either by deforming or destroying the liner or by increasing the stand-off distance, although in the latter case much work will be left to the original armour of the vehicle. Some programmes aimed at adapting main battle tanks to urban warfare have shown that even the best Cold War era tanks were not that well protected against RPGs on their sides, the main protection being concentrated on the frontal arc. Two kinds of solutions are currently adopted, “cage” or “bar” armour that physically decouple the incoming round from the hull surface, while “net” variants, and “energetic” armour use some form of low burning rate materials to defocus the jet. But here too, there’s no panacea. Cage armour considerably increases vehicle width, generating mobility problems in some urban scenarios. Being a statistical
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system, its effect depends very much on the point of impact and aspect of the incoming round. Most systems have a high probability of neutralising or consistently reducing the effect of an incoming RPG, and some of
them can even withstand very close multiple impacts. Non-metallic solutions in the form of nets are also available, as well as mats which consistently tend to stop the round while avoiding initiation, although even those remain probabilistic items. The energetic solution, being based on armour modules fitted to the hull, is a non probabilistic solution as any place hit by an RPG will react in the same way. Moreover, it contributes to the protection against KE rounds. On the other hand, it remains to be seen how much of the energetic armour surface is damaged when hit and how much of that now vulnerable surface is exposed. The energetic solution generates a much lesser width increase, while the weight balance has to be considered case by case. Ruag Defence of Switzerland proposes two different versions of its SidePro armour systems conceived for protecting vehicles from RPGs. The best known is SideProLasso, a net system made of 4 mm diameter high tensile steel wire that adds a mere 6 kg/m2 to the vehicle weight and 250 mm per side. Steel was chosen versus fabric due to its resistance to environmental influences and its much longer operational life. According to Ruag the optimized size and shape of the mesh provides multi-hit capacity, as well as minimal decrease of the protection level
The Ruag SidePro Lasso, here mounted on an Eagle, is designed to preserve maximum accessibility to the vehicle. It has been adopted by Denmark, Slovenia and Estonia. (Ruag)
Compendium Armoured Vehicles Protection 2013