Almost anyone in the middle east can buy an RPG anti-tank launcher for $10.00 USD (United States Dollars) and destroy a sophisticated tank or armored car. A mere ten dollars lets you destroy a tank that may of cost as much as a couple of million dollars, not to mention the loss of life to the crew. This problem has been analyzed by the British Ministry of Defense and they have been working on counter measures to defeat these munitions and any other munitions that may be thrown at an armored vehicle.

Right now they are working on a new 'Star Trek' type of armor that contains a force field. Yes that's right, a force field. Scotty are the shields holding? The new force field will vaporize shells on impact. Not only will this force field armor increase the defensive capabilities of heavy tanks, but by reinforcing a lighter vehicle with this shield, it may not be necessary to use a heavy battle tank in many instances. The movie Blackhawk Down has a scene where a convoy of armored personnel carriers are going through city streets trying to rescue a downed helicopter pilot and they are being snipped from all the buildings they pass. Bullets are going through the lightly armored Humvees and RPGs are destroying trucks. All of this might have been avoided with the new force field armor. A few of the light vehicles protected with this armor may have been able to accomplish the rescue task.

Lets examine how this new armor works. A capacitor that is highly charged is connected to two separate metal plates on the vehicle's exterior. The outer plate is bullet proof (the composition is secret) and grounded. The inner plate is live but insulated. The current can be switched on and off. The power is supplied by the vehicle. When the vehicle's occupants feel that they are in a threat area they can switch on the current. Usually the warheads of anti tank weapons are made of copper. When they are fired they will penetrate the outer plate and break the insulation on the inner plate. A connection will be make causing huge amounts of amps of electricity to vaporize the warhead. While not the entire warhead is vaporized the portion that would enter the vehicle through the plates is. The rest of the warhead is dispersed against the outside plates. The amazing part of this whole process is that it requires about the same amount of electricity as is used to start a vehicle on a cold morning.

The British tested their new armor by giving a demonstration to a group of senior officers. They installed their new system on an army personal carrier. Next they fired at it repeatedly with rocket propelled grenades, some of which were fired point blank. It should have been destroyed, but survived. All damage was cosmetic and they were able to drive the vehicle.

One of the developers of this new armor, Prof. John Brown of the Defense Science and Technology Laboratory, which developed the Pulsed Power System at its R&D site at Fort Halstead, Kent, noted that there was much interest in this armor both in Britain and the U.S.