Aren't flame retardant materials pretty common these days?

What I'd do is chuck a huge load of ninja throwing stars at 'em first, to rip it to shreds. :)

I think their "cloth" might be fairly flame-resistant; the company also makes things like airbags for automotive use and smoke-curtains for aircraft.

Flames (hopefully not though)

i imagine this super high tech cloth is fireproof, shirley.

all the women in Afghanistan wear burkas.

my old greatcoat would stop a bullet.

The one with ceramic tiles in the pockets

Hey Lewis, are you feeling OK? I do believe this is the first article I've seen penned by you which is complimentary, rather than distinctly disparaging! A change for the better - more please!

I'll wager the vertical stripes could be quite slimming for your armoured kit!

So we are basically fitting tanks with Kilts!

This has been tried in a different war at a different time.

The predecessor of wire bars was stand-off ceramic plating developed by Russians and Germans in WW2. It was abandoned for a very simple reason - machine guns could easily damage it to a point where it will no longer protect against sabots and shaped charges.

So in fact it is a bit too early to say goodbye to good old wire bars and hello to cloth ones.

Granade... Old fashioned one (in the absence of RPG17 icon).

See title

(There's no way it's not flame retardant though)

I never knew RPGs were shaped charges, always thought they were "dumb".

Does it work against CBU-97 skeets?

You'd hope that they have specified fire retardant cloth.

The more relevant question would seem to be how many warheads it can take before being torn into shreds and a comparison with the bars.

Obviously.

As for "first incendiary, then detonator, then piercing" round as proposed by Clostermann --- well, that's making it all rather fragile and complicated (if you realize the average weapon is an IED, this may be too much engineering and retrofitting effort).

It wouldn't normally work, as it wouldn't get the protection out of the way fast enough. So you want a small explosive that pushes the protection away, then the detonator-plus-piercer... both to be delivered in the same place, close after each other but not too close. You're in Quake-weapons territory with that.

The best protection of course would be to bring the troops home.

Unless, of course, they do something tricky like use flame retardant or fireproof fabric.

..when I can wear RPG proof trousers. Not that I have any need for them where I live as RPGs flying through the air is a rare* event. However you never know when Skynet will unleash its mechanical horrors upon us**, its best to be prepared as no man wants a jet of molten copper to the dangly bits!

Good Job boffins!

* never in recorded history

** Sorry, but I just wanna use the new terminator piccy thing!

Why use fire,

Hit the thing with a AK47 firing in auto mode, will cut the cloth into shreds that the RPG will then go through. The thick "chicken mesh" currently used is very hard to hit with the AK47.

The article does say the cloth has to be taught to work, after being hit with from the AK47, it won't be taught.

...touching cloth.

Mine's is the one with Andrex Super Absorbent in the pocket....

Popular guy.

from a meteor strike just using some cloth!

No wonder the Talliban wear turbans.

Bring a new meaning to the armour crews Afghanistan experience..

So, with all these references to afghanistan...how many tanks have been lost to RPGs there?

er, none. Contrast that to how many troops have died because they didn't have the basics, like body armour? Not better to spend the money where it would protect the most number of soliders, rather than the highest value kit?

Many troops lost to homebrew shaped charges and assorted booby traps,friendly fire and so forth, but the numbers of taliban who will attempt to take on a tank are tiny and diminishing - basic darwinism at play.

Not saying the cloth isn't effective in that one situation, but give it a week and some bright spark at will have invented a two stage RPG. 'tis the way the arms industry works; a self perpetuating cycle of bigger guns, better armour, bigger guns...ed-209 enforcement 'bot in a frock, shark in a waistcoat with frickin lasers

Surely that should be TARTAN "textile based" vehicle protection system. If it's good enough for the Devils In Skirts...

I'd go for a nice velvet leopard print number, darlings.....

Maybe he is being complimentary because this is not the usual story of a defence firm blatantly

ripping off the British taxpayers to provide inferior and highly expensive kit to our troops.

Look forward to BAE buying them up, replacing the cloth with wet tissue paper and charging

a 100K per square meter to ensure future British technical expertise in the field :S

....touching cloth.

that is all.

... is the Eurofighter = Bad angle?

There is a pic on the Times. It looks like a bunch of sofa cushions.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article6570369.ece

MOD meets DFS, buy one get one free. Do they have it in blue leather?

Paris, coz she knows how to stop a missile whilst lying seductively on a cushion

At the speeds involved most materials act as a fluid. The safest way to avoid damage is to have non ablative layers of angled material of increasing density that will refract incoming munitions. Candyfloss then bubblewrap, taut textiles, wood and then steel. Fluffy tanks!

We're talking about tanks here, they can move a lot of weight... I'm guessing you would still need a top and bottom rail to hold the cloth up and away from the armor. So the only weight this is saving is the middle part of the cage, which I believe they can make out of aluminum anyways... So I don't really get how much weight they are saving. 40lbs... on a tank? It's still in you way as far as maintenance etc. Although it would make a nice pet project I guess? Maybe 40lbs is worth whatever extra this stuff costs, I'm no military strategist.

And don't call me Shirley... Honestly, what are readers up to these days?

What's wrong with good old Kevlar? Or a kevlar-nomex mix?

Thankfully we don't need this in "chav-ville" yet.

But by the time the tellybannies (say Eh oh!) have fired enough rounds to make it useless the APC's will probably have enough time to use their Heavy Machine Gun on them... or called in an airstrike or make a cup of tea and then take them out with a few mortar rounds...

mines the one with the Kevlar inserts and the militarily colours....