"Ask for everything at once," they said. "What could go wrong," they said.
Design: Magnetic Reactive Armor
2-2,1,2-3
The Magnetic Reactive Armor is an ugly creation with extremely little functionality.
Currently, the only version of MRA exists in a secure lab on Amaok. The actual plating is relatively small - roughly 5x5 meters. Yet connected to this plating is a huge complex and unreliable system straining the lab's power grid to provide a meager effect. Most of the machinery is simply capacitors required to provide sufficient power to the superconductor as well as machinery providing the adequate conditions for the superconductor to operate. This scales nearly directly with the size of the armor plating, so even if this was the only problem, the only theoretically possible scenario of use for MRA is shielding a small but very important building with extreme amounts of underground infrastructure running the MRA.
The superconductors first require a large power supply in order to provide something somewhat like the desired effect - this is where the majority of the power is required. We had zero experience in metallic hydrogen superconductors and therefore had to choose more traditional methods require cooling, taking up another chunk of power.
The armor is three layers: A conductive layer being supplied a constant charge by nearby power generators, an inert insulating layer, and the superconductive layer constantly being kept below its critical temperature. When a projectile breaks the insulating layer, it connects the two outer layers. The system is configured to detect this, and capacitors immediately discharge their entire energy supply through the superconducting layer to create an electromagnetic pulse, slowing the projectile. But in another cruel twist of fate, we've been unable to optimize the pulse and it very negatively impacts any nearby electronics. It's not a particularly strong EMP blast, but it's quite notable and would be a problem if ever deployed.
The entire mechanism draws power from a city-class grid, and takes about thirty minutes to charge between pulses.
Disregarding all its problems, we've been able to do limited firing tests replicating Moerthi bolters. The armor helps against both bullets and Moerthi bolters. Bullets' armor piercing is drastically reduced as they slow in speed and theoretically even without armor, the survival rate of troops could increase. Bolters should begin exploding either inside or outside the armor, rather than past it. Though with bolters we still recommend heavy armor in conjunction with a functional version of the MRA.
It's... fixable. We'd need a better superconductor, like perhaps that metallic hydrogen superconductor some lead designers were talking about. If this superconductor is developed, we could try incorporating it into the MRA design. Then we'd also need to fix the EMP issue. With all this done, we would then ideally focus on increasing its protective capabilities.
But now, it's useless. Yet it has potential. If correctly harnessed, this could provide a huge advantage
Our lack of experience in superconductors hit us extremely hard here. We may have knowledge of superconductors and how they work, but in this project we essentially just tried to slap standard superconducting circuits onto armor plating.
Magnetic Reactive Armor: A useless piece of high-tech armor which attempts to slow incoming projectiles using magnetic pulses. Superconductors generate an electromagnetic field when hit by a projectile, slowing it. But it notably decreases armor piercing of projectiles and requires extreme amounts of heavy equipment set up behind it, making it nonviable for anywhere but a lab environment. A constant charge must be provided to the outside plate, the superconductors must be constantly cooled, and capacitors have to provide energy to create the electromagnetic effect. Can only generate a pulse every thirty minutes, given access to a city-scale power grid.
It is now the Revision Phase of 2210.
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Topic: Planetary Arms Race - Amaok, Strategy Phase 2212 (Read 35222 times)