Novel Armor Counter-RPG Systems

By mechanically attacking the nose/warhead of a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG), one can render the RPG into a purely kinetic projectile rather than an explosive one. This can be achieved by shearing the nose fuze, collapsing the ogive, or disrupting the explosive itself. While a 2.5 kg projectile at up to 300 m/s is a sizeable kinetic projectile, it can be defeated by the armor of Stryker and Bradley vehicles as well as other vehicles with add on armor packs. Such packs are typically capable of defeating the shaped charge itself, so augmentation is required. Nomadics has been funded by DARPA to explore a concept called Iron Curtain that uses automatically fired projectiles to defeat RPGs. However, in the course of this work, we have devised other strategies that have the potential to defeat RPGs. In the proposed effort, we will investigate these concepts, which involve passive and semi-passive methods. Based on discussions with the sponsor and experiments conducted under this project, we will assess the effectiveness of these concepts and make recommendations for continued development of the more promising. This furtherance of the effort beyond proof-of-concept would be the subject of Phase II.