DARPA Iron Curtain Vehicle Protection System

[bobbymike]

This is just way cool

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnAmPEjsOGw&feature=player_embedded

It shows what "computer fast" means, wow. Imagine a future where a robot can detect, mitigate and respond with offensive fire in thousandths of seconds against a RPG wielding insurgent or sniper.

 

[mithril]

was someone playing [url=http://cnc.wikia.com/wiki/Iron_Curtain_(Red_Alert_1)command and conquer red alert when naming this thing?

 

[saintkatanalegacy]

I wonder if the top area would be vulnerable

 

[Grey Havoc]

I wonder if the top area would be vulnerable

In it's current configuration, against RPGs and older generation ATGMs it would appear to be quite effective. Against missiles and other munitions with a top attack capability, it would be another story, although they are probably working on that.

 

[bcredman]

I wonder if the top area would be vulnerable

In it's current configuration, against RPGs and older generation ATGMs it would appear to be quite effective. Against missiles and other munitions with a top attack capability, it would be another story, although they are probably working on that.

According to https://www.artisllc.com/iron-curtain/ the Improved Iron Curtain (I2C) has "Top- and side-attack protection, providing full hemispheric coverage"

 

[bcredman]

I worked on Iron Curtain's optical sensor tracking algorithms in the early concept development stages of the project at the Army Research Laboratory.

Since we could not fire RPGs or other live rounds in the lab, for the early lab experiments we used crossbow fired arrows to test out the optical sensors and their associated tracking and measurement (projectile dimensions and velocity vector) algorithms that we were developing.

I also set up and operated the high speed video cameras that we used to provide the "truth" data to compare to the experimental results from the optical sensor data processed by our algorithms.

The lab looked rather interesting with the crossbow on a tripod at one end of the lab and bales of straw at the other end, with an optical table covered with sophisticated optical and electro-optical equipment between them.

 

[TomS]

The lab looked rather interesting with the crossbow on a tripod at one end of the lab and bales of straw at the other end, with an optical table covered with sophisticated optical and electro-optical equipment between them.

I'm imagining the Range Safety Officer when the crossbow was loaded. "Range is taut!"

 

[bcredman]

The lab looked rather interesting with the crossbow on a tripod at one end of the lab and bales of straw at the other end, with an optical table covered with sophisticated optical and electro-optical equipment between them.

I'm imagining the Range Safety Officer when the crossbow was loaded. "Range is taut!"

Great comment! I love your replacement of "hot!" with the near rhyme of "taut!" I wish I had thought to say that during the experiments.

Unlike at actual test ranges, in the lab there was no Range Safety officer. Since it was a laser lab, we just turned on the flashing red light that indicated do not enter while we were performing the experiments, and there was no entry point "down range" forward of the plane of the crossbow. Nobody was allowed to be forward of the plane of the crossbow when it was loaded.