Beaten to the punch: improved protection of military personnel carriers

One thing I can never see myself getting involved with is military design. Apart from not having any training or experience in military matters, I have grave ethical concerns about the on-selling of surplus defence materiel, and some of the overseas wars we have been involved in .

Having made that point, I have, however, idly speculated about some defence related matters - such as how to make more effective armour on personnel carriers. My thoughts were along the lines of providing funnels to direct blasts from mines upwards and through a more armoured area of the vehicle (picture, if you will, something like a hummer with, say, four pipes going upwards through the vehicle and angled armour below - a bit like the South African defence vehicles with the massive "keel" underneath them from the days when the evil apartheid regime was in power), protective areas around each crew member/passenger (a bit like the seat armour that used to be used on fighter pilot seats during he Second World War). I had speculated that, maybe, the thing to do design wise was to design the vehicle to be able to take enough blast to be able to be turned over/lifted: however, that isn't likely to work because of the speed of the blast wave.

I'd also thought about using some sort of electromagnetic field to deflect bullets or shells, but that is likely to involve a massive electrical source, probably most effective against relatively light weight projectiles (i.e. bullets) for which effective armour already exists. (Some of the armour available on tanks is quite ingenious - such as reactive armour, and someone has come up with "electrically charged armour".)

However, I've been beaten to the punch. Someone has designed a vehicle where there are protective cupolas for the crew/passengers, and good armour.

I thought I had saved the link, but now I cannot find it. Darn.

Oh well, here's a few links that might be of use:

• Australian troops offered new ride: the Hawkei AAP, via "The Age" September 29, 2009
  
• Battle on to build safer war vehicle Brendan Nicholson The Age September 30, 2009