Boeing patents Star Wars style force shields for vehicles. This could be a major game changer. Their new technology incorporates high end sensors and laser beams to make plasma! This new shield technology is able to create a protective bubble near a vehicle preventing shock waves from hitting it full force.
Protective Bubble
From what we’ve seen so far, advanced sensors determine the direction of the oncoming damage, and the shield’s high intensity laser pulses, heats, and ionizes the air to make a plasma channel that reflects the shock wave energy. Potentially, you may not have to worry about getting hit while driving around in your jeep or military vehicle. We can easily see shield technology greatly increasing the survival rate in armed conflicts. Will this live up to our hopes?
Drawbacks
While this is awesome, it isn’t perfect. The shield mainly focuses on the shock wave and not the actual shrapnel coming at the vehicle. It’s also hard to gauge how successful this will be. Creating a big enough pocket of air might take a lot of energy. We might need a battery as big as the vehicle. It also sure would suck if you were standing in the area beside Boeing’s shield protected vehicle. You might just get zapped by the plasma.
We know bullets and other projectiles can be stopped by masses such as water. Any new technology that takes us in this direction would be helpful. We want to get to a point where it stops anything coming at us.
Other Shield Systems
While this isn’t the first shield style system, this does look to be the closest to energy shields we’ve seen. In In the past shielding was done by targeting an oncoming object and returning fire to it, similar to a shotgun shooting down missiles.
Applications
While this technology is often portrayed as protecting Humvee, it could also be carried over into any number of places; from buildings to aircraft carriers to the aircraft themselves. It might not be a perfect solution, but anything that lessens the damage from explosions will save lives and reduce the impact of warfare.
The Future Sounds Electrifying
Between magnetic catapults on aircraft carriers, rail guns and lasers, it really sounds like the future of military technology is going electric on many levels. The best part is that it lessens the amount of ammo and fuel needed. These technologies can potentially save a ton of lives and resources. Since it relies on energy production it can be endlessly powered with nuclear or renewable energy sources. With all these technologies used together, this could make a nearly impenetrable system, but we thought that about the death star too. What do you see as the next wave of military technology?
