I found some pics of the M113 with slat armor on my friend's (Mike Sparks) website.
http://www.geocities.com/armorhistor...leupgrades.htm
The ballistic glass shield is a much better option than the chicken plate IMO. It was also interesting to see the M113 outfitted with a birdcage. However, I'll point out a few flaws in his propaganda bullets below the pics.
1. The M113 is 5" narrower than the Stryker, which has little room to spare on the sides in a C130. A M113 with additional hardened steel armor and then a birdcage will not fit in a C130. He doesn't make that specific claim, but his wording implies it IMO.
2. I haven't seen the specs of the RHA for the M113, but my guess is that it raises the protection of the M113 to 14.5mm. With the birdcage, you get an additional blast shield and then the slats, which raise your protection beyond 14.5mm for both the Stryker and the M113. Once again, careful wording leaves this out while implying that it provides better protection than the Stryker.
3. I'm having a hard time finding where you can store stuff on the outside below the hull and birdcage. Maybe he forgot those pictures. Now, if he wants to store additional stuff between the blast shields and the slats, he can go ahead, but I'm not sure why you would want to defeat your own slat armor yourself!?!?!? The slats work by catching the round between the slats and then breaking the fuze to prevent detonation. Obviously, this doesn't happen all the time, so when it does, the slat causes detonation of the shape charge away from the hull and the shape charge wastes energy penetrating the slat, the blast shield, and isn't focused as it strikes the hull, reducing the chance of full penetration and minimizing injuries in the event of penetration. Adding material between the blast shield and slats serves only to detonate those RPGs that are "caught" between the slats. If he wants a 100% chance of detonation, he can reach his goal by storing materials there.
However, I will stop there as I don't want to make anymore sacrilegious comments about "the greatest armored fighting vehicle of all time" (he's calling these "Super Gavins"). ;) In all seriousness though, I'm glad to see these upgrades reaching our soldiers in Iraq. These upgrades make the M113 equally survivable as the Stryker, which is especially great for the M113s that are with engineer units and are seeing action everyday on IED patrols.
http://www.geocities.com/armorhistor...leupgrades.htm
The ballistic glass shield is a much better option than the chicken plate IMO. It was also interesting to see the M113 outfitted with a birdcage. However, I'll point out a few flaws in his propaganda bullets below the pics.
1. The M113 is 5" narrower than the Stryker, which has little room to spare on the sides in a C130. A M113 with additional hardened steel armor and then a birdcage will not fit in a C130. He doesn't make that specific claim, but his wording implies it IMO.
2. I haven't seen the specs of the RHA for the M113, but my guess is that it raises the protection of the M113 to 14.5mm. With the birdcage, you get an additional blast shield and then the slats, which raise your protection beyond 14.5mm for both the Stryker and the M113. Once again, careful wording leaves this out while implying that it provides better protection than the Stryker.
3. I'm having a hard time finding where you can store stuff on the outside below the hull and birdcage. Maybe he forgot those pictures. Now, if he wants to store additional stuff between the blast shields and the slats, he can go ahead, but I'm not sure why you would want to defeat your own slat armor yourself!?!?!? The slats work by catching the round between the slats and then breaking the fuze to prevent detonation. Obviously, this doesn't happen all the time, so when it does, the slat causes detonation of the shape charge away from the hull and the shape charge wastes energy penetrating the slat, the blast shield, and isn't focused as it strikes the hull, reducing the chance of full penetration and minimizing injuries in the event of penetration. Adding material between the blast shield and slats serves only to detonate those RPGs that are "caught" between the slats. If he wants a 100% chance of detonation, he can reach his goal by storing materials there.
However, I will stop there as I don't want to make anymore sacrilegious comments about "the greatest armored fighting vehicle of all time" (he's calling these "Super Gavins"). ;) In all seriousness though, I'm glad to see these upgrades reaching our soldiers in Iraq. These upgrades make the M113 equally survivable as the Stryker, which is especially great for the M113s that are with engineer units and are seeing action everyday on IED patrols.
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