John Kettler Posted January 6, 2010 Share Posted January 6, 2010 Was watching Howe & Howe on Discovery tonight, through which I learned the firm made the world's smallest armored vehicle--the Guinness World Record holding Badger PAV-1 (Personal Armored Vehicle), used for door breaching (only 33" wide) by one SWAT agency already. The show tonight focused on an uparmored, refined version with full Kevlar spall liner. Took a point blank frontal hit from .50 cal. API (shrugged off everything smaller) and, though the steel armor was holed, the Kevlar stopped all the fragments. Testing vs. explosives included an F1 type grenade detonated in contact with the side mounted door (no effect), a stick of dynamite nearby (no effect to occupant), and even several sticks, which blew up the Badger, but left the occupant "alive" (within survivable G limits). So, for only $50,000 + builder's markup your can make your wife proof against practically all the idiot drivers out there. And did I mention it also climbs stairs? In any event, the Howe & Howe Technologies shop is nearby, in Kittery, Maine. I think, though, you'd love the Ripsaw. While designed to be a UGV, I'm sure you'd want to drive it yourself. Looks like a hoot! If she asks, it's an M-29 retriever. Regards, John Kettler 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Kettler Posted January 7, 2010 Author Share Posted January 7, 2010 Here's the uparmored, spall liner equipped Badger. Lucked out in that someone just uploaded footage without adding earsplitting heavy metal rock. Regards, John Kettler 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gautrek Posted January 7, 2010 Share Posted January 7, 2010 I think there may be a design flaw.Like the fact there seems to be 2 holes in the front plate. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Kettler Posted January 8, 2010 Author Share Posted January 8, 2010 gautrek, I thought at first you might be talking about headlight cutouts, but now I see what you mean. I can't remember, though, what that looked like during the actual firing, nor could I tell you what the vision arrangements were, either. Believe the vision slots had an armored cover bolted over the front. Maybe the real armored transparencies are TBD and secondary to the larger armor survivability issue. Am fairly sure the firm can find someone who makes .50 cal tolerant vision ports. Were I doing it, I'd be sorely tempted to make use of pinhole TV cameras in lieu of direct view optics. That would greatly simplify the vision problem, is dirt cheap and would make the thing even scarier, a la the Immortals' veils in 300. Regards, John Kettler 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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