Rollers for the protection of tanks and armored vehicles

Tanks are mobile cannons whose goal is to quickly penetrate enemy territory and destroy as many enemy combat assets and personnel as possible with their fire.

Armored vehicles aim to reach the battle line as quickly as possible, and transport as many personnel as possible to the battle.

Both of these types of vehicles try to use thick armor to protect the crew from enemy fire coming from the front, from the side, or from above.

As the penetration power of anti-armor means increases, more and more is invested in the protection of tanks and armored vehicles. In addition to thicker steel plates, explosive plates are placed on the tanks, which reduce the effectiveness of cumulative impacts. But even that doesn't help with increasingly powerful rocket missiles. With the advent of drones, tanks and armored vehicles are increasingly threatened by attacks from above, and therefore canopies made of steel nets are increasingly placed on tanks and armored vehicles from above, which have the task of activating the enemy projectile as far as possible from the armor. Such networks can also hide the profile of the vehicle to make it as difficult to recognize as possible.

In order to protect a tank or an armored vehicle from the front and from the sides in the same way, it is possible to use large rollers that can have multiple functions. Such rollers would roll on the ground like discs used by tractors to shred and level the land. In doing so, they would activate anti-personnel and anti-armor mines, protect people behind the vehicle from shrapnel, and also protect the vehicle and the people inside the vehicle from the impact of enemy missiles.

This kind of protection system should have a large number of rollers about 2 meters high and about one meter wide that the vehicle would push or pull, and they would press the ground with their weight.

The system would consist of three elements.

The first element that would be placed in front of a tank or an armored vehicle would have at least 5 rollers placed so that their traces on the ground partially overlap, which can be seen in the pictures above.

The other two parts would serve for side protection. When driving to the battlefield, these two works would be placed behind the vehicle that would pull them along the road, which can be seen in Fig. 1.a. with a view from above and Fig. 1.b. with a side view. After arriving at the battlefield, these side parts would be placed on both sides of the vehicle, which can be seen in Fig. 2.a. from above and Fig. 2. b. from the side.

Such a front and side protection system would not consume much energy because it rests on the ground and rolls on it. Old waste tires and rims of large working machines or tractors with dimensions of 1.8 to 2 meters in height and up to 1 meter in width could be used as rollers. Such large tires are large and heavy enough to activate all kinds of mines, but thanks to their size, they would not fall apart in the process. They would be heavily damaged when an anti-armor mine was activated, but they would still be able to roll. Only after several explosions should they be replaced.