"Paul J. Adam" wrote in message
...
In message , Kevin
Brooks writes
"Paul Austin" wrote in message
. ..
Britain has done development on large capacitor banks that pass very
large currents through shaped charge jets hitting an armored vehicle,
melting the jet before it can hit the inner armo(u)r. They say that
scaled up versions might be able to do the same to long-rod
penetrators.

"Melt the jet"? OFCS, that jet is already at extremely high
temperature, courtesy of its being shoved inside out and pushed into a
"jet" moving at thousands of meters per second. "Melting" it does
nothing to change its mass, and it is the combination of that mass and
attendant velocity that makes a shaped charge (read up on the Munroe
Effect) work.

Well, the last I heard there were still people disputing the state of
matter the copper was at: something about etched patterns still existing
in the mass recovered after the blast...

It's an electrical effect. Dump a lot of electricity into the copper
jet, and you have current and motion: which produces a powerful magnetic
field, so the jet repels itself and flies apart. Or that's the way my
physics says it ought to work.

Heck, throw that kind of charge into the thing and electro-static
repulsion might be enough.