British military boffins developing 'Star Trek'-style force-field armour

British military scientists are in the process of developing a space-age "force field" capable of protecting armoured vehicles and tanks by repelling incoming fire.

Using pulses of electrical energy to repel rockets, shrapnel and other ammunition, the new type of armour will provide protection to vehicles, reports The Telegraph.

According to scientists at the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl), which is the research and development arm of the Ministry of Defence, it's possible to incorporate material known as supercapacitors into armour of a vehicle to turn it into a kind of giant battery.
 
Professor Bryn James, head of Dstl's armour and protection science and technology centre, said, "The supercapacitor material can be charged up and then discharged in one powerful event to repel incoming fire.

"You would think this would require huge amounts of energy, but we have found it can be done with surprisingly small amounts of electrical power. Conventional armour is just a lump of metal but an RPG round can punch through more than a foot of steel. Carrying around enough armour to protect against that is extremely heavy. The real advantage to the electric armour is how light it can be by comparison."