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Message: <blockquote data-quote="dragoner" data-source="post: 8082576" data-attributes="member: 6943731"><p>Moving away from movies and on to RPG's, armored spacecraft are unrealistic due to penetrators such as from missiles or other projectiles having another order of magnitude higher velocity, which is very important in the KE=1/2mv^2 equation. Not only that in the typical architecture, there is an opening in the armor where the engine exhausts, and similar to jets, a fragmentary missile, destroying the engine, would have the armor concentrating the blast inside the vehicle. This could be somewhat countered by having the cabin away from the engine. The third negative is that armor would add mass, increasing fuel usage and probably limiting maneuverability where the agility of a vehicle would be its first defense against being hit. Also in the first case where a vehicle is struck by a hyper-velocity projectile, it is likely that the armor material could explode or splinter (spalling) sending fragments through the interior of the vehicle.</p></blockquote><p></p>