ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Spaced armor

Imagine you're playing a game of tag, and someone tries to tag you. But instead of just running away, you put up your hands to protect yourself. That's kind of like what spaced armor is.

In tanks and other armored vehicles, there are often different layers of armor protecting the vehicle. Spaced armor is basically a type of armor where there's a space between the outer layer (like the hands that you put up) and the inner layer (like your body).

The idea is that if a weapon hits the outer layer, the force will be spread out over a larger area because of the space. If the weapon is powerful enough to break through the outer layer, it will lose some of its energy because of the space, so it will do less damage to the inner layer.

It's kind of like if you have two pillows on your bed – if you throw a ball at one pillow, it won't go very far. But if you throw the same ball at two pillows stacked on top of each other, it won't go as far because the second pillow slows it down.

So, spaced armor is a way to make armored vehicles even more protected from weapons. Pretty cool, huh?