History Main / ArmoredCoffins

* ''VideoGame/IntoTheBreach'': Without the Medical Supplies upgrade, which takes up a slot and is not guaranteed to be available, a pilot whose mech goes down is dead. If you have a spare pilot due to a fortunate space pod or completing all objectives on an island, they can take over in the next battle; otherwise, the mech will be run by an AI that doesn't gain experience. [[spoiler:Averted with the Secret Squad, which consists of cyborg Vek and doesn't have pilots; instead, the mechs lose experience when killed.]]

* The M1A4 Juggernaut from ''LightNovel/EightySixEightySix'' rightfully earns its "aluminum coffin" nickname. Its paper thin armor doesn't even protect against machine gun fire. It is also woefully outgunned by the opponents it usually faces, with its main armament barely even scratching some of the heavier Legion units. Its one saving grace is that the lack of armor makes it surprisingly agile. However, the majority of pilots don't survive long enough to learn how to properly utilize this. Unfortunately, the Republic of San Magnolia sees nothing wrong with the Juggernaut, [[UriahGambit because they never intended for any of the pilots to survive the war]].

* ''VideoGame/{{Warframe}}'' introduced the Railjack mission type, where players fly their own custom gunboats around in space to fight enemies. Neither Corpus nor Grineer fighters seem to feature any thought for crew safety--the Corpus out of [[DeathByMaterialism a desire to make as much profit as possible and even cutting important corners to do so]] and the Grineer out of [[WeHaveReserves a general disregard for the well-being of any specific soldier, as they have millions to call upon]].

* The [[AMechByAnyOtherName Para-Mails]] from ''Anime/CrossAnge'' might as well be called '''Un'''armored Coffins, as not only do they lack ejection seats, but in [[TransformingMecha flight mode]], the cockpit is ''completely open air''. More than one pilot has been killed in the series by a direct shot to their exposed body.

** Russian armor traditionally was always designed for the large, WWII-style conflict where the most pressing concern was NBC protection, so its mine resistance wasn't anything to write home about — [=APCs=] were envisioned to be advancing behind the tank columns, equipped with the mine trawls and interspersed with the combat engineering vehicles that would dig up or detonate the mines. So when most conflicts fought by the Soviet and then Russian Army since [[UsefulNotes/SovietInvasionOfAfghanistan Afghanistan]] turned out to be relatively low-intensity counter-insurgency warfare, where the anti-tank mines and [=IEDs=] were used by everyone and their little dog too, but the mine trawls and forward engineering recon proved impractical for each and every column, only for the largest and most important ones, up to forcing the logistics to switch into convoy mode, sitting ''inside'' the vehicle was seen as more dangerous than on top of it (it also gave the soldiers better field of view to try to notice any possible ambush). Only by TheNewTens did the Russian military have the time and money to develop their own MRAP vehicles.

* The M1A4 Juggernaut from ''LightNovel/EightySixEightySix'' rightfully earns its "aluminum coffin" nickname. Its paper thin armor doesn't even protect against machine gun fire. It is also woefully outgunned by the opponents it usually faces, with its main armament barely even scratching some of the heavier Legion units. Its one saving grace is that the lack of armor makes it surprisingly agile. However, the majority of pilots don't survive long enough to learn how properly utilize this.

** Inverted with the Daboku assault 'mech, a FlawedPrototype of the later, much more successful, MAL-1R Mauler. Due to an entertaining failure in the 'mech's CASE systems, merely striking the 'mech in the ammo storage area would automatically engage the 'mech's automatic ejection system, leading to its pilots accidentally ejecting even when in no particular danger. When the Daboku was rushed into battle, this led to pilots often invoking the trope by disengaging the automatic ejection system, as this was seen as preferable to a 'mech that would be rendered inoperable by a single lucky hit. [[note]]The ejection system issue is one part to fix a ContinuitySnarl and one part a MythologyGag to the Battletech Animated Cartoon and it's Toyline. The Mauler Battlemech was in the Cartoon and the Toyline and had a button that would be pressed to launch it's pilot out of it's mech. However it's inclusion messed up the timeline as the Mauler was introduced into the timeline later than when the cartoon and sourcebook was. So they made the Daboku being the prototype of the near identical Mauler added in the ejection system issue both as a joke and explanation.[[/note]]

** Shermans earned a number of derogatory nicknames (most notably "The Tommycooker", [[BlackHumor after a WWI portable field stove]]) for their propensity to catch fire, leaving the crew with only seconds to get out of the tank after a penetrating hit. This was due to both the fact that early versions of the M4 didn't have water jackets for the ammo storage and fuel tanks, and that British crews using lend-leased tanks tended to use them like their own "cruiser" tanks: they haphazardly stuffed tons of extra ammo AND fuel into their tanks wherever it would fit. They increased this way both the range and ammunition capacity, but also increased the odds of it getting set off when taking a hit. To make matters worse, the first version of the M4 that was sent to North Africa had armor that was held in place by rivets. When hit by enemy fire, these rivets tended to break off and ricochet around the interior of the tank at high velocity, creating deadly shrapnel. Both problems were quickly fixed- the ammo was given wet storage and the riveted armor was replaced by welded armor, at which point the Sherman gained a reputation as being one of the safest tanks being used by any army: its roomy interior made it easy to move around in and every member of the crew had their own dedicated escape hatch, so in the event of an emergency it was very easy to evacuate.

** Inverted with the Daboku assault 'mech, a FlawedPrototype of the later, much more successful, MAL-1R Mauler. Due to an entertaining failure in the 'mech's CASE systems, merely striking the 'mech in the ammo storage area would automatically engage the 'mech's automatic ejection system, leading to its pilots accidentally ejecting even when in no particular danger. When the Daboku was rushed into battle, this led to pilots often invoking the trope by disengaging the automatic ejection system, as this was seen as preferable to a 'mech that would be rendered inoperable by a single lucky hit. [[note]]The ejection system issue is one part to fix a ContinuitySnarl and one part a MythologyGag to the Battletech Animated Cartoon and it's Toyline. The Mauler Battlemech was in the Cartoon and the Toyline and had a button that would be pressed to launch it's pilot out of it's mech. However it's inclusion messed up the timeline as the Mauler was introduced into the timeline later than when the cartoon and sourcebook was. So they made the Daboku being the prototype of the near identical Mauler added in the ejection system issue both as a joke and explanation.]]

** Inverted with the Daboku assault 'mech, a FlawedPrototype of the later, much more successful, MAL-1R Mauler. Due to an entertaining failure in the 'mech's CASE systems, merely striking the 'mech in the ammo storage area would automatically engage the 'mech's automatic ejection system, leading to its pilots accidentally ejecting even when in no particular danger. When the Daboku was rushed into battle, this led to pilots often invoking the trope by disengaging the automatic ejection system, as this was seen as preferrable to a 'mech that would be rendered inoperable by a single lucky hit.

** Shermans earned a number of derogatory nicknames (most notably "The Tommycooker", [[BlackHumor after a WWI portable field stove]]) for their propensity to catch fire, leaving the crew with only seconds to get out of the tank after a penetrating hit. This was due to both the fact that early versions of the M4 didn't have water jackets for the ammo storage and fuel tanks, and that British crews using lend-leased tanks tended to use them like their own "cruiser" tanks: they haphazardly stuffed tons of extra ammo AND fuel into their tanks wherever it would fit. They increased this way both the range and ammunition capacity, but also increased the odds of it getting set off when taking a hit.
** On the positive side if a Sherman was was hit, it was relatively easy to escape. The Soviet equivalent, T-34, was notoriously cramped and unergonomic, and difficult to escape. It is estimated some 85% of the Sherman tankers whose tank was hit were able to escape, whilst only 18% of T-34 tankers could. [[DidNotThinkThisThrough Having the entry hatch on glacis]] (in the middle of the inclined frontal armour) certainly did not increase the odds of survival.

** Similarly, early in its service-life the ''Lucifer'' aerospace fighter went through a redesign to repair major structural flaws, and one of the ‘fixes’ required ''deleting the ejection system''. Given that the type ended up spending more than five ''centuries'' as the Lyran Commonwealth’s mainstay medium fighter, one can only imagine how many pilots ended their careers (and lives) [[DramaticSpaceDrifting helplessly careening off into deep space]] as a result.

* All the planes in ''VideoGame/AceCombat3Electrosphere'' are piloted via a so-called COFFIN ([[FunWithAcronyms COnnection For Flight INterface]]) system, which is a kind of neural interface that allows you to steer them with your brain but has no ejection seats whatsoever.

* The Douglas [=A3D=] Skywarrior, a carrier based jet bomber designed as a nuclear strike aircraft, received a morbid take on its designation of "[=A3D=]": All Three Dead. The aircraft had a crew of three in a cockpit with no ejection seats and a single exit hatch under the nose; should the aircraft go into the water, none of the crew would be able to escape. This coupled with the difficulty of flying the aircraft around the carrier led to a bad reputation.

** This is also one of the downsides of conventional combat vehicles in the game and setting. Simply put, by default 'Mechs and fighters have ejection seats...and tanks and helicopters ''don't''. Extreme compartmentalization (and a somewhat armored cockpit) means a battlemech can lose limbs without severe risk to the mechwarrior, while most tanks would have their crew compmartments breached once that heavy Autocannon round pushes the flank armor to breaking point, thus giving the poor crew a facefull of autocannon death. At the same tonnage, the same autocannon shell that would knock an arm off a battlemech would tear a hole in a tank's side, killing the crew.

** This is also one of the downsides of conventional combat vehicles in the game and setting. Simply put, by default 'Mechs and fighters have ejection seats...and tanks and helicopters ''don't''. Extreme compartmentalization (and a somewhat armored cockpit) means a battlemech can lose limbs without severe risk to the mechwarrior, while most tanks would have their crew compmartments breached once that heavy Autocannon round pushes the flank armor to breaking point, thus giving the poor crew a facefull of autocannon death.

** Some of the classical 3025 battlemechs, due to the lack of CASE protection and poor placement of torso-mounted ammo stores, acquired nasty reputations as walking "Ammo Bomb" mechs due to how susceptible they are to critical hits to their ammo storage - when torched, that entire ton of SRM ammo will not only obliterate the body section it happens in, it will spill over into adjecent components (Read: the rest of the torso compartments), gutting the engines. In rare cases, the blast will also travel up to the cockpit, ejecting the mechwarrior's soul straight to Heaven. The downgraded Marauder 3R, which lacks the CASE blast protection of the SLDF Royal Marauders, is infamous for the ton of Autocannon ammo in one side torso without any other systems sharing space, so crits to that section of the mech [[MadeOfExplodium can only do one thing]].

** Some of the classical 3025 battlemechs, due to the lack of CASE protection and poor placement of torso-mounted ammo stores, acquired nasty reputation as walking "Ammo Bomb" mechs due to how susceptible they are to critical hits to their ammo storage - when torched, that entire ton of SRM ammo will not only obliterate the body section it happens in, it will spill over into adjecent components (Read: the rest of the torso compartments), gutting the engines. In rare cases, the blast will also travel up to the cockpit, ejecting the mechwarrior's soul straight to Heaven. The downgraded Marauder 3R, which lacks the CASE blast protection of the SLDF Royal Marauders, is infamous for the ton of Autocannon ammo in one side torso without any other systems sharing space, so crits to that section of the mech [[MadeOfExplodium can only do one thing]].

* ''Tabletopgame/BattleTech'' is a notable aversion, as most pilots will survive the destruction of their 'Mech even if they have to ride it down when it goes over, and all 'Mechs are equipped with sophisticated [[EjectionSeat automatic ejection systems]] in the event of ammunition explosion or reactor containment loss. Similarly, since their armor is ablative, most suits of power armor can be reduced to failing wrecks that daylight can be seen through, but you still have to take one more shot to kill the person wearing it. Aerospace fighters have reliable ejection systems as well, though recovery has to be on hand if the pilot bails out in space.

** This is also one of the downsides of conventional combat vehicles in the game and setting. Simply put, by default 'Mechs and fighters have ejection seats...and tanks and helicopters ''don't''.

** Mechs with head mounted weapons have a bad reputation of getting their pilots killed, since the additional armor and power supply systems can interfere with the ejection system blowing the lid off the proverbial can. To properly illustrate the resulting issue, imagine a rocket propelled tomato plowing into a slab of metal.