Battelle to develop composite armor

UPI ^ | 08/03/07

[nypokerface]

COLUMBUS, Ohio, Aug. 3 (UPI) -- Ohio-based Battelle has announced plans to develop composite armor with the ability to protect soldiers from explosively formed projectiles.

The company expects its advanced material system, a customized composite that includes metals, ceramics, reinforcing and patented binders, to better protect military forces against the growing threat of EFPs on the ground in combat zones.

Battelle has licensed the armor to South Carolina-based Protected Vehicles Inc. for use in their trademarked ShieldAll armor system. The company claims its new material composite system is lighter, less bulky, multi-hit capable and made of readily available materials.

"The ShieldAll breakthrough means tailoring the armored vehicles to the threat in the region. This can extend the productive life of the vehicle, and reduce maintenance costs," its co-developer, Scott Versluis, a commercialization manager at Battelle, said in a statement.

The modular armor solution can be adapted to various threats for ease of installation, repair, replacement and modification. In testing at two government facilities in Maryland the ShieldAll system stopped multiple armor piercing projectiles exceeding a 7.62 millimeter threat. Company officials say the combined system is capable of stopping threats from 50 caliber armor piercing rounds to multiple EFP threats.

"Battelle has been with us from the beginning, and we are excited to be working with them on this breakthrough," Garth Barrett, president and chief executive officer of Protected Vehicles Inc., said in a statement. "We see a tremendous opportunity to save lives with this advanced vehicle protection solution at a time when it is greatly needed."

[ASOC]

One can only hope this stuff is EFP resistant - if so, we can hope this makes it to the troops the soonest.

If it is hype, well, I guess we’ll just to wait and see.

Sounds like a cousin to Chobham armour —

a composite armour developed in the 1960s at the British tank research centre on Chobham Common. Although the exact composition of Chobham armour remains a secret, it appears to be a composite armour of ceramic tiles within a matrix that is layered between steel armour plating, a combination that is excellent at defeating high explosive anti-tank (HEAT) rounds. Possible ceramics for such armour are: boron carbide, silicon carbide, aluminium oxide (sapphire or “alumina”), aluminium nitride, titanium boride or Syndie, a synthetic diamond composite.