Innovative Cost-Effective Lightweight Transparent Armor for Vehicles

The objective of this SBIR project is to develop a novel lightweight and cost-effective transparent armor technology for M-ATV combat vehicle to replace current fielded heavy transparent armor to maximize the situational awareness. The technical objectives of this SBIR is to develop the transparent armor that achieves weight saving of more than 50%, thickness reduction, better optical properties, meeting ballistic requirements, cost increase less than three times, and meeting all operational requirements compared to the current fielded transparent armor. During the Phase I and Phase I Option, Frontier will demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed concept and innovation, identify and address the present technical hurdles, perform proof-of-principle validation as well as address the performance-cost, affordability, scalability, environmental suitability, and manufacturability issues. Moreover, the proposed transparent armor technology would be scalable to be used for any size of front or side window. The success in the Phase I effort will provide a solid foundation for the Phase II to conduct extensive performance validations for the proposed novel lightweight and low cost transparent armor technology for combat vehicles.