High Temperature Lightweight Composite Armor for AAA Vehicles

Improved ballistic protection is needed at some areas of the Advanced Amphibious Assault (AAA) vehicles that the temperature exceeds the service temperature of the current ballistic materials, 250 degrees F. Parts of the AAA vehicle may be exposed to over 500 degrees F in the event of an exhaust failure for tens of hours. Current lightweight armor would have significant reduction in ballistic capability at this temperature. In this SBIR Phase I project we propose to develop a new lightweight composite with service temperature up to 500 degrees F for ballistic protection against 20 mm fragment simulating projectile (FSP). This new composite armor will be particularly useful for operating in AAA vehicles environment. It will have excellent performance for ballistic resistance between 25 and 500 degrees F, desert sand blowing, salt-water immersion, and soaking in petroleum based fluids. The areal density of the composite will be between 11 and 15 pound/square-feet. Our related research results indicated that our lightweight armor composite can defeat high velocity fragment at 6200 fps (STANAG 4496) and .50 Caliber AP M2 round (2745 fps). The proposed composite armor with judicious choice of materials can result in even lower areal density with improved high temperature ballistic protection and environmental durability. It will satisfy the requirements for AAA vehicles applications.