Lightweight Ballistic Armor for Military Aircraft

Excera Materials Group, Inc. has developed a novel material for hard ceramic armor strike faces -- ONNEX. This proven material has an unprecedented balance of low specific gravity, high hardness, elastic stiffness, and strength, and has passed Army specifications for lightweight body armor. As a result of these highly successful trials and demonstrated effectiveness, Excera is currently delivering on commercial orders for immediate use in hostile theaters. One of the important advantages of the Excera manufacturing approach is that has the requisite agility to form complex shapes or execute short production runs easily. This manufacturing advantage will be used to form complex multifunctional components that can be integrated into advanced structural designs, including aircraft seats, decks, and bulkheads, that provide significant ballistic protection with minimal compromises in weight over current structural components. The first phase of this program will design and ballistically validate effective armor system architectures that are comprised of ONNEX strike faces, high molecular weight polymer spall shields, and low-density metal foams to diffuse the shock to the impact zone. In the option period, complex shapes and structural components directly representative of aircraft seating will be produced and tested.