Hybrid Lightweight Protective Body Armor with Impact Absorption and Passive Thermal Management

This SOCOM Phase I effort will use a unique combination of new materials to construct a superior and lightweight body armor. The research team brings together innovative technologies and products being developed by three experienced small business: fabric woven from SPECTRA fiber with a Neoprene matrix to prevent spalling; composite body armor products for an NIJ Level III+ System with hardened titanium plates; and an impact-absorbing material called the Hybrid Air Cushioning System (HACS). This Phase I will investigate the feasibility of uniting these elements into a new protective garment that is lightweight, provides advanced ballistics protection, has anti-spalling capability, and can provide a significant amount of impact and thermal protection. This latter feature would be provided by the HACS material, which provides approximately twice the impact absorption for half the weight of other materials by laterally deflecting as much as 50% of mechanical impact energy. In addition, HACS can be combined with microencapsulated phase change materials in fabrics and foams to provide an enormous enhancement in thermal cooling. An optimized combination of these materials is expected to provide superior protection together with both transient and reversible cooling comfort to the wearer.