Development of Ballistic Protection Concepts for Critical Aircraft Wiring

The development effort will be divided into two major tasks: develop and evaluate candidate protection concepts, and investigate and evaluate armor materials to be used in the concepts. There are unique ballistic protection concepts and armor materials which we will evaluate. We intend to consider, as a minimum, flexible and rigid armoring concepts. The flexible concepts are based on Simula's patented cable armor developed for the Army's M109 Self-Propelled Howitzer and M1A1 Abrams tank. The patented design consists of a series of common interlocking links that thread together to form a flexible cable armor. The rigid concepts involve the use of rigid half-cylinder sections that, when assembled together, completely encase and protect the wiring. We intend to consider conventional ballistic ceramics and composites as well as more advanced materials such as cermets and metal matrix composites and less conventional transparent armors. This effort will be performed by the team of Simula, Inc., and Materials and Electrochemical Research (MER) Corporation. Simula's experience in cable armor development and ceramic composite armor development, combined with MER's experience in the manufacture of advanced cermets and metal matrix composites will ensure the best, lightweight, low-cost armor for critical aircraft wiring.