Improved Complex Curved Armor Development

This program will introduce an Improved Complex Curved (IC3) armor for vehicle and personal protection.  The program will begin by evaluating and developing the computational capability for the military in understanding the effects of ceramic armor shapes on performance and protection.  This will include performing computations (using the EPIC code developed at Southwest Research Institute [SwRI]) to evaluate the ability to model ballistic impacts into shaped ceramic structures.  The computed results will be compared to ballistic tests performed by JNI Armor to assess accuracy and robustness.  If accuracy and robustness are determined to be acceptable than computations will be used to optimize protection for shaped ceramic armor as well as understand capabilities of existing designs.  This technology will then be used for both military and law enforcement body armor systems, as well as shaped ceramics for rotorcraft programs.