DARPA Seeks Novel, Lightweight Armor - The Post Chronicle

Security&Terrorism: DARPA Seeks Novel, Lightweight Armor - The Post Chronicle

DARPA Seeks Novel, Lightweight Armor
by UPI Wire
Feb 14, 2006

WASHINGTON, Feb. 10, 2006 (UPI) -- The Pentagon is looking for innovative new materials and techniques to armor military vehicles against AK-47s and armor-piercing rounds.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has opened a year-long competition for proposals called the "Armor Challenge." It is aimed primarily at inventors and small businesses which do not have the resources to initiate full-scale armor programs.

The novel armor designs are meant to offer a 50 percent reduction in weight compared with the current generation of rolled homogenous armor. DARPA would also like the new armor to be the same price or less costly than RHA.

DARPA identifies three threats the armor should protect against: (1) 7.62x39mm ball round (AK-47), (2) 7.62mm armor piercing round, and (3) 0.50 caliber fragment simulating projectile (FSP).

Proposals selected by DARPA to produce samples of the armor will be expected to deliver three 18-inch square panels for each of the threats. Competitors can offer different panels or weights for each threat, but DARPA favors a single system.

New, lighter weight armor has become of particular interest in the last three years, as standard Humvees have had to be reinforced with armor to protect troops from roadside bombs and small-arms fire in Iraq and Afghanistan. The added weight on the vehicles -- not initially designed to carry the 2,000 extra pounds, is wearing out the shock absorbers, breaks and other systems, and causes them to use more fuel. The weight also makes them more difficult to transport on and off the battlefield.

Copyright 2006 by United Press International