Vehicle armour
Military vehicles are commonly armoured (or armored; see spelling differences) to withstand the impact of shrapnel, bullets, shells, rockets, and missiles, protecting the personnel inside from enemy fire. Such vehicles include armoured fighting vehicles like tanks, aircraft, and ships.
Civilian vehicles may also be armoured. These vehicles include cars used by
Armour may also be used in vehicles to protect from threats other than a deliberate attack. Some spacecraft are equipped with specialised armour to protect them against impacts from micrometeoroids or fragments of space debris. Modern aircraft powered by jet engines usually have them fitted with a sort of armour in the form of an aramid composite kevlar bandage around the fan casing or debris containment walls built into the casing of their gas turbine engines to prevent injuries or airframe damage should the fan, compressor, or turbine blades break free.[1]
The
Materials
Metals
Steel
Aluminium
Iron
Wrought iron was used on ironclad warships. Early European iron armour consisted of 10 to 12.5 cm of wrought iron backed by up to one meter of solid wood. It has since been replaced by steel due to steel being significantly stronger.
Titanium
Uranium
Because of its high density, depleted uranium can also be used in tank armour, sandwiched between sheets of steel armour plate. For instance, some late-production M1A1HA and M1A2 Abrams tanks built after 1998 have DU reinforcement as part of the armour plating in the front of the hull and the front of the turret, and there is a program to upgrade the rest (see Chobham armour).
Plastic
Plastic metal was a type of vehicle armour originally developed for
Plastic armour was highly effective at stopping
Some main battle tank (MBT) armour utilises polymers, for example polyurethane as used in the "BDD" applique armour applied to modernized
Glass
Bulletproof glass is a colloquial term for glass that is particularly resistant to being penetrated when struck by bullets. The industry generally refers to it as bullet-resistant glass or transparent armour.
Bullet-resistant glass is usually constructed using a strong but
The polycarbonate layer, usually consisting of products such as Armormax,
Bullet-resistant glass constructed of laminated glass layers is built from glass sheets bonded together with polyvinyl butyral, polyurethane or ethylene-vinyl acetate. This type of bullet-resistant glass has been in regular use on combat vehicles since World War II; it is typically about 100–120 mm (3.9–4.7 in) thick and is usually extremely heavy.
Newer materials are being developed. One such, aluminium oxynitride, is much lighter but at US$10–15 per square inch is much more costly.
Ceramic
Composite
Composite armour is armour consisting of layers of two or more materials with significantly different physical properties;
Composite armour used on modern Western and Israeli main battle tanks largely consists of non-explosive reactive armour (NERA) elements - a type of Reactive armour. These elements are often a laminate consisting of two hard plates (usually high hardness steel) with some low density interlayer material between them. Upon impact, the interlayer swells and moves the plates, disrupting heat 'jets' and possibly degrading kinetic energy projectiles. Behind these elements will be some backing element designed to stop the degraded jet or projectile element, which may be of high hardness steel, or some composite of steel and ceramic or possibly uranium.
Soviet main battle tanks from the
Ships
Belt armour is a layer of armour-plating outside the hull (watercraft) of warships, typically on battleships, battlecruisers, cruisers and some aircraft carriers.[12]
Typically, the belt covers from the deck down someway below the waterline of the ship. If built within the hull, rather than forming the outer hull, it can be fitted at an inclined angle to improve the protection.
When struck by a shell or torpedo, the belt armour is designed to prevent penetration, by either being too thick for the warhead to penetrate, or sloped to a degree that would deflect either projectile. Often, the main belt armour was supplemented with a torpedo bulkhead spaced several meters behind the main belt, designed to maintain the ship's watertight integrity even if the main belt were penetrated.
The air-space between the belt and the hull also adds buoyancy. Several wartime vessels had belt armour that was thinner or shallower than was desirable, to speed production and conserve resources.
Deck armour on aircraft carriers is usually at the
Aircraft
Armour plating is not common on aircraft, which generally rely on their speed and maneuverability to avoid attacks from enemy aircraft and ground fire, rather than trying to resist impacts. Additionally, any armour capable of stopping large-calibre anti-aircraft fire or missile fragments would result in an unacceptable weight penalty. So, only the vital parts of an aircraft, such as the
Armoured fighting vehicles
The most heavily armoured vehicles today are the
tanks were designed in a way that each tank component functions as added back-up armour to protect the crew. Outer armour is modular and enables quickly replacing damaged parts.Layout
For efficiency, the heaviest armour on an
Spall liners
Beginning during the
Appliqué
Appliqué armour,[14] or add-on armour, consists of extra plates mounted onto the hull or turret of an AFV. The plates can be made of any material and are designed to be retrofitted to an AFV to withstand weapons that can penetrate the original armour of the vehicle.[15][16] An advantage of appliqué armour is the possibility to tailor a vehicle's protection level to a specific threat scenario.
Improvised
Vehicle armour is sometimes improvised in the midst of an armed conflict by vehicle crews or individual units. In
Spaced
Armour with two or more plates spaced a distance apart, called spaced armour, has been in use since the
The analogous Whipple shield uses the principle of spaced armour to protect spacecraft from the impacts of very fast micrometeoroids. The impact with the first wall melts or breaks up the incoming particle, causing fragments to be spread over a wider area when striking the subsequent walls.
Sloped
Sloped armour is armour that is mounted at a non-vertical and non-horizontal angle, typically on tanks and other armoured fighting vehicles. For a given normal to the surface of the armour, its plate thickness, increasing armour slope improves the armour's level of protection by increasing the thickness measured on a horizontal plane, while for a given area density of the armour the protection can be either increased or reduced by other sloping effects, depending on the armour materials used and the qualities of the projectile hitting it. The increased protection caused by increasing the slope while keeping the plate thickness constant, is due to a proportional increase of area density and thus mass, and thus offers no weight benefit. Therefore, the other possible effects of sloping, such as deflection, deforming and ricochet of a projectile, have been the reasons to apply sloped armour in armoured vehicles design. Another motive is the fact that sloping armour is a more efficient way of covering the necessary equipment since it encloses less volume with less material. The sharpest angles are usually seen on the frontal glacis plate, both as it is the hull side most likely to be hit and because there is more room to slope in the longitudinal direction of a vehicle.
Reactive
Explosive reactive armour, initially developed by German researcher Manfred Held while working in Israel, uses layers of
Non-explosive reactive armour is an advanced spaced armour which uses materials which change their geometry so as to increase protection under the stress of impact.
Active protection systems use a sensor to detect an incoming projectile and explosively launch a counter-projectile into its path.
Slat
Slat armour is designed to protect against
Electric armour
Electric armour is a recent development in the United Kingdom by the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory.[21][22][23][24][25][26][27] A vehicle is fitted with two thin shells, separated by insulating material. The outer shell holds an enormous electric charge, while the inner shell is at ground. If an incoming HEAT jet penetrates the outer shell and forms a bridge between the shells, the electrical energy discharges through the jet, disrupting it. Trials have so far been extremely promising, and it is hoped that improved systems could protect against KE penetrators. The developers of the Future Rapid Effect System (FRES) series of armoured vehicles are considering this technology.[citation needed]
See also
- Active protection system
- Armoured fighting vehicle
- Armoured forces
- Main battle tank
- Non-military armoured vehicles
- Personal armour
- Plastic armour
References
- ^ "Containment Device: Transport Armor: Pinnacle Armor – Body Armor and Armoring Products". Pinnacle Armor. Archived from the original on September 28, 2011. Retrieved 2012-01-29.
- ^ "Buckypaper armour". Slipperybrick.com. 2008-10-19. Archived from the original on 2012-02-17. Retrieved 2012-01-29.
- ^ "Lightweight aluminum foam armour plates". Ntnu.no. Archived from the original on 2012-09-05. Retrieved 2012-01-29.
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- ^ Administrator, System (2009-01-27). "Advanced armour steel". The Engineer. Retrieved 2020-09-16.
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- ISBN 978-0-7106-2686-8.
- ISBN 978-1-4728-4817-8.
- )
- ^ "T80 Tank Characteristics". Military Analysis Network. Federation of American Scientists. Retrieved 1 October 2023.
- ^ United States Marine Corps (1995). Soviet/Russian Armor and Artillery Design Practices: 1945-1995 (Report). Quantico, VA: Marine Corps Intelligence Activity. pp. I-92−I-93. Retrieved 1 October 2023.
- ^ those converted from other warships
- ^ Katzman, Joe (2007-04-26). "In Praise of Senator Biden: Survivable Rides for the Troops". Winds of Change.NET. Archived from the original on 2008-05-18. Retrieved 2012-01-29.
- ^ Oxford English Dictionary "appliqué, n. and adj: "Ornamental needlework in which small decorative pieces of fabric are sewn or stuck on to a fabric or garment to form a pattern or trim; the practice of this as a technique or activity; (also) (a piece of) decoration or trim made in this way. Also in extended use in metalwork, and fig". adj. "Of fabric or a garment: decorated by sewing or sticking on small pieces of fabric to form a pattern or trim; (of decoration, trim, etc.) attached in this way".
- ^ Gary W. Cooke Combat Vehicle Protection Archived 2009-02-04 at the Wayback Machine 1 August 2004. cites "FM 3-22.34 TOW Weapon System." and "FM 5-103 Survivability."
- ^ US Patent 6962102 - Armour constructions Archived 2011-04-29 at the Wayback Machine US Patent Issued on November 8, 2005. PatentStorm Archived 2009-02-01 at the Wayback Machine, Retrieved 2009-02-04
- ^ a b Moran, Michael. "Frantically, the Army tries to armour Humvees: Soft-skinned workhorses turning into death traps," MSNBC, April 15, 2004.
- ISSN 0004-2528
- ^ "Slat Armour for Stryker". Defense-Update. 2006. Archived from the original on 2012-01-30. Retrieved 2012-01-29.
- ^ "BAE's LROD Cage Armor". Defense Industry Daily. 2011-03-15. Archived from the original on 2012-01-29. Retrieved 2012-01-29.
- ^ U.S. Military Uses the Force Archived 2013-04-09 at the Wayback Machine (Wired News)
- ^ 'Star Trek' shields to protect supertanks Archived 2008-01-04 at the Wayback Machine (The Guardian)
- ^ "'Electric armour' vaporises anti-tank grenades and shells". Archived from the original on 2008-04-23. Retrieved 2018-11-18.
- ^ MoD Develops 'Electric Armour' Archived February 17, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "New Age Electric Armour – Tough enough to face modern threats". Armedforces-int.com. Archived from the original on 2009-05-02. Retrieved 2012-01-29.
- ^ "Add-On – Reactive Armor Suits". Defense-Update. 2006-04-25. Archived from the original on 2012-01-26. Retrieved 2012-01-29.
- ^ "Advanced Add-on Armor for Light Vehicles". Defense-Update. 2006-04-25. Archived from the original on Apr 1, 2018. Retrieved 2012-01-29.