Composite armour is a type of vehicle armour consisting of layers of different materials such as metals, plastics, ceramics or air. Most composite armours are lighter than their all-metal equivalent, but instead occupy a larger volume for the same resistance to penetration. It is possible to design composite armour stronger, lighter and less voluminous than traditional armour, but the cost is often prohibitively high, restricting its use to especially vulnerable parts of a vehicle. Its primary purpose is to help defeat high-explosive anti-tank (HEAT) projectiles.
A bulletproof vest, also known as a ballistic vest or bullet-resistant vest, is a type of body armour designed to absorb impact and prevent the penetration of firearm projectiles and explosion fragments to the torso. The vest can be either soft—as worn by police officers, security personnel, prison guards, and occasionally private citizens to protect against stabbing attacks or light projectiles—or hard, incorporating metallic or para-aramid components. Soldiers and police tactical units typically wear hard armour, either alone or combined with soft armour, to protect against rifle ammunition or fragmentation. Additional protection includes trauma plates for blunt force and ceramic inserts for high-caliber rounds. Bulletproof vests have evolved over centuries, from early designs like those made for knights and military leaders to modern-day versions. Early ballistic protection used materials like cotton and silk, while contemporary vests employ advanced fibers and ceramic plates. Ongoing research focuses on improving materials and effectiveness against emerging threats.
Terminal ballistics is a sub-field of ballistics concerned with the behavior and effects of a projectile when it hits and transfers its energy to a target.
Chobham armour is the informal name of a composite armour developed in the 1960s at the Military Vehicles and Engineering Establishment, a British tank research centre on Chobham Lane in Chertsey. The name has since become the common generic term for composite ceramic vehicle armour. Other names informally given to Chobham armour include Burlington and Dorchester. Special armour is a broader informal term referring to any armour arrangement comprising sandwich reactive plates, including Chobham armour.
Armor-piercing discarding sabot (APDS) is a type of spin-stabilized kinetic energy projectile for anti-armor warfare. Each projectile consists of a sub-caliber round fitted with a sabot. The combination of a lighter sub-caliber projectile with a full-caliber propellant charge allows for an increase in muzzle velocity compared to full-caliber rounds, giving the round increased armor-penetration performance. To further enhance their armor-penetration capabilities, APDS rounds typically feature a hardened core made from tungsten or another hard, dense material.
A flak jacket or flak vest is a form of body armor. A flak jacket is designed to provide protection from case fragments ("frag") from high explosive weaponry, such as anti-aircraft artillery, grenade fragments, very small pellets used in shotguns such as the "Birdshot", and other lower-velocity projectiles. It is not designed to protect against bullets fired from most small arms such as rifles or handguns. However flak jackets are able to sustain certain gunshots, depending on the angle at which the shot was fired, the caliber of the bullet, the speed of the projectile and the range from which the shot was fired.
Military vehicles are commonly armoured 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.
Body armor, personal armor, armored suit (armoured) or coat of armor, among others, is armor for a person's body: protective clothing or close-fitting hands-free shields designed to absorb or deflect physical attacks. Historically used to protect military personnel, today it is also used by various types of police, private security guards, or bodyguards, and occasionally ordinary citizens. Today there are two main types: regular non-plated body armor for moderate to substantial protection, and hard-plate reinforced body armor for maximum protection, such as used by combatants.
Bulletproofing is the process of making an object capable of stopping a bullet or similar high velocity projectiles. The term bullet resistance is often preferred because few, if any, practical materials provide complete protection against all types of bullets, or multiple hits in the same location, or simply sufficient kinetic (movement) energy to overcome it.
Gold Flex is a non-woven fabric manufactured by Honeywell from Kevlar, and is often used in ballistic vests and body armor. Gold Flex is lighter than woven Kevlar, Twaron and other Ballistic material. Gold Flex is a laminated material consisting of cross-laid, non-woven fibers in a resin matrix. The fibers are laid straight and not in a woven fabric configuration. When an object strikes this material, a "web" of its clusters absorb the impact and minimizes penetration.
A ballistic plate, also known as an armour plate, is a protective armoured plate inserted into a carrier or bulletproof vest, that can be used stand-alone, or in conjunction with other armour. "Hard armour" usually denotes armour that uses ballistic plates.
Aluminium oxynitride is a transparent ceramic composed of aluminium, oxygen and nitrogen. Aluminium oxynitride is optically transparent (≥ 80%) in the near-ultraviolet, visible, and mid-wave-infrared regions of the electromagnetic spectrum. It is four times as hard as fused silica glass, 85% as hard as sapphire, and nearly 115% as hard as magnesium aluminate spinel. It can be fabricated into transparent windows, plates, domes, rods, tubes, and other forms using conventional ceramic powder processing techniques.
Laminated glass is a type of safety glass consisting of two or more layers of glass with one or more thin polymer interlayers between them which prevent the glass from breaking into large sharp pieces. Breaking produces a characteristic "spider web" cracking pattern when the impact is not enough to completely pierce the glass.
A ballistic shield, also called a tactical shield or bulletproof shield, is a protection device deployed by police, paramilitaries, and armed forces that are designed to stop or deflect bullets and other projectiles fired at their carrier. Ballistic shields also protect from less serious threats such as thrown items. Ballistic shields are similar to riot shields, but offer greater protection and are typically used by special units or in situations where riot shields would not offer adequate protection.
The Improved Outer Tactical Vest (IOTV) is an enhanced version of, and a replacement for, the older Outer Tactical Vest (OTV) component of the Interceptor multi-threat body armor system, as fielded by the United States Army beginning in the mid-2000s. The IOTV is compatible with the Deltoid and Axillary Protector System (DAPS) components, ESAPI, Enhanced Side Ballistic Inserts (ESBI), as well as the OTV's groin protector. A flame-resistant standalone shirt, the Army Combat Shirt (ACS), was designed in the late 2000s specifically for use with the IOTV.
Ceramic armor is armor used by armored vehicles and in personal armor to resist projectile penetration through its high hardness and compressive strength. In its most basic form, it consists of two primary components: A ceramic layer on the outer surface, called the "strike face," backed up by a ductile fiber reinforced plastic composite or metal layer. The role of the ceramic is to (1) fracture the projectile or deform the projectile nose upon impact, (2) erode and slow down the projectile remnant as it penetrates the shattered ceramic layer, and (3) distribute the impact load over a larger area, which can be absorbed by ductile polymer or metallic backings. Ceramics are often used where light weight is important, as they weigh less than metal alloys for a given degree of resistance. The most common materials are alumina, boron carbide, and, to a lesser extent, silicon carbide.
Twin-wall plastic, specifically twin-wall polycarbonate, is an extruded multi-wall polymer product created for applications where its strength, thermally insulative properties, and moderate cost are ideal. Polycarbonate, which is most commonly formed through the reaction of Bisphenol A and Carbonyl Chloride, is an extremely versatile material. It is significantly lighter than glass, while managing to be stronger, more flexible, and more impact resistant. Twin-wall polycarbonate is used most commonly for green houses, where it can support itself in a structurally sound configuration, limit the amount of UV light due to its nominal translucence, and can withstand the rigors of daily abuse in an outdoor environment. The stagnant air in the cellular space between sheets provides insulation, and additional cell layers can be extruded to enhance insulative properties at the cost of light transmission.
Ballistic eyewear is a form of glasses or goggles that protect from small projectiles and fragments. For the U.S. military, choices are listed on the Authorized Protective Eyewear List (APEL). Ballistic eyewear including examples that meet APEL requirements are commercially available for anyone who wishes to buy it. The history of protective eyewear goes back to 1880 and extends through to World War I and the present. There are three standards that are currently used to test the effectiveness of ballistic eyewear. These include a U.S. civilian standard, a U.S. military standard (MIL-PRF-31013), and a European standard.
The polyurethane urea elastomer (PUU), or poly elastomer, is a flexible polymeric material that is composed of linkages made out of polyurethane and polyurea compounds. Due to its hyperelastic properties, it is capable of bouncing back high-speed ballistic projectiles as if the material had “hardened” upon impact. PUUs were developed by researchers from the U.S. Army Research Laboratory (ARL) and the Army’s Institute for Soldier Nanotechnology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to potentially replace polyethylene materials in body armor and other protective gear, such as combat helmets, face shields, and ballistic vests.
