Light Weight Armor

This invention relates to materially lighter weight armor designed particularly for aircraft where weight is of vital importance.

Standard steel armor due to the excess weight involved is not adaptable for protection of aircraft.

It is therefore the object of this invention to provide ceramic armor which is materially lighter and affords better protection than standard steel armor against small arms projectiles.

Such armor comprises a composite material consisting of a ceramic facing and a reinforced plastic back-up bonded together to produce a single plate in which the facing is extremely hard and frangible while the back-up is composed of a relatively tough resilient material. When a mass or a projectile strikes the facing of the composite plate and shatters the hard ceramic layer cracks and in so doing distributes the impact over a relatively wide area so that the impact force per unit is substantially reduced. The hard ceramic layer serves as a means of breaking up the projectile and also provides a means for distributing the impact. On the other hand, the resilient back-up material absorbs the excess force, if any, by converting it into kinetic energy and resisting penetration by the fragments of the projectile and the facing material.

In the drawing:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the composite protective armor plate in accordance with this invention;

FIG. 2 is a top view of the same plate as it appears after the impact of a projectile such as caliber 0.30 APM2; and

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view taken along the 3--3 line of FIG. 2.

Reference is made to the illustration shown in FIG. 1, in which a shield 10, penetration resistant to a projectile or its fragments, is composed of a facing of hot pressed magnesium oxide-glass ceramic, a material that is hard and frangible and is backed-up by a tough resilient plate 11 of fiberglass-reinforced plastic laminate. The facing 10 and the back-up plate 11 are bonded together with a flexible silicone rubber adhesive (not illustrated) to form a composite plate.

FIG. 2 is a representation showing the cracking of the frangible shield 10 after impact with a projectile which is shattered on contact with the hard ceramic facing. This figure is intended to depict the overall cracking of the shield 10 which spreads the impact force over a greater area than metallic armor and therefore greatly reduces the impact force per unit area.

FIG. 3 shows the penetration of the cracked shield 10 by the shattered projectile wherein the resilient back-up plate absorbs any excess energy from the force of impact together with any fragments from the facing and the projectile.

As a practical application of this lighter weight ceramic armor, it was tested for durability against a projectile, such as caliber 0.30 APM2 with the APM2 denoting Armor Piercing Modification 2. The thickness of the ceramic facing is the minimum required to shatter the projectile and spread its force of impact over a large area while the thickness of the back-up material is also the minimum necessary to support the facing and dissipate the excess energy of impact and the resulting fragments for sufficient resistance to penetration and a satisfactory performance. Such a performance was obtained by using a composite of a hot pressed hard facing of 92% magnesium oxide plus 8% glass with a thickness of 0.360 inches bonded to a reinforced plastic back-up material with a thickness of 0.50 inches. It should be noted that the cracking of the face plate on impact to spread and reduce the impact force per unit area results in a reduction of excess force per unit area to be absorbed by the back-up plate. Thus the action of the face plate materially reduces the requirements of the back-up plate. The face plate then, has a capability of performing a three-fold function, namely, the shattering of the projectile, the cracking to reduce the impact force per unit area, and the proportionate reduction of the excess force to be absorbed by the back-up plate which reduces the requirements for that plate. Complete protection is afforded by this composite with an area density of 11.8 pounds per square foot against caliber 0.30 APM2 projectile at point blank range and standard muzzle velocities. Results showed that the composite ceramic armor has a resistance appreciably higher than that of standard steel armor, such as a "merit rating" of 1.7, which is defined as the ballistic limit of the candidate armor divided by the ballistic limit of standard steel armor having an equal area density.

Aluminum-oxide fiberglass reinforced composites have been evaluated and the substitution of aluminum oxide for magnesium oxide has been found to be equally adaptable and suitable for this type of armor.

In the foregoing, the preferred embodiment of this invention has been disclosed. However, it is not intended that this invention be limited to the specific examples set forth above, as it will be apparent to those skilled in the art, that the proportions of the ingredients may be varied and a variety of equivalent substances may be employed without departing from the spirit of the invention or exceeding the scope of the appended claims.