A liquid armour has been shown to stop bullets in tests carried out by UK scientists at BAE systems in Bristol.
The researchers have combined this “shear-thickening” liquid with Kevlar to create a new bullet-proof material.
The company is keeping the chemical formula of the liquid a secret, but it works by absorbing the force of the bullet strike and responding to it by becoming much thicker and more sticky.
The BAE scientists describe it as “bullet-proof custard”.
“It’s very similar to custard in the sense that the molecules lock together when it’s struck,” explained Stewart Penny, business development manager in charge of materials development at the company…
“In standard bullet-proof vests, we use thick, heavy, layered plates of Kevlar that restrict movement and contribute to fatigue,” said Mr Penny.
In the tests, scientists used a large gas gun to fire ball bearing-shaped metal bullets at over 300 metres per second into two test materials – 31 layers of untreated kevlar and 10 layers of kevlar combined with the shear-thickening liquid.
“The Kevlar with the liquid works much faster and the impact isn’t anything like as deep,” he explained.
Pretty cool. But will it stop a fricken laser?
Pretty cool. But will it stop a fricken laser?
Just slow it down…about 3-4 femtoseconds.
Or, there’s this company in Fresno. They make body armor with an array of circular disks. Stops multiple attempts of ye olde AK-47 hole puncher from ventilating the inner support structure (that would be the human interface). Now…paint the discs with a reflective material, in essence converting the disks into an array of mirrors. Eh, voila! Fricken laser hits vest. Burns off cool looking exterior camouflage material. One fricken laser + one mirror disk array = one cool looking laser light show.
Should add another…oh, 6-8 femtoseconds to survival of human interface. Just enough additional time to allow the well trained operator to deploy his fabulous fricken laser defense shield (think Batman’s bullet proof shield here).
Okay. Enough genius thoughts for one day. Outa here…
Mirrors are okay, but I think Prestone XXI mixed with custard body armor would be better.
Transfer the heat to the radiator/power storage and generator/rucksack. Not only would a laser shot be defeated, and the trooper survive, but the energy could be used to heat an MRE and cool a celebratory beverage to commemorate the brush with death!
Just put a cmo screen over the mirrors. When you see the laser fire, just lift the screen to reflect the laser then go about your business of killing and breaking things.
By the time you see the laser fire, the beam would already be there. The information that it has fired travels at the same speed as the beam.
Soldiers are trained to react quickly.
Fantastic stuff, this… and not just for warfighters. Think of a motorcycle outfit that goes rigid should you strike pavement at speed.
Straight out of SciFi – Larry Niven described similar in his “Ringworld” novels.
Mongo, if memory serves, the Fresno armor you mentioned is called “Dragonskin.” Pinnacle Armor is the maker.
That would be the one. Thanks!
Beat me to it, sarge. And didn’t the Army claim it was worthless on the basis of tests now widely thought to have been rigged by the Army in yet another case of NIH syndrome combined with poss. payoffs by current provider? Any update? Anyone?
DA claimed Dragonskin failed the “Knife Penetration” test, although no knife penetration tests were conducted, no knife penetration resistance was specified in the RFP, and Dragonskin users in LEA have since testified to Dragonskin’s *superiority* in resisting knife penetration.
Said revelations all accompanied by a deafening silence from DA…
Much like during procurement of the Advanced Scout Helicopter, when Bell announced that the aircraft couldn’t meet crashworthiness standards or the requirement for 2+30 flight endurance with a 20-minute reserve, DA deleted the requirements. Or procurement of the BFV, when the manufacturer said it couldn’t meet the requirement for protection against RPGs, DA merely deleted the requirement that the Bradley’s armor be proof against RPGs.
Yeah, there have been questions about the claims v. reality, recalls, failures in testing. It may be a good idea, but it sounds as if it got overhyped based on too few tests.
Here is the Army report on it – http://www.professionalsoldiers.com/files/dragon_skin_release_000121may07.pdf
And from Wikipedia Dragon Skin became the subject of controversy with the U.S. Army[16] over testing it against its Interceptor body armor. The Army claimed Pinnacle’s body armor was not proven to be effective. In tests run for the Air Force there were multiple failures to meet the claimed level of protection. This coupled with poor quality control (over 200 of the 380 vests delivered to USAF OSI were recalled due to improperly manufactured armor disks) and fraudulent claims of official NIJ rating which Pinnacle had not actually obtained at the time of purchase led to the termination of the USAF contract. Pinnacle attempted to appeal this decision, but courts found in favor of the USAF. (ref: http://docs.law.gwu.edu/asbca/decision/pdf2009/55831.pdf)
On April 26, 2006 Pinnacle Armor issued a press release to address these claims and a product recall instigated by the United States Navy.[17] The company stated that although vests were returned due to a manufacturing issue, a test on the Dragon Skin Level III armor was conducted by the United States Air Force Office of Special Investigations at a U.S Army Aberdeen Test Center in Aberdeen, Maryland in February 2006, which concluded that it did not fail any written contract specifications set forth by the navy [18], which was further stated by Pinnacle Armor to require high ballistic performance due to the hostile environments in which AFOSI operates.[19]
Weapon review website Defense Review also published an article similarly dissenting, noting that in their test and review of the Dragon Skin armor, they had found that it was “significantly superior in every combat-relevant way to U.S. Army PEO Soldier’s and U.S. Army Natick Soldier Center (NSC)/Soldier Systems Center’s Interceptor Body Armor”[20]
In other news, we were just told to inspect our IBA and kevlar brain buckets.
Some bad Interceptor Body Armor is running around loose. Several *thousand* sets…
That is what happens with lowest bidder, or maybe no bid. Back in the 70s i think it was, I read that the Italians took all the bids, threw out the high bid (looking for the gravy train), threw out the low bid (likely based on shoddy materials, and counting on being able to bill more for fixing a problem), then averaging the rest and taking the one closest to that average. They held contractors to the contract specs. Didn’t pay for cost overruns unless they were caused by changes by the government made in the specs. Still sounds reasonable to me.
Gunny Ermey tested the vest with the AK-47 & MP-5. Gave it his seal of approval.
Other tests I’ve seen have me convinced that that’s the vest I’ll be wearing into the ‘Ugly Zone, or I’ll stay home a watch a WWE on TV.
One factor not included in most of the test results is the lighter overall weight of the Dragonskin vest.
Imagine if they could incorporate the liquid part with some sort of refrigerator and keep the soldiers cool as well.
V5! Long time no see!
Now, wouldn’t that be a dandy solution?
There’s that stuff VX drinks, much cheaper, and after a few rounds you’re quite certain of your invincibility.
FbL
Multiple rounds of chemo and radiation over the last two years has kept me mostly hospitalized or bed-ridden. I am now, officially, cancer free once again… but seriously working on my strength and other health issues. Chemo does a huge number on healthy people, even worse for me.
V5
Good luck to you.
Had been wondering where you were. Praying you get your strength back soon!
V5, Best wishes and prayers to you and yours.
Next up? Wearable MRE’s.
Neal Stephenson – Snow Crash. Sintered ArmorGel. Used in both motorcycle gear as well as by skateboard kouriers. (yes I meant to spell it that way.)
You should read his latest, “Anathem.” It’ll rock yer brain, once you figure out what he’s doing there. It is, among other things, about Platonic Ideals leaking through from cosmos to cosmos. He also makes fun of popular culture on Earth, in a left-handed kind of way. The people from the Ringing Vale culture on that planet bear a very suspicious resemblance to US Marines. That’s not surprising; Stephenson seems to like Marines.
I’m thinking it’s just the old cornstarch and water trick from grade school. . .still, if it works. . .
Before anyone gets too excited about this latest miracle armor, let’s look at some facts.
First, watch the video. Now I’m not a ballistics expert, but the “31 layers of
BLAST it. Hit the Tab key somewhere and prematurely posted. I hate when that happens!
Anyway.
Before anyone gets too excited about this latest miracle armor, let’s look at some facts.
First, watch the video. Now I’m not a ballistics expert, but the “31 layers of untreated Kevlar” looks a lot like literally 31 discrete sheets of Kevlar, not a compound mass.
Second, they keep calling the projectile a “bullet.” It isn’t. It’s a frickin’ ball bearing. Mmmkay?
Finally, let us reference the muzzle velocity of some typical rounds. The .308 Winchester can vary from 790 m/s to 860 m/s. 7.62x51mm NATO rounds run between 790 m/s & 850 m/s. 5.54x45mm NATO rounds vary from 905 m/s to 940 m/s. (hat tip to Wiki) This group the
bulletsball bearings into the target at “over” 300 meters/second.Firing a round ball bearing at “over” 300 m/s is not remotely comparable to firing a genuine spitzer bullet at far greater muzzle velocities.
Color me very, very unimpressed. When they star firing spitzer-shaped rounds at actual rifle speeds, I might start paying attention.
Custard ain’t gonna work. The demonstration showed energy dissipation *after* the kevlar stopped the ball bearing.
A rifle bullet will zip right through 10 layers of kevlar — unless you stick a quarter-inch plate of Chobham armor in the middle…
I went across the street to the Army Aviation Museum while I was awaiting elimination from flight school. There were several pictures from Vietnam showing bullets that had been stopped by body armor. A couple were 12.7mm bullets. One of teh piucs was of an Aussie pilot and showed the bruise on his chest. I’m sure it hurt like the devil, but the alternative was ghastly.
Do you remember what those vests in Vietnam were made of?
The good ol’ chicken plate was made of ceramic poured over alternating layers of ballistic nylon and thin steel mesh, backed with a quarter-inch steel plate. That was inserted into a ballistic nylon carrier — the whole thing weighed 30 pounds.
It would stop a 7.62×39 at point blank (I’m living proof, and it *did* leave a helluva bruise) but a 12.7mm would go through it like a hot knife through butter. The only time a chicken plate would stop a 12.7mm or 14.5mm would be if it was at the extreme end of it’s range. I helped pull what was left of the pilot out of his seat seats after he took a hit in the chicken plate from a 14.5mm — he was at 3,000 feet…
%$#@!
“…out of his *seat* after he took a hit…”
We knew what you meant
In the pic the guy was holding the bullet his vest stopped. It was about 50 cal, which would make it a 12.7. It would be kinda hard to know how far it had travelled when it hit him.
How would/does the 12.7 perform against the current version of body armor with a trauma plate?
BillT:Practically every FAC in Vietnam/Laos used two “chicken-plates”: One to wear and one to SIT ON!
*Actually, it varied quite a bit. Some didn’t wear/sit on any, while others only inserted on seat once on station, going without going on and off station. Long periods sitting on those things even with pad made for a sore derrier..
My gunner and crewchief would do the two-chickenplate trick, too. I’d give them a heads’-up three minutes from an LZ and they’d use a plate wrapped in a flak jacket as a cushion to sit on. Never heard a word of complaint from either of them…
Reported aboard Esteem in 88 and found that the rules then required snipes to wear those things in the engine rooms while in the minefields. It was 110-120 degrees down there and wearing them was pointless, futile and stupid. It stopped after I reported aboard. When I came back in 89 they weren’t even on the ship anymore.
Well, yeah, you can wear heavy armor which is almost, but not quite, bullet-proof, while riding in motorized transportation. Walking around while wearing it, though? Hell, even the regular infantry armor may have caused some heatstroke among the troops.
I mind H. Beam Piper quoting Shakespeare in “Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen.”
“A rich armor, which scalds with safety.”
Hell, I want me some of that liquid-cooled underwear the Apollo astronauts wore, under my leathers if I ever get on a motorcycle again!
“In the tests, scientists used a large gas gun to fire ball bearing-shaped metal bullets at over 300 metres per second into two test materials – 31 layers of untreated kevlar and 10 layers of kevlar combined with the shear-thickening liquid.”
Interesting test – 300m/sec. Considering that most infantry rifles produce somewhere in the neighborhood of 1000m/sec muzzle velocity, I wonder why they chose a test at 1/3 the expected MV that the vest would encounter in the field?
Does sound like the opposite of the British Aviation people who were doing bird strike research using an air cannon and frozen Turkeys. The fearsome damage they were getting caused them call in our FAA types who laughed and told them to thaw the birds first.
Of course, if you look back in Lex’s archive, he posted some pretty fearsome pics of bird strike with AC and one Motorcycle.
Re: laser
Sure. Just slap a mirror finish on it. Spiffy!
Not just a laser, but “Fricken Lazer.” They are far to potent to be turned by a mere mirror finish.