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| Iraq |
| Nanotech Armor Tested in Iraq |
| 2003-11-19 |
| From StrategyPage: Combat zones are excellent places to test new technologies, especially if these experimental items will save lives. One example is a lightweight armored turret for Humvee vehicles in Iraq. Because of its light weight construction, you cannot put a turret on a Humvee that weighs more than 400 pounds. Armor, even Kevlar fiber armor, can only provide so much protection within the 400 pound limit. But an experimental (meaning very expensive to manufacture) nanotech armor was used to construct a 200 pound armor turret that can stop 12.7mm (.50 caliber) bullets. The fiber uses nanotecholgy (where magnetism or other forces create customized molecules with special properties.) The nanofiber in the Humvee turrets looks like fiberboard, but it is 17 times stronger than Kevlar (which is itself six times stronger than steel). However, it’s going to be several years before the cost of the new fiber gets anywhere near Kevlar’s levels (about $50 per square yard of fiber). The experimental turrets are being used to see how the material stands up to field conditions (heat, cold, moisture, vibration and so on.) Most Humvees in Iraq are not getting shot at, much less hit, and the Iraqi gunners are not using any heavy machine-guns (like 12.7mm.) But it’s easier to test how bullet proof the stuff is on a rifle range, than it is to see what kind of damage day-to-day use in a combat zone will do. Interesting. |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #12 I think that Val is pointing out that whatever punched through the Abrams the other day may have met it's nano-match. Here's to hoping. Bulldog, the USN used to have a very prolonged process for qualifying and testing firefighting equipment. Then Sadaam pumped two Exocets into the USS Stark. When that happened, the Navy realized that there was a lot of equipment available to regular firefighters that could have saved lives on the Stark if the equip[ment wasn't wollowing in the approval process. The Navy fastracked a bunch of stuff that luckily was aboard the USS Roberts when it hit a mine. The new gear kept the ship afloat and saved lives. Both the Stark and Roberts were relatively new ships at the time of their fires. At the time the navy was trying to milk a group of destroyers that had been built for the Cuban missile crisis. The idea was to keep them in service until they could be replaced by the new Aegis class. Luckily the new gear was on these ships as well as they had exceeded their safe service life and began to catch fire in rapid sucession. The USS Connyniham was one. I toured her ship after their fire as our operating budgets were being cut in half each year - the Clinton years. I was there scavenging for the new gear because I was the Damage Control Assistant for the USS Dahlgren the next ship to catch fire. The gear did a good job for us as well. At that juncture they pulled that entire class of destroyer out of service immediately. With respect to Iraq I think quite a bit of the medical gear has been fast-tracked. |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2003-11-19 7:26:37 PM |
| #11 E for typical steel is 29E6 psi.... strain (deflection) may just be really, really low, the allowable stress remains high, = much higher modulus E....sounds likely |
| Posted by: Frank G 2003-11-19 6:43:43 PM |
| #10 If they use this for body armor, they should call it "NeenerTech". Bad guy shoots. Pwang!!! Bullet is deflected. "Neener, neener, neener!" |
| Posted by: BH 2003-11-19 5:55:34 PM |
| #9 Hell who cares about weapons systems. The important thing is for Ferrari to have this in their monocoque first. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2003-11-19 3:34:59 PM |
| #8 Okay I'm in a bit of a quandary here, if my calculations are right (not that I think that they are mind you), according to this article the new armor is actually 102 times stronger than steel (i.e 17*6?) please someone correct me because that would mean that if this same armor was put on an Abrams the equivalent of steel armor would be measured in a hundred feet or so of steel. Oh and if you think this is tough, you should look up the strength of of ring carbon, 100,000 times that of steel, not sure though if we can make more than small lab quantities of it. |
| Posted by: Val 2003-11-19 3:17:52 PM |
| #7 Did some more research ;) It's based on US Global Nanospaces G-Lam fiber material. I believe it was released last year and I don't think it's based on nanotubes but instead some combination of propriety composite fibers weaved with new technique. It's designated as a nanomaterial but I'm not sure if that is because of the molecular structure of the fibers or the accuracy of their weaving technique to the less than 100 nanometer range. Don't know if you can tell but I love this stuff ;) |
| Posted by: Damn_Proud_American 2003-11-19 1:03:36 PM |
| #6 Damn, I hope they figure it out and use it to make helmets. Those kevlars weigh a TON. Might be good for body armor, too. |
| Posted by: Anonymous 2003-11-19 12:55:28 PM |
| #5 btw, did some quick research and I think it's manufactured by US Global Nanospace. http://www.usgn.com/ From a press release of theirs: "S.A.G. Turret(TM) for the Humvee The US Global S.A.G. Turret has recently been presented to U.S. troops in Afghanistan, Iraq and Italy as well as strategic domestic government agencies. Specific project information is not publicly available for discussion until approval has been given." |
| Posted by: Damn_Proud_American 2003-11-19 12:45:26 PM |
| #4 HOLY SH-T! Is this a real story? Shipman, this isn't semi-revolutionary this is over the top revolutionary. I thought we were 10 years away from this if it was possible. I wonder what they're using? Couldn't be carbon nanotubes they're still about $100/gram to manufacture.... but I guess maybe mixing carbon nanotubes with some composite could supply the required strength? If this is true I'm stunned. |
| Posted by: Damn_Proud_American 2003-11-19 12:34:45 PM |
| #3 I thought the old way was to let the Israeli's test things against the Arabs Soviet equipment for us. I guess the Arabs got tired of that game, though... |
| Posted by: Laurence of the Rats 2003-11-19 12:26:02 PM |
| #2 "Combat zones are excellent places to test new technologies" Hum, call me old fashioned, but I'd prefer the testing to have been completed before the combat. |
| Posted by: Bulldog 2003-11-19 12:03:47 PM |
| #1 Hmmm... maybe they'll use this on a new Stryker variant - sounds semi-revolutionary. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2003-11-19 11:57:34 AM |