Quote:
Originally Posted by ossiblue
The bullet was an armor piercing round. Here's the detail of the test:
" The shield was comprised of boron carbide ceramics as the strike face, with composite metal foam (CMF) as the bullet kinetic energy absorber layer and Kevlar panels as backplates. To test its durability, Rabiei and her team took aim with a 7.62 x 63 mm M2 armor-piercing projectile, which was fired in line with the standard testing procedures established by the National Institute of Justice (NIJ).
"We could stop the bullet at a total thickness of less than an inch, while the indentation on the back was less than 8 mm," Rabiei says. "To put that in context, the NIJ standard allows up to 44 mm (1.73 in) indentation in the back of an armor."
Lightweight metal foam turns armor-piercing bullets into dust |
So the ceramic is breaking the bullet. The foam is just attenuating the energy. Also, the M2AP is an ancient round.
Not trying to belittle the progress in material science, just pointing out that this foam isn't performing miracles.