A new generation of ceramic armor aims to reduce casualties

A 26,000 year old invention is being reworked into newer and newer composites aiming to create light but impenetrable body armor for the battlefield, one that can be upgraded immediately to match the latest weapons, Chemical & Engineering News magazine reports in its current issue.

While ceramic was invented way back in 24,000 B.C., it wasn't deployed on the battlefield until WW II, on a Sherman tank. It was used again in the Korean and Vietnam wars but not in significant numbers until the 1991 Persian Gulf War, C&NS reports.

Today it is widely used in troops' body armor and on some vehicles, including Stryker light armored infantry carriers, and the Armored Security Vehicle.

The biggest plus is that ceramic composites weigh about 50 percent less than traditional steel armor and has a high hardness strength.

Negatives include greater difficulties making complex shapes from ceramic than from steel, problems with brittleness, and 50 percent to 200 percent more costly.

But because of ceramics potential, researchers are bearing down on improving its properties and bring down its cost.

Among the efforts are experiments at the nanoscale with additives to enhance plasticity, as well as developing cover layers to improve damage tolerance and creating ceramic and reduce loads on the ceramics, and creation of ceramic composites, the article says.

Some of those composites being studied include the use of titanium diboride with aluminum oxide, or silicon carbide with either boron carbide or aluminum nitride, said Michael J. Normandia, chief scientist for armor development at Ceradyne, a company based in Costa Mesa, Calif., that produces millions of pounds of armor ceramic each year.

Another hot research area involves transparent ceramic armor, aimed at boosting the hardness of armored windows.

Richard A. Haber, a Rutgers University materials scientist whose research focuses on armor ceramics, told the magazine that while modern ceramists and armor manufacturers have made exponential progress, the bar keeps getting higher for ceramic armor -- as does just about every other military advance.

"You come out with a new piece of armor," Haber told the magazine, "then the bad guys come out with a new weapon. So armor has to constantly be improved to match the next type of weapon."