By Ann Roosevelt
Battelle has developed armor called the Resin and Ceramic Engineered (RACE) composite armor system that potentially could solve current IED and Explosively Formed Penetrators (EFP) problems for wheeled, armored vehicles like Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles, Strykers and the future Joint Light Tactical Vehicle.
“The new technology that we are offering is lighter and stronger by about 30 percent and about 30 percent less costly” than current steel of comparable thickness, Scott Versluis, Battelle commercialization manager, told Defense Daily in an interview March 5.
Battelle is working with the Army Research Lab (ARL) to obtain certification for use against several threats, he said. A Cooperative Research and Development Agreement is being formalized to better understand the composite mechanisms employed during the successful ballistics tests conducted at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md., and Indian Head Div., Naval Surface Warfare Center, Md. Battelle plans to submit RACE as a candidate for the Expedient Armor Program. This is to offer improvements to today’s heavy and costly armor.
“So we’ll be adding components to existing systems, or replacing them to make it lighter, or possibly introducing a whole new system, which would impact MRAP 1 and 2 and the JLTV, which also needs lighter-type armor applications, Versluis said.
On March 3, RACE completed a series of ballistics tests and now moves into another round of testing, where several designs being examined will be reduced to two, optimizing the best designs, he said. The Army will test these two designs. Success in the Army certification testing series means the armor may be used on military vehicles.
“We should see the certification testing done by the end of April-early May,” Versluis said.
RACE has been found to withstand multiple hits from EFPs and .50-caliber armor piercing rounds. The composite systems’ modular design can easily be configured in the field to respond to changing threats, and is easily repaired in the field. Additionally, RACE is made with non-toxic, non-flammable, non-exotic materials.
“There are no safety concerns whatsoever,” Versluis said.
“The nice thing about this is it’s a scalable, modular design that has inserts that go into a box,” he said. Commanders would deploy with the kits and reconfigure them as needed depending on the threat in the region.
Battelle is not working on RACE as a body armor solution because it requires a very light weight and more exotic ceramics, pushing the price upward, he said.
If RACE moves to production, Battelle would team with key manufacturers who understand the technology and helped develop it using their own time and money. Battelle calls this “preferred manufacturing rights.” Transition and ramp up time would take about six months to quantity production, Versluis said.