Vehicle Protection Focus Day: Monday, May 24, 2010

8:30 - 10:30 Gain Insight Into The Next Generation Of Armor: Advanced Armor Technologies

Today's market requires advanced lightweight armor solutions while meeting the demands of vehicle and warfighter protection. Today's armor technologies are no longer unwieldy and bulky, but have developed into advanced hard and flexible armor solutions that protect lightweight vehicles against high velocity threats. This session will discuss vehicle armor systems that allow effective modifications of the varying armor protection levels currently needed in the battlefield.

How you will benefit:

• Get up to date on into threat protection level requirements
• Discover the new ways to create flexible and responsive armor systems
• Gain insight into the production of high technology, lightweight armor

What you will learn about:

• Liquid Crystal Polymers (LCPs)
• Multiple hit capabilities
• Composite/ceramic armor solutions

Vic LaSala
Senior Vice President for R&D
American Defense Systems, Inc

10:45 - 12:45 Explore Reactive Armor Advancements: Advanced Reactive And Hybrid Armor And Active Protection Systems For Armored Vehicles

is crucial to design and develop an armor system that is able to identify the type of shaped charge directed toward a vehicle in order for an offensive counter-attack. This session will discuss the cost to design, develop and deploy reactive armor technologies, and compare it with the cost of current armor solutions. Session leaders will discuss the current and future requirements of military vehicles, resulting in a better understanding of the future of reactive armor technologies.

How you will benefit:

• Gain insight into the mechanics behind reactive armor systems
• Find out the technology behind weapons identification
• Improve your knowledge of the costs that involve design and deployment

What you will learn about:

• Design enhancements for ground vehicle survivability
• Minimization of a vehicle’s weight and cost
• Advancements in explosive reactive armor

Sean Agnew
Professor, Department of Materials Science & Engineering
University of Virginia

1:45 - 3:45 Discover The Value And Development Of Strengthened Transparent Armor: Chemically Strengthened Glass For Transparent Armor Applications

Special glass compositions can be chemically strengthened to develop as much as 1 GPa (~145 ksi) surface compression and ~1 mm compression case depth. With this level of protection, laminated composites made using such glass should have enhanced tolerance to potential damage from reflected tensile stress wave after a projectile impact. The finished cost of such glass would be significantly less than that of other competitive materials such as transparent ceramics (e.g., ALON and spinel materials) and glass-ceramics currently in the market.

How you will benefit:

• Obtain a better understanding of the transparent Amor Applications
• Understand the advantages of using the method for enhanced testing and evaluation
• Gain insight into the glass strengthening process and testing

What you will learn about:

• Chemical strengthening of glass
• Strength and fracture performance of chemically strengthened glass
• Potential configurations

Dr. Arun Varshneya
Professor of Glass Science & Engineering
Alfred University

3:45 End Of Vehicle Protection Focus Day