Military

Tarian high-tech fabric: the future of military armour-plating?

Tarian high-tech fabric: the future of military armour-plating?
DARPA will be trialling Amsafe's fiber-based armor for the US military
DARPA will be trialling Amsafe's fiber-based armor for the US military
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DARPA will be trialling Amsafe's fiber-based armor for the US military
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DARPA will be trialling Amsafe's fiber-based armor for the US military

Developed by UK firm Amsafe, Tarian cloth is capable of repelling armor-piercing anti-tank warheads by creating a ‘cushion’ between the vehicle’s exterior and typical armor plating, thereby triggering the explosive early and dispersing the force of the blast across the existing armor.

Traditional slat or metal-bar protection has a similar effect and through it is relatively light in comparison to the primary armor-plating of a vehicle, still has a detrimental effect on mobility and load-capacity. Being 50% lighter than aluminum cage armor and 85% lighter than steel cage options, Tarian (Welsh for "shield") reduces the chance of overloading the vehicle and means that more equipment can be carried and further precautions taken to ensure the safety of the passengers.

Currently being favored over traditional protection on British combat vehicles, Amsafe approached the UK MOD with its design in 2005 and subsequent trials in Afghanistan have encouraged DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) to order thirty ‘test articles’ at a cost of $100,000.

DARPA is confident that the Dorset company’s research has the potential to solve a very real problem and with additional vehicle-based and static application on the table, Tarian’s modular, replaceable design could well become an essential ingredient in modern warfare.

3 comments
3 comments
Rolf Hawkins
Unfortunately neither this solution or conventional reactive armor are adequate against the recent brilliantly simple development by the Russians: their next gen' RPGs have a smaller warhead on a rocket which fires milliseconds before the main HEAT warhead/rocket is fired. The first warhead (of relatively insignificant load) disrupts any reactive armor, leaving a nice big gap over the now unprotected conventional plate armor for the HEAT round to obliterate.
Considering just how widespread Soviet/Russian RPGs are among insurgent and terrorist forces, I would expect this new type to be equally available in the decades to come.
(pardon me if this is a double post)
earlleonard
I wonder how long it will take some writer to use this stuff on the Batmobile?
HolyCrusader
To Rolf Hawkins: The new Russian RPG you mentioned is RPG30. In fact it is more like a concept-tentative weapon rather than a \"Abrams-Killer\" which be excessively exaggerated by many website. The most important characteristic is the designer of weapon foresee the future Active Protection System will become new direction of tank development. The precursor is used to deceive APS sensor, let it fire the counter ammunition too early, and the main warhead can break the defense in milli- seconds which APS counldnt fire second ammunition in time. RPG30 use PG30 ammunition is similar as RPG29 (105mm diameter tandem warhead) and the range is shorter than RPG29 due to it must keep the two rocket(precursor & main warhead) in very close distance to make APS has no time to reaction. It is just a foresighting design which aim at future APS, not any more. BTW, the reactive armor tech is also keep developing. In recently,the Russian newest generation ERA called Relikt, Ukraine Nozh2 ERA (mounted on newest Ukriane Oplot MBT), Polish Erawa-2(Improvement from Polish version K-5 ERA, mounted on Polish PT-91 MBT), USA TuskII addon armor kit have ability to defeat tandem warhead.