New Player Enters Flexible Armor Battle

New Player Enters Flexible Armor Battle
October 17, 2008
Military.com|by Christian Lowe

A top designer of flexible body armor similar to the much-vaunted Dragon Skin says he has just tested a new type of ballistic material that is far harder than current plates and can defeat one of the most deadly armor piercing rounds in the world.

And it can do all this at the same weight as a standard Enhanced Small Arms Protective Plate, but in a more flexible and comfortable package, developer Allan Bain claims.

Bain, who body armor experts agree was a founding father -- with Dragon Skin maker Murray Neal -- of the so-called "scalar" armor concept, has developed a new way to forge the ceramic that goes into the bulle-blocking plates, giving it greater density and the ability to be bent into odd shapes.

"This is probably about as cutting edge as it gets," Bain told Military.com during an October 15 phone interview about the new armor, Skaalar Exoskin Gen 4+". "An E-SAPI plate is an inch thick. Then you've got the vest … This is an inch thick with everything included."

With the help of experts at Georgia Tech University, Bain produces his armored disks in an oven that reaches nearly 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit - nearly half the surface temperature of the sun - to make the ceramic stronger, smaller and without sacrificing weight.

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