Ultimate Body Armour

by Barry Fox NewScientist.com, 11 Sep 2006 A lightweight bulletproof vest that protects against armour-piercing rounds is being developed by the U.S. government's Army Soldiers System Command. The new vest has three layers: a top ceramic section, a middle layer of aluminium, and bottom layer of woven nylon. The aluminium is pre-scored to define interlocking plugs, like the pieces of a jigsaw. As an armour-piercing bullet hits the top layer, the ceramic strike the aluminium below like a hammer, and frees one of the plugs. When the bullet breaks through the ceramics a split second later it hits the free plug, which wraps round its sharp tip. The bullet then has a wide, soft tip that is easily trapped by the nylon below. In testing, the vest could trap armour-piercing bullets fired at point blank range from a rifle at 850 metres per second. View patent application