For body armour see armour, for armoured forces see armoured warfare, for other uses see armour (disambiguation). Armour (or armor) is protective covering most commonly manufactured from metals to prevent damage from being inflicted to an individual or a vehicle through use of direct contact Armoured warfare or tank warfare is the use of Armoured fighting vehicles in Modern warfare.

Military vehicles are commonly armoured to withstand the impact of shrapnel, bullets, missiles, or shells, protecting the personnel inside from enemy fire. An armoured fighting vehicle ( AFV) is a military Vehicle, protected by armour and armed with Weapons Most AFVs are equipped for driving in rugged Shrapnel is the term originally applied to an anti-personnel artillery shell which carried a large number of individual bullets to the target and then ejected them forwards relying A bullet is a solid Projectile propelled by a Firearm or Air gun and is normally made from metal (usually Lead) A missile (see also pronunciation differences) is a self-propelled explosive Projectile used as a weapon towards a target A shell is a payload-carrying Projectile, which as opposed to shot, contains an explosive or other filling though modern usage includes large solid projectiles Such vehicles include tanks, aircraft, and ships. A tank is a tracked, Armoured fighting vehicle designed for Front-line combat which combines Operational mobility and tactical A ship /ʃɪp/ is a large vessel that floats on water Ships are generally distinguished from Boats based on size

Civilian vehicles may also be armoured. These vehicles include cars used by reporters, officials and others in conflict zones or where violent crime is common, and presidential limousines. A reporter is a type of Journalist who Researches and presents information in certain types of Mass media. An official is someone who holds an office (function or mandate, regardless whether it carries an actual working space with it in an Organisation or President is a Title leaders of Organizations companies, Trade unions universities, and countries. A limousine (or limo) is a longer than normal Luxury car. The chassis may have been extended by the manufacturer or by an independent coach builder traditionally Armoured cars are also routinely used by security firms to carry money or valuables to reduce the risk of highway robbery or the hijacking of the cargo. A common meaning of armored car is as an armored Van or Truck, used in Transporting valuables such as large quantities of money (especially for banks * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Before adding any more images to this * * page please do carefully consider * * whether they would be mere decoration * * or actually improve Robbery is the Crime of seizing Property through Violence or Intimidation. Carjacking is a Crime of stealing a motor vehicle when the vehicle is occupied

Armour may also be used in vehicles from threats other than deliberate attack. Some spacecraft are equipped with specialised armour to protect them against impacts from tiny meteors or fragments of space junk. A spacecraft is a Vehicle or machine designed for Spaceflight. Space debris or orbital debris, also called space junk and space waste are the objects in Orbit around Earth created by humans that no Helicopters may carry armour in the form of debris containment walls built into the casing of their gas turbines to prevent injuries or airframe damage should the compressor/turbine wheel disintegrate. A gas turbine, also called a combustion turbine, is a rotary Engine that extracts energy from a flow of Combustion gas Airframe means the mechanical structure of an Aircraft and as generally used does not include the engines ^[1]

The design and purpose of the vehicle determines the amount of armour plating carried, as the plating is often very heavy and excessive amounts of armour restrict mobility. Design is used both as a Noun and a Verb. The term is often tied to the various Applied arts and Engineering (See design disciplines

Vehicle armour is sometimes improvised in the midst of an armed conflict. In World War II, U. World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including S. tank crews welded spare strips of tank track to the hulls of their Sherman, Grant, and Stuart tanks. World War II foreign variants and use Lend-Lease Sherman tanks. The Medium Tank M3 was an American Tank used during World War II. The Light Tank M3 was an American light Tank of World War II in use with British and Commonwealth forces prior to the entry of ^[2] In the Vietnam War, U. The Vietnam War, also known as the Second Indochina War, or the Vietnam Conflict, occurred in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia S. "gun trucks" were armoured with sandbags and locally fabricated steel armour plate. Steel is an Alloy consisting mostly of Iron, with a Carbon content between 0 ^[3] More recently, U.S. troops in Iraq armoured Humvees and various military transport vehicles with scrap materials: this came to be known as "hillbilly" armor or "haji" armor by the Americans. The Iraq War, also known as the Second Gulf War, the Occupation of Iraq, or the War in Iraq, is an ongoing Military campaign This article refers to the Military HMMWV not the civilian Hummer sold by General Motors The M998 High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled ^[2]

Armoured Fighting Vehicles

The most heavily armoured vehicles today are the main battle tanks, which are the spearhead of the ground forces, and are designed to withstand anti-tank missiles, kinetic energy penetrators, NBC threats and in some tanks even steep-trajectory shells. Tank classification is a Taxonomy of identifying either the intended role or weight class of Tanks The classification by role was used primarily during Anti-tank refers to any method of combating military Armored fighting vehicles notably Tanks The most common anti-tank systems A kinetic energy penetrator (also known as a KE weapon) is a type of Ammunition which like a Bullet, does not contain Explosives and uses A weapon of mass destruction ( WMD) is a weapon which can kill large numbers of humans and/or cause great damage to man-made structures (e The Israeli Merkava tanks were designed in a way that each tank component functions as additional back-up armour to protect the crew. For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Israel topics. The Merkava ( Hebrew:, Chariot) is the Main battle tank of the Israel Defense Forces. Outer armour is modular and enables quick replacement of damaged armour.

Technologies

For efficiency, the heaviest armour on an armoured fighting vehicle (AFV) is placed on its front. An armoured fighting vehicle ( AFV) is a military Vehicle, protected by armour and armed with Weapons Most AFVs are equipped for driving in rugged Tank tactics require the vehicle to always face the likely direction of enemy fire as much as possible, even in defence or withdrawal operations. Defence For other meanings see Withdrawal (disambiguation. A withdrawal is a type of Military operation, generally meaning retreating

Sloping and curving armour can both increase its protection. Sloped armour is armour that is neither vertical nor horizontal and is typically mounted on Tanks and other Armoured fighting vehicles (AFVs Given a fixed thickness of armour plate, a projectile striking at an angle must penetrate more armour than one impacting perpendicularly. In Geometry and Trigonometry, an angle (in full plane angle) is the figure formed by two rays sharing a common Endpoint, called In Geometry, two lines or planes (or a line and a plane are considered perpendicular (or orthogonal) to each other if they form congruent An angled surface also increases the chance of deflecting a projectile. This can be seen on v-hull designs, which direct the force of an IED or landmine away from the crew compartment, increasing crew survivability. The V-hull is a type of Vehicle armor design used on wheeled Armored personnel carriers (APC Infantry mobility vehicles and Infantry fighting vehicles A land mine is an Explosive device designed to be placed on or in the ground to explode when triggered by an operator or the Proximity of a vehicle person Survivability is the ability to remain alive or continue to exist ^[4]

Appliqué armour screens have sometimes been bolted or welded onto armoured vehicles to increase protection.

Beginning during the Cold War, many AFVs have spall liners inside of the armour, designed to protect crew and equipment inside from fragmentation (spalling) released from the impact of enemy shells, especially high explosive squash head warheads. Spall are flakes of a material that are broken off a larger solid body and can be produced by a variety of mechanisms including as a result of Projectile impact Corrosion Spall liners are made of Kevlar, Dyneema or similar materials. Kevlar is the registered Trademark for a light strong para-aramid Synthetic fiber, related to other Aramids such as Nomex and Ultra high molecular weight polyethylene ( UHMWPE) also known as high-modulus polyethylene ( HMPE) or high-performance polyethylene ( HPPE

Spaced armour

Armour with two or more plates spaced a distance apart, called spaced armour, when sloped reduces the penetrating power of bullets and solid shot as after penetrating each plate they tend to tumble, deflect, deform, or disintegrate, when not sloped reduces the protection offered by the armour, and detonates explosive projectiles before they reach the inner plates. It has been in use since the First World War, where it was used on the Schneider CA1 and St Chamond tanks. World War I (abbreviated WWI; also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All The Schneider CA1 (originally named the Schneider CA) was the first French Tank. The St Chamond was the second French heavy Tank of the First World War. Many early-WWII German tanks had spaced armour in the form of armoured skirts, to make their thinner side armour more effective against anti-tank fire.

Soviet T-34-85 with anti-Panzerfaust screens of wire mesh, protecting side and top armour during street fighting, Berlin, May 1945. The T-34 was a Soviet medium tank produced from 1941 to 1958 It is widely regarded as having been the world's best Tank when the Soviet Union The Panzerfaust (plural Panzerfäuste, "armored fist" or "tank fist" was an inexpensive recoilless German Anti-tank Berlin is the capital city and one of sixteen states of Germany.

The principle of spaced armour protects against high explosive anti-tank (HEAT) projectiles which create a focused jet of plasticised metal, very effective at the focus point, but much less so beyond there. FOCUS is a software product of Information Builders Inc Originally developed for data handling and analysis on the IBM mainframe, as newer systems were developed Relatively thin armour plates or even metal mesh, much lighter than fully protective armour, can be attached as side skirts or turret skirts on tanks and other armoured vehicles. This light armour detonates the warhead prematurely so that the jet of molten metal is focussed well before the main armour, becoming relatively ineffective. Factory-made and improvised stand-off armour was introduced in the Second World War to defend against the new Bazooka, Panzerfaust, and other HEAT weapons. The bazooka is a man-portable Anti-armor rocket launcher made famous during World War II. The Panzerfaust (plural Panzerfäuste, "armored fist" or "tank fist" was an inexpensive recoilless German Anti-tank

In response to increasingly effective HEAT warheads, integral spaced armour was reintroduced in the 1960s on the German Leopard 1. The 1960s decade refers to the years from the beginning of 1960 to the end of 1969 The Leopard (or Leopard 1) is a German designed and produced main battle tank that first entered service in 1965 and was used as the main battle tank There are hollow spaces inside this type of armour, increasing the length of travel from the exterior of the vehicle to the interior for a given weight of armour, to reduce the shaped charge's penetrating power. Sometimes the interior surfaces of these hollow cavities are sloped, presenting angles to the anticipated path of the shaped charge's jet in order to further dissipate its power. For example, a given weight of armour can be distributed in 2 layers 15 cm (6 inch) thick instead of a single 30 cm (12 in) layer, giving much better protection against shaped charges.

Today light armoured vehicles mount panels of metal rods, known as slat armour or cage armour, and some main battle tanks carry rubber skirts to protect their relatively fragile suspension and front belly armour. Cage armor also known as bar armor, slat armor, and standoff armor is a type of armor designed to protect against Anti-tank Rocket-propelled

The Whipple shield uses the principle of spaced armour to protect spacecraft from the impacts of very fast micrometeoroids. The Whipple shield, invented by Fred Whipple, is a type of Hypervelocity impact shield used to protect manned and unmanned spacecraft from collisions with A Micrometeoroid (also micrometeorite, micrometeor) is a tiny Meteoroid; a small particle of rock in space usually weighing less than a Gram The impact with the first wall melts or breaks up the incoming particle, causing fragments to be spread over a wider area when striking the subsequent walls.

Sloped Armour

Main article: Sloped armour

Sloped armour is armour that is mounted at a non-vertical and non-horizontal angle, typically on tanks and other armoured fighting vehicles. Sloped armour is armour that is neither vertical nor horizontal and is typically mounted on Tanks and other Armoured fighting vehicles (AFVs For a given normal to the surface of the armour, its plate thickness, increasing armour slope improves the armour's level of protection by increasing the thickness measured on a horizontal plane, while for a given area density of the armour the protection can be either increased or reduced by other sloping effects, depending on the armour materials used and the qualities of the projectile hitting it. The increased protection caused by increasing the slope while keeping the plate thickness constant, is due to a proportional increase of area density and thus mass, and thus offers no weight benefit. Therefore the other possible effects of sloping, such as deflection, deforming and ricochet of a projectile, have been the reasons to apply sloped armour in armoured vehicles design. Another motive is the fact that sloping armour is a more efficient way of enveloping a certain volume with armour; it thus reduces a vehicle's internal volume, removing space that would go unused, thereby minimizing the vehicle's size and thus mass. The sharpest angles are usually seen on the frontal glacis plate, both as it is the hull side most likely to be hit and because there is more room to slope in the longitudinal direction of a vehicle.

Composite Armour

Main article: Composite armour

Composite armour is armour consisting of layers of two or more materials with significantly different chemical properties; steel and ceramics are the most common types of material in composite armour. Composite armour is a type of Vehicle armour consisting of layers of different material such as Metals Plastics, Ceramics or Air Steel is an Alloy consisting mostly of Iron, with a Carbon content between 0 The word ceramic is derived from the Greek word κεραμικός ( keramikos) Composite armour was initially developed in the 1940s, although it did not enter service until much later and the early examples are often ignored in the face of newer armour such as Chobham armour. The 1940s decade ran from 1940 to 1949 Events and trends The 1940s was a period between the radical 1930s and the conservative 1950s which also leads the period to be Chobham armour is the name informally given to a Composite armour developed in the 1960s at the British Tank research centre on Chobham Common Composite armour's effectiveness depends on its composition and may be effective against kinetic energy penetrators as well as shaped charge munitions; heavy metals are sometimes included specifically for protection from kinetic energy penetrators. A kinetic energy penetrator (also known as a KE weapon) is a type of Ammunition which like a Bullet, does not contain Explosives and uses A shaped charge is an Explosive charge shaped to focus the effect of the explosive's energy Ammunition, often referred to as ammo, is a generic term derived from the French language la munition which

Reactive armour

Main article: Reactive armour

Explosive reactive armour, initially developed by German researcher, Manfred Held working in Israel, uses layers of high explosive sandwiched between steel plates. Reactive armour is a type of Vehicle armour that reacts in some way to the impact of a weapon to reduce the damage done to the vehicle being protected An explosive material is a material that either is chemically or otherwise Energetically unstable or produces a sudden expansion of the material usually accompanied When a shaped-charge warhead hits, the explosive detonates and pushes the steel plates into the warhead, disrupting the flow of the charge's liquid metal penetrator (usually copper at around 500 degrees Celsius; it can be made to flow like water by sufficient pressure). Detonation is a process of Supersonic Combustion in which a Shock wave is propagated forward due to energy release in a reaction zone behind it Copper (ˈkɒpɚ is a Chemical element with the symbol Cu (cuprum and Atomic number 29 It is less effective against kinetic penetrators. Reactive armour poses a threat to friendly troops near the vehicle.

Non-explosive reactive armour is an advanced spaced armour which uses materials which change their geometry so as to increase protection under the stress of impact.

Active protection systems use a sensor to detect an incoming projectile and explosively launch a counter-projectile into its path. An active protection system, or APS protects a Tank or other Armoured fighting vehicle from incoming fire before it hits the vehicle's armour

Electrically charged armour

Electrically charged armour is a recent development in the United Kingdom by the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located History In July 2001, the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency (DERA was split into two parts A vehicle is fitted with two thin shells, separated by insulating material. The outer shell holds an enormous electrical charge, while the inner shell is at ground. If an incoming HEAT jet penetrates the outer shell and forms a bridge between the shells, the electrical energy discharges through the jet, disrupting it. Trials have so far been extremely promising, and it is hoped that improved systems could protect against KE penetrators. Developers of the Future Rapid Effect System (FRES) series of armoured vehicles are considering this technology. The Future Rapid Effect System ( FRES) is the UK Ministry of Defence’s programme to deliver a fleet of more than 3000 armoured vehicles for the British Army

See also

• Active protection system
• Armoured fighting vehicle
• Non-military armored vehicles
• Armoured forces
• Body armour
• Plastic armour
• Tank classification

References

External links

• Electrically charged armour