
A New Metal Foam Is as Bulletproof as Heavy Steel Armor, Researchers Say - rbanffy
https://gizmodo.com/a-new-metal-foam-is-as-bulletproof-as-heavy-steel-armor-1835295929
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gnode
This sounds similar to the kind of armour employed by the International Space
Station. The basic principle is to use a thin and hard layer to fragment the
projectile, then a soft interstitial layer to absorb the energy of the
resulting high velocity particles over a wider area, before stopping them and
absorbing the momentum with a baseplate.

A lot of the article's speculation about use is silly (smartphones?), because
the technology relies on being thick, in order for the fragmentation particles
to disperse. This makes the most sense for use in spacecraft and maybe
military aircraft where weight is costly and volume is not. In military
scenarios you don't just have to worry about high velocity, but high momentum.
Projectiles are often designed to be penetrating, and explosive reactive
armour is much more effective against this.

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andromeduck
With all the secrecy surrounding composite armor, I wouldn't be surprised if
this stuff is being used already.

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ricardobeat
It's not as ground-breaking as the 'foam' in the title implies though:

> a panel of armor made from rolled steel with the same stopping power would
> weigh at least twice as much as the composite armor tested in this study

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Fjolsvith
On the scale of tanks or battleships, it is significant.

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jml7c5
Is this technology useful for tank armor?

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todd8
This reminds me of Paul Harrell’s “High Tech” fleece bullet stop. It’s just
some folded up fleece blankets. He uses it in his ammo reviews.

See, for example, [https://youtu.be/hVfStJS5XQw](https://youtu.be/hVfStJS5XQw)
around the 4:40 mark.

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ebg13
The 14 minute mark appears to be the end credits.

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todd8
You’re right. I corrected it. Thanks.

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simonh
They really lose the plot at the end with steel foam armour plated
smartphones. It is Gizmodo though.

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taneq
Is this the first step towards outrageously oversized Anime-esque battle
armour?

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NikolaeVarius
Composites have been around for a bit but they trade weight for volume. . Dies
this improve that tradeoff?

