Armored and Ready

Oct 1, 2005 12:00 PM, By Erin Semple

IN SAO PAULO, BRAZIL, someone was trying to kidnap the children of a wealthy person on their way to school. The armored car they were riding in took more than 30 gunshots and was able to keep the children out of harm's way, thanks to its armored design.

In Iraq, a roadside bomb hits a public affairs officer's car. He is riding in an M1114 up-armored HMMWV, and its steel materials allow him to survive.

Such violence is less common in the United States, although the possibility is enough to drive up the domestic sales of armored vehicles.

For example, Armor Holdings Inc., Jacksonville, Fla., just introduced a new vehicle armoring system — The IE-Defense System — to defend commercial vehicles against an improvised explosive device (IED) attack and a subsequent attack from armor-piercing rifle fire. This armor system can be applied to a sport utility vehicle platform.

As IED attacks have become more frequent in Iraq and Afghanistan, an increasing number of government officials, private contractors, non-governmental organizations and private individuals need such protection. “We work with military, government and commercial customers on systems such as personal body armor, military vehicle, aircraft armor and ballistic-resistant enclosures,” says Dr. Tony Russell, chief technology officer for Armor Holdings Inc.

Centigon, the mobile security division of Armor Holdings, protects passenger vehicles independently and in partnership with original equipment manufacturers for government and commercial customers. The company also armors cash-in-transit vehicles.

The company strips the vehicle body and places armor into the car, replaces glass with bullet-resistant glass and then reassembles it to look the same. “People want to be discreet,” says Gary Allen, president of the Mobile Security Division of Armor Holdings. The features depend on the degree of the threat, but typically a vehicle will feature transparent armor for the glass, fire suppression, locking, telecommunications, a stretched interior, secret drawers, external cameras, outside and inside intercoms and jamming systems.

Scaletta Moloney Armoring, Chicago, another armored vehicle maker, takes the car apart and extends the wheelbase by 8 inches or 32 inches to become a limo. The company then adds armor floor for the vehicle's perimeter and roof, and it replaces automotive glass with ballistic glass. Steel and ceramic armor are hard and dense in order to deflect or redirect the energy of a bullet or other weapon. The armor material pushes out on the bullet with the same force with which the bullet pushes in, so the armor is not penetrated.

Aramid fiber armor plating is also used, such as Kevlar or Twaron, which react differently to bullets. Aramids are not hard like steel or ceramic, so instead of deflecting or redirecting the bullet's energy, aramids absorb and disperse the energy from the point of impact over a wide area. A bullet pushes on a horizontal length of fibers, and the bullet's energy pulls on every interlaced vertical fiber. Provided the fibers are woven and layered together in sufficient mass, they will absorb the bullet's inertial energy.

Ballistic glass also gains its bullet-resistant quality by its thickness, or mass. Ballistic glass is made of standard automotive glass laminated with a polycarbonate material. Bullets fired at sufficiently thick ballistic glass will pierce the outside layer, but the mass of the glass will absorb the bullet's energy and stop it before it enters the vehicle. “Our vehicles are designed to withstand the bombs in Iraq, which is why we are so popular right now,” says Tom Herlihy, national sales manager of Scaletta Moloney Armoring. “The engineering in the construction method is needed to survive an explosion.”

Certain areas of vehicles, such as the roof pillars and door handles, are among the most difficult and time-consuming to armor, so some suppliers do not armor these areas to save time and reduce costs. “They call this technique ‘probability armoring,’ because an assailant's bullet probably would not penetrate the unarmored areas and hit someone inside,” says Dan Trainor, vice president of Scaletta Moloney Armoring, who has been in the business for 20 years. “The distinction between armoring companies is the level of engineering applied to the package, and the attention paid to the accessibility of the vehicle and vehicle performance after armoring,” Trainor adds.

Armor and video: Rolling protection

A fully armored vehicle — equipped with video — recorded an incident in Iraq when bombs went off on both sides. The driver was able to control the vehicle and get out of the area safely.

Since its inception in 1991, the vehicle's supplier — Square One Armoring Services, Miami — has focused on armoring existing passenger and commercial vehicles. The company removes the interior and dashboard from an existing vehicle, replacing it with ballistic steels and ceramic, depending on the specific threat. “We can tailor an armor system to cater to their needs,” says Martin Cardenal, director for U.S. government programs at Square One.

Each vehicle is first analyzed to determine how much the additional weight of the armor system will diminish its capabilities. Suspension and brake modifications allow vehicles to regain — and sometimes to surpass — their original equipment manufacturers' performance. This basic procedure helps ensure safe operation of the vehicle and prolongs the life of the armor system. Square One eliminates spacing (gaps) between armor plates.

Certified to protect

Laboratories such as H.P. White test armored vehicle materials and certify companies such as Armor Holdings, Scaletta and Square One. “The companies send us the samples, we test them based on each company's specifications and then we write a report on whether they passed or failed,” says Lester Roane, chief engineer. Although, becoming certified is not regulated or required for the sale of armored vehicles in the United States, the customers are made aware of it when inquiring about a vehicle and are offered the opportunity to see the reports or have the materials tested in front of them.”

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ABOUT THE COMPANIES

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Armor Holdings	53
Scaletta Moloney Armoring	54
Square One	55

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