S-2 Glass Reinforcement Continues Growth As New Armor Applications Emerge

NP Aerospace Ltd. is a long-time manufacturer of body armor and security vehicles and has significant experience in the design and implementation of composite armor systems. NP Aerospace and AGY have a long history of development of composites for armor applications starting with collaboration on the SNATCH / CAV100 vehicle, which has been supplied and used in several versions in various conflicts.

“We hope to show that working with NP Aerospace we are able to provide the right level of protection and structural performance in a vehicle to meet the demands of today’s and tomorrow’s threats,” said Drew Walker, AGY Vice President of Sales and Marketing. “The Advanced Composite Demonstrator illustrates how S-2 Glass fibers can provide high levels of ballistic and blast protection while also providing a secure compartment protected against the threat of fire, smoke and toxicity.”

With the unfortunate spread of terrorism and increased use of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs), this vehicle shows how the design of a protection system can be incorporated into the structural design with benefits in reducing the overall weight of both the protection and structural element.

AGY’s collaboration with NP Aerospace began with the SNATCH/CAV100 vehicle which has been used in several versions in various conflicts. “The Demonstrator’s pod and its protection levels have been developed from the experience we has gained from our programs with the SNATCH/CAV100 vehicles and the armoring programs for Mastiff, Ridgeback and Wolfhound vehicles,” said NP Managing Director Roger Medwell.

The shell of the Demonstrator pod is designed using the AGY HJ1 Armor System which is also a significant component in NP Aerospace’s CAMAC® Lightweight Composite Armor system. This CAMAC system has been used as the core ballistic and blast protection system on a full range of vehicles supplied by NP Aerospace and has been developed in conjunction with AGY’s S-2 Glass fibers.

As NP Aerospace used more glass-reinforced armor to upgrade the protection level of the new vehicles, the benefits of using high performance glass actually increased. “When we started using high performance glass-reinforced composites these made up about half the weight of the total solution,” said Medwell. “Now, as we upgrade our designs to meet new threats we find we can produce a full composite based solution.”

For more information, please visit AGY’s website at www.agy.com.