Thursday, February 21, 2008

Prince Roger's Balistic Armor of today... Well it is still a few years off...

If you have read the Empire of Man Series commonly called the "Prince Roger Series" of Science Fiction novels by David Weber and John Ringo, you will perhaps recognize this next story's importance in making a bold stride forward on the Armored Frontier.

Protecting The Soldiers of Tomorrow


These "inorganic fullerene-like nanostructures" or IF as the IsraCast abreviates them are to my mind the basic threads that could easily be woven into cloth-like material. In so doing it would then be possible to produce from that material a flexible light-weight suit that would give our soldiers the protection they vitally need from IED's and sniper fire when on patrol. This ballistic IF material will be much better than the previously examined carbon based nanotube fibers. As the article states, the "IF is easier and much less expensive to produce, it is chemically stable and is less reactive and consequently less flammable... [and] ...have been tested extensively and deemed safe." This is especially obvious when they are compared with the highly toxic Organic Fullerenes.

As I look at this new ballistic material I can see countless applications for sensitive areas that need additional protection from not only bullets and explosive devices but also consider the application in say a car bumper and other structural partitions within an automobile. Not only would it strengthen it but it would also decrease the weight of the material in all likelihood. This will in turn make the hybrids more efficient and the so on and so forth in that industry. It could perhaps decrease the level of damage vehicles retain when impacting in a collision. What a benefit to countless lives that would be.

What about laptop computers this material could likely be integrated into the shell to add additional cushioned rigidity to the HDD as well. There is also the possibility that this could be used to help armor aircraft and I suspect spacecraft too would benefit from this "nanoarmor" as an extra internal protective skin as it is currently envisioned if I am not mistaken.