Russia’s Armored Steel-Comparable Ceramic Plate Clears Tests

Rostec subsidiary Tekhnodinamika will soon begin serial production of new high-strength ceramic armor plate that can be used to protect personnel, ground, air and naval equipment.

“The armored plates made of corundum ceramics demonstrated high protective properties comparable to armored steel (during tests). Serial production is planned to begin in the near future,” Rostec said in a release Thursday.

Armor steel or “ballistic protection” steel provides protection against incoming hostile projectiles.

“The creation of ceramic armor is one of the most promising directions in the development of body armor. It is lighter and smaller in size, but at the same time more dense in structure than armor steel. Plates made of corundum ceramics are capable of protecting not only personnel, but also air, land and sea equipment from armor-piercing bullets and shells,” said Igor Nasenkov, General Director of the Technodinamika.

Corundum ceramics is a superhard material based on aluminum oxide. As part of composite armor, it acts as a crushing layer and protects more effectively against armor-piercing bullets and projectiles than steel. Since the strength of such ceramics is higher than the strength of steel, when a bullet hits the ceramic armor, the core is deformed on the surface of the plate and is easily delayed by the second layer of protection, which can be steel or polymer.

Armor plates were tested in several stages, including as part of combat equipment. Products manufactured by the Ufa Aggregate Production Association have demonstrated high strength.

During tests at the Scientific Research Institute of Steel, ceramic plates were fired from a 7.62-mm Dragunov sniper rifle at a speed of 805-832 meters per second. Then the armor plates were tested as part of protective equipment on the basis of the leading domestic developer of individual armor protection - JSC "Kirasa.' According to the test results, the coefficient of the dimensionless penetration delay time, which implies the number of runs of the sound wave along the plate before its destruction, was 21.6, which characterizes the armor ceramics as high quality.