Ballistically Sound
Written by Peter Buxbaum
MLF 2010 Volume: 4 Issue: 9 (October)
Protecting Wheeled Transport in the Tactical Environment
is a Challenge, Mixing Survivability and Mobility.
“You go to war with the army you have, not the army you might want or wish to have at a later time,” former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld famously commented during the early days of the Iraq war. The fighting forces the U.S. fielded at the time Rumsfeld made that comment were equipped with light vehicles that often could not withstand enemy bullets, let alone blasts.
The U.S. Army responded to a spike in casualties resulting from vehicle-piercing ordnance with a long-term armor strategy (LTAS). The LTAS has since evolved into a two-part plan: Tactical wheeled vehicles would be required to be equipped with some armor in the factory and would also be equipped with mechanisms to attach additional armor if need be at some point in the future. These two stages of armor application have come to be known as the A kit and the B kit. The Marine Corps later adopted a similar strategy.
The two-part strategy has the virtue of flexibility: Armor applied in the factory is to those areas of the vehicle that cannot be fitted with armor later on in the field. At the same time, trucks need not be B kitted unless and until they were deployed to or near the battlefield. Further, vehicles could be outfitted with new or different B kits to respond to evolving threats or divergent scenarios.
“The armor strategy evolved as a result of the war,” said Marc King, vice president of armor operations at Ceradyne Inc., a developer and manufacturer of armor based in Costa Mesa, Calif. “It became obvious quickly that we needed to armor vehicles.” The history of threats faced by U.S. forces in Iraq war mirrors the evolution of armor requirements and applications in that theater. “Almost none of the Army’s trucks had armor built into them at first,” said Rick Engel, director, of government vehicles sales for Daimler Trucks North America. “When the trucks showed up in Iraq and were subjected to IED threats, something had to be done.”
“Over a short period of time, the requirements for armor evolved from ballistic to improvised explosive devices,” added King. “Blast protection moved from side blasts to underbelly blasts.”
The A kit/B kit scenario was meant to make the application of armor as efficient as possible. “The A kit consists of certain pieces of armor that are hardest to install, so it is done at the factory,” said King. “These include firewalls, floors and the corners of crew cabs that are those most difficult to do once the vehicle is assembled.”
At the same time, a set of mountings were installed at the factory to accommodate the potential future installation of B-kit armor. “The B kit could include additional panels, a separate set of armored doors, armored glass, or an armored windscreen,” King explained. “This strategy is best suited to meet threats that can change over time. Threats faced by U.S. forces in 2010 may not be the same as in 2012. The B kit can be redesigned to provide higher levels of protection.” All that is required for an upgrade is to unbolt the old B kit and install the new one.
Truck manufacturers had to modify their vehicles in order to accommodate the new armor, noted Engel. “These are largely soft skin vehicles,” he said. “The B kit adds tons of armor. The trucks were not designed to carry that extra weight.”
As a result, the cab came under strain, the engines struggled, and the axles creaked under the stress of the additional weight. “We increased the engine’s torque and power on our trucks so they could carry this extra payload without degrading their performance,” said Engel. “We also increased the ratings of the front and rear axles and strengthened the overall chassis to carry the additional weight.”
The HMMWV Marine Armor Kit (MAK) is designed for the two-door and four-door A2 variant HMMWVs. “The kit provides 360 degree, overhead and underbody protection,” said Mike Everly, program manager for motor transportation at the Marine Corps Systems Command. “Options for the kit include mild steel overlay panels for the doors and rocker panels.” A total of 5,550 MAKs have been produced for Marine Corps vehicles in an effort to support combat operations.
The HMMWV Expanded Capacity Vehicle armor kits were developed in various forms to facilitate different levels of armor based on operational environments, noted Everly. All two-door and four-door variants are capable of accepting B kits, the integrated armor package (IAP), various fragmentation (frag) kits, and the Marine Corps transparent armored gunner’s station or TOW gunner’s protection kit.
As a practical matter, the four ECV variants—the M1151 armament carrier, the M1152 shelter carrier and troop transport, the M1165 command and control variant, and the M1167 TOW/ SABER missile carrier—are outfitted variously with three armor configurations depending upon operational conditions. Installation of the armor on the HMMWVs is generally carried out by the equipment manufacturer AM General, according to Everly.
“The B kit armor encloses the crew compartment and provides increased protection for garrison type operations,” he explained. “IAP provides increased protection for the underbody of the vehicle. Frag kit 1 provides increased protection around the vehicle doors, Frag kit 2 provides increased protection in the wheel wells and firewall, and Frag kit 5 removes the B-kit door and replaces it with a higher level of protection.”
The Marine Corps does not currently use Frag kit 6, which protects from explosively formed projectiles or Frag kit 7, which provides overhead protection for the vehicle and weapons stations. “These kits significantly reduce vehicle payload and mobility,” said Everly.
Oshkosh vehicles supplied to the U.S. military now incorporate varying levels of protection. “Some armor kits are integrated on the manufacturing lines at company facilities, primarily in the U.S.,” said Mike Ivy, vice president and general manager for Army Programs at Oshkosh Defense. “The rest of the cab is most commonly completed to be fitted for, but not with, additional armor that can be applied as needed at U.S. installations or in-theater.”
The Army’s Family of Medium Tactical Vehicles (FMTV), built by Oshkosh, consists of 17 models, including cargo, tractor, van, wrecker, tanker and dump truck variants. Oshkosh FMTV vehicles are built with a cab that is compliant with LTAS, and additional armor can be augmented with a standardized, bolt-on LTAS-B kit.
“Augmenting LTAS cab armor with the bolt-on B kit allows forces to more easily, quickly and cost-effectively increase protection depending on the mission requirements,” said Ivy. Oshkosh’s PLS truck, developed to load and unload a variety of heavy-payload cargo, also features a U.S. Army LTAS-compliant cab and mountings for the bolt-on LTAS.
Oshkosh’s armor supplier for the MTVR and LVSR, according to Dave Branham, a spokesman for the Marine Corps Program Executive Office-Land Systems, is Plasan Sasa, an Israeli company. “The recipe for the armor kits is classified,” he said, “but consists of a composite of steel, aluminum and other composite materials, such as Kevlar and Dyneema. Most installations have been accomplished by Oshkosh and Marine Corps depots in CONUS and some in Afghanistan, Iraq and Kuwait.” Kevlar and Dyneema are materials made from strong synthetic fibers.
Ceradyne provides A kits and B kits to various equipment manufacturers based on customer requirements, said King, fabricated from aluminum and steel composites as well as from ceramics, which is Ceradyne’s specialty. The company developed ceramic armor in the 1980s, first for helicopters and later for body armor.
“Weight is an absolute premium on helicopters, so ceramics became the natural selection,” said King. “You save about 40 percent of weight when you substitute ceramic composite armor for steel, depending on the threat and the application.”
Ceradyne’s laboratory in Michigan is working on the vehicle armor of the future. One project being tackled is to reduce the weight of the HMMWV cab. “The Humvee will be getting a new cab as part of a recapitalization program,” said King. “We took 1,200 pounds out of the Humvee without impacting protection.”
Ceradyne is also working on the joint light tactical vehicle (JLTV), the Marine Corps’ future replacement for the HMMWV fleet. “The JLTV has a weight problem,” said King. “There is a lot of ongoing effort to reduce the vehicle’s weight.” Ceradyne has materials that has been tested and approved for vehicles as part of the long-term armor strategy.
Ceradyne’s approach has been to redesign the vehicle’s doors. “The doors take up a lot of room on the side of the vehicle,” said King. “It is a logical place to look for a weight reduction. Our materials can easily be fashioned into doors. If you can change out the doors, which are made from steel and composite, to ceramics and achieve a 40 percent weight reduction, you can come up with a substantial weight reduction just by changing the doors.” ♦