Ballistic Protection
Written by MICHAEL BURNETT
HARDENED PANELS FOR SOFTER SHELTERS
Soldiers and Marines engaging the enemy remain targets for attack, regardless of whether they are actively shooting back or they are resting in a shelter.
As such, the U.S. Army Soldier Systems Center in Natick, Mass., has developed the Modular Ballistic Protection System (MBPS) to help keep soldiers safe. MBPS was developed in conjunction with the Advanced Engineered Wood Composites Center at the University of Maine to protect warfighters against indirect fire, including mortar fragments, while within a shelter structure.
MBPS is an armor system consisting of lightweight panels to be installed inside a military shelter during expeditionary missions. The panels go inside of a shelter to prevent an enemy from spotting the armor and identifying the shelter as a highly valued target. The armored panels, weighing in at about 4 pounds per square foot, were first integrated into 32-foot by 20-foot. TEMPER tent frame. Four soldiers can install the system within a 32-foot shelter in about one hour.
Testing performed at Tyndall Air Force Base in early 2006 demonstrated that MBPS was able to withstand blasts as close as 21 feet away without any failure in the shelter’s structure, anchors or overall integrity and without damage to the MBPS panels.
The panels provide fragmentation protection and qualify as firearm defense at level IIIA under the standards of the National Institute of Justice (NIJ). The panels are composed of E-glass, which is a ballistic armor material, sandwiched around a core of oriented-strand board, which is actually wood.
Top shelter manufacturers such as Mobile Medical International Corporation (MMIC) have paid attention to the MBPS system and they have worked to adapt their shelters to it where necessary, Rick Cochran, MMIC president and CEO, told Military Medical Technology.
“There is some interesting design and development, all of which would be readily applicable to our shelters,” Cochran said. “The hanging material can be somewhat heavy, but our units have been tested on snow loads for a little over 4,200 pounds. That’s like putting a car on top of an air beam shelter.
“Ours has a very pronounced arch beam,” he continued. “Some shelters have a very triangular shape to them where you might get some sagging under snow load accumulation. Then you have a real problem. There is natural shedding that occurs in our case.”
These weight tests have provided Cochran with confidence that his company’s shelters would be able to make use of MBPS. MMIC tests the weight load its shelters by saturating giant blanket-like material and placing it on top of the shelters. The shelters have maintained their ability to carry significantly high weight even with reduced air beams.
“If we have something that robust, the ability to hang devices or systems for ballistics protection becomes very easy,” Cochran declared. “But we are not developing anything specific as a company. We would be an adopter of the technology from Natick.”
Morgan Brooke, program manager at CAMSS Shelters, argued that his company’s systems were particularly well positioned to make use of MBPS.
“There are some advantages to our straight sidewall, which tends to accept those armored panels better than a rounded or slanted sidewall,” Brooke told MMT. “Hardened ballistic protection is easier to attach because it is in more of an up-anddown position.
“In addition, our frame is rugged,” he remarked. “It will take on more than other frame systems, whether it were an air system or a collapsible frame system. Those will not take ballistics as well. There has been some testing done on that. The aluminum tube is able to endure ballistic impact better.”
CAMSS Shelters is working on various defenses for its kitchen and dining shelters as well, Brooke revealed. The company is exploring different ballistic protection methods that it could add to a shelter. Possibilities include various hardened panels that would attach inside the shelter along the walls, such as MBPS, or a draped curtain that would attach inside or outside of a shelter to provide ballistic protection.
BARRIER TO BALLISTICS
Base-X Inc., one of the leading manufacturers of military shelters, has not been waiting for the Army to field panels to warfighters. It has been developing its own ballistic protection solution.
“Ballistics is an area that we have really been interested in a while. We have recently introduced a product called the Base-X Barrier,” Brian Dearing, Base-X vice president of business development, told MMT.
“The Base-X Barrier consists of flexible ballistic panels that fit onto any Base-X shelter either internally or externally to provide ballistic protection against fragmentation or small arms threats,” he added. “We think it’s a very important step to take with our shelters.”
Dearing cautioned that warfighters are likely to take a cue from the MBPS playbook and install the Base-X Barriers inside of the shelter to remain stealthy. However, exterior installation remains an option if warfighters determine they are under no immediate threat from attack.
Like MBPS, the Base-X Barrier also provides level IIIA protection under NIJ standards.
“That is small arms and fragmentation,” Dearing explained. “It won’t stop .50-caliber and stuff like that. It is a level of protection that is very applicable to our typical shelter application in hostile environments.”
Roughly a year and a half ago, Base- X conducted blast testing against some of its shelter systems and found they were initially well suited for withstanding fragmentation. The company decided to extend that innate ability to an overt protective capability through development of the Base-X Barrier.
Base-X developed its barrier in conjunction with Protective Solutions, a company based in Dulles, Va. Protective Solutions specializes in creating armor and ballistics protection equipment from fiber-based material with a focus on lightweight solutions. The Base-X Barrier consists of advanced fibers designed for high durability and quick transportability.
Two panels of the Base-X Barrier, measuring 72 inches by 32 inches, could roll up into a small bag weighing in at less than 50 pounds. with poles and anchor straps to suspend the panels, according to Protective Solutions. Two soldiers could set up the barrier without any special tools or additional equipment. The aluminum hang poles could attach to existing anchor points for quick deployment.
ELECTROMAGNETIC INTERFERENCE
At least one new concept might provide warfighters with the opportunity to defeat an improvised explosive device (IED) before it even explodes, spewing fragments at soldiers and innocent passerby.
DHS Systems is developing an electromagnetic interference shelter, intended to protect sensitive electronic equipment from any sort of scrambling. Because the radio frequency protective liner of the shelter blocks any radio waves that attempt to penetrate it, the shelter could have the unexpected benefit of blocking the activating signal of an IED.
“There are various applications for this kind of shelter,” Naeran Rubio, DHS Systems communications specialist, told MMT. “It can block out radio frequencies. It can also protect sensitive commandand- control or medical equipment inside the shelter. It could also possibly prevent the remote detonation of IEDs by putting the shelter over the area containing the IED, for instance.
“IEDs are usually exploded remotely via radio waves. If you have a shelter with a liner that protects against radio waves and the radio waves cannot penetrate the shelter, you could potentially put the shelter over the IED and keep it from going off,” she added.
Rubio stressed that the shelter was still in development and had not yet undergone any tests to qualify it for its primary function, much less additional capabilities such as blocking IED activation signals.
The Composite Structures Team of the Shelters Technology, Engineering and Fabrication Directorate at the U.S. Army Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center offers a lightweight multipurpose shelter that acts as a transportable, tactical rigid wall shelter capable of providing electromagnetic interference, so the concept is not necessarily new. Innovations from leading shelter manufactures like DHS Systems, however, could spur stronger solutions with additional benefits in the very near future. ♦