AMTANK Armor Offers 5 Tips to Choosing an Armor Material Provider for Armored Vehicle/Vehicles

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Companies today have the challenge to ensure our armed forces return from operational areas such as Iraq and Afghanistan alive to prepare for the next mission. To do this, vehicle manufacturers and the Department of Defense must ensure that armored vehicles, particularly tactical wheeled vehicles are equipped with the best survivability systems available in the market today. When choosing an armor material provider it is important to ensure they meet the following requirements:

1. Invest in continuous R&D efforts to develop cutting-edge armor solutions

Threats come from a variety of sources; people, machines, environment, and from within. It is the ambition of the enemy to impose their will to disrupt the lifestyles and nature of how we view our national security strategy. In today´s environment, an asymmetrical threat is omnificent against our current thinking towards homeland security and peace around the world. New threats are continuously emerging requiring armor material providers to have the agility to establish new material solutions to protect our armed forces.

2. Utilize the most innovative materials available

As the United States executes its national security strategy, it mandates a military / defense presence as a show of strength to deter hostile action and engaging its forces in the global war on terrorism. Moreover, it is vitally significant to equip our war fighters deploying abroad with the best armor on their vehicles to allow a safe return home. Therein lays the challenge for vehicle manufacturers over the last few years and into the future. The Department of Defense will have pressure to tighten its fiscal belt while ensuring the best available survivability systems are still being fielded.

3. Optimize armor materials for best vehicle performance at the right price

It is even more important for vehicle manufacturers to choose the right armor material that optimizes performance of the vehicle and provides the best protection at the right price. It comes down to choosing the right armor material provider to facilitate optimizing the total survivability system.

4. Provide subject matter expertise in the field of armor system integration

AMTANK Armor brings subject matter experts in the field of armor system integration which is the science of taking material technology while balancing material performance and weight to establish a vehicle configuration. An optimized configuration happens when material performance, vehicle design and upgrade costs are balanced against required payload at an affordable price.

5. Manage weight as a collaborative design input

Vehicle manufacturers will be more successful by spending time with their armor material partner defining requirements up front and early. Requirements must define deliverables, schedule, acceptance criteria, and material traceability and risk mitigation measures. In doing so, the mass model, a weight management tool, will drive design decisions to establish affordable systems. Vehicle manufacturers have often touted AMTANK Armor´s Chief Technology Officer (CTO) for utilizing this tool to minimize rework of armor material components due to design decisions that were made unilaterally not taking weight into account. Manufacturers have saved time and money. AMTANK Armor´s CTO emphasized this point at a recent armor conference in addition to discussing the armor material optimization process.

The bottom-line to ensuring vehicle manufacturers provide life saving systems is to partner with an armor material provider that is a subject matter expert that can work together in an integrated product team environment. These experts will offer armor system designs to minimize operational degradation to the vehicle. Thus, the partnership will result in having a survivable, validated and ready to deliver vehicle on time every time.

For more information, contact AMTANK Armor today.

www.amtankarmor.com

440-268-7735

info@amtankarmor.com