DESIGN & DEVELOPMENT


Defining the future of defence


In the defence sector an overhaul in armour technology is long overdue, but the design opportunities offered by new material developments mean that much more radical approaches can be taken to enhance safety in the field. Simon Lott looks at some of the progress being made.


becoming too encumbered by their sheer size and weight, leading to crucial reductions in speed and mobility. In turn, the increasing weight causes a demand for more powerful, thirstier engines which are not only wasteful financially and environmentally, but also provide increased logistical challenges for supplying such vehicles. As an example of this need, at the 2009 Defence Vehicle


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Dynamics (DVD) event, the MoD outlined its desire for a Future Protected Vehicle (FPV), describing its ideal of ‘an electric 30 tonne armoured fighting vehicle with the ‘punch’ of a current main battle tank (MBT)’. Included in these requirements is the ‘effectiveness and survivability’ currently associated with current MBTs, but with high tactical mobility, reduced logistic footprint and the strategic mobility of a rapidly deployable, air- portable system. This would employ a modular, open architecture approach to underpin a future generation of mission configurable platforms and offer a ‘Troop Carrier’ variant, with initial test bed demonstrators by 2013. And with that announcement, it was up to the industry to respond. Interestingly, the myriad of technologies and design


he central problem faced by the military is probably the most universally common one where composites are concerned. Current generation armoured vehicles are


options that are now surfacing thanks to progress in the composites arena means that companies further down the supply chain are seeing greater opportunities to get involved in product development and the role played by subcontractors can be just as important as the research institutes. One such company is the Delta Group, which has been a dedicated producer of complex composite components since its inception in 2002. Initially the company comprised of F1 and motorsport specialist Delta Composites, however two years ago, the Group set-up Alpha Composites to deal with the large number of alternative applications it had started to get involved in. Since then it has designed and produced specific products for military applications such as the short gap crossing – a lightweight, modular carbon fibre bridge, ladder and stretcher system - and is now working with several key defence contractors on how a future protective vehicle will take shape. The main area of opportunity as far as director Ian O’Dell is


concerned, is to produce a tough composite monocoque structure, which would likely sit inside a much thinner metallic shell. Based on manufacturing technologies familiar from its F1 work, the way in which composite structures are manufactured allows for further opportunities to optimise designs beyond the weight aspect. For example, vehicles currently in operation


Autumn 2010 | Composites in Manufacturing | 27


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