DSEi: India's Tata to Produce Super Armor in U.K.

Known as Super Bainite, the new armour steel has been developed to have outstanding ballistics properties
source UK MoD - picture: Tata Steel 2011

14 Sep 2011 By ANDREW CHUTER DefenseNews

LONDON - Tata Steel is to produce a super steel armor in Britain using an invention developed by the U.K. Ministry of Defence's research laboratory.

The Indian-based company has signed a deal to produce a Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl's) development known as super bainite. The licensing agreement will see Tata produce the armor at its Port Talbot, South Wales, steel plant.

The deal, unveiled at the Defence & Security Equipment International show in London Sept. 14, allows Tata to manufacture and process the steel in the U.K. and Europe and to export it globally.

Program officials at Dstl say they are in discussion with potential processors in the U.S. and elsewhere, and there is also a potential for manufacture outside Europe, possibly India.

Manufacture will give Britain its first onshore supply of high performance steel armor. Previously, it has had to import the material from established producers in places such as Sweden and France.

The ultra high-hardness perforated plate can also be supplied in a soft version that can be bent into various shapes and then hardened.

Dstl's Peter Brown, one of the inventors of the armor, said super bainite has outstanding ballistics properties compared with normal steel armors.

"The ballistic performance of perforated super bainite steel is at least twice that of conventional rolled homogenous steel armor. The introduction of perforations creates a large number of edges, which disrupts the path of incoming projectiles, significantly reducing their potency," said Brown.

The steel has military and commercial applications but Paul Davies of Tata Steel said he hopes armor specialists recognize the potential of the material for appliqué up-armoring.