Vehicle armour

Military vehicles are commonly armoured (or armored; see spelling differences) to withstand the impact of shrapnel, bullets, shells, rockets, and missiles, protecting the personnel inside from enemy fire. Such vehicles include armoured fighting vehicles like tanks, aircraft, and ships.

Civilian vehicles may also be armoured. These vehicles include cars used by officials (e.g., presidential limousines), reporters and others in conflict zones or where violent crime is common. Civilian armoured cars are also routinely used by security firms to carry money or valuables to reduce the risk of highway robbery or the hijacking of the cargo.

Armour may also be used in vehicles to protect from threats other than a deliberate attack. Some spacecraft are equipped with specialised armour to protect them against impacts from micrometeoroids or fragments of space debris. Modern aircraft powered by jet engines usually have them fitted with a sort of armour in the form of an aramid composite kevlar bandage around the fan casing or debris containment walls built into the casing of their gas turbine engines to prevent injuries or airframe damage should the fan, compressor, or turbine blades break free.

The design and purpose of the vehicle determines the amount of armour plating carried, as the plating is often very heavy and excessive amounts of armour restrict mobility. In order to decrease this problem, some new materials (nanomaterials) and material compositions are being researched which include buckypaper, and aluminium foam armour plates.

Rolled homogeneous armour is strong, hard and tough (does not shatter when struck with a fast, hard blow). Steel with these characteristics is produced by processing cast steel billets of appropriate size and then rolling them into plates of required thickness. Rolling and forging (hammering the steel when it is red hot) irons out the grain structure in the steel, removing imperfections which would reduce the strength of the steel. Rolling also elongates the grain structure in the steel to form long lines, which enables the stress the steel is placed under when loaded to flow throughout the metal, and not be concentrated in one area.

Cast homogenous armour or cast steel armour is produced by directly casting steel into the desired shape. It tends to be softer as heat treatment is difficult or impossible. Nevertheless, the flexibility in shape has made it popular as the structural hull in modern tanks.

Aluminium is used when light weight is a necessity. It is most commonly used on APCs and armoured cars. While certainly not the strongest metal, it is cheap, lightweight, and tough enough that it can serve as easy armour.

Wrought iron was used on ironclad warships. Early European iron armour consisted of 10 to 12.5 cm of wrought iron backed by up to one metre of solid wood. It has since been replaced by steel due to steel being significantly stronger.