Titanium

Posted on January 26, 2016 by Oleg Volk

Russian body armor uses titanium plates. Do any US makers use it?

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13 Responses to Titanium

  1. Fred Briffle says:
    January 26, 2016 at 1:44 am

    I don’t see why titanium would be any different than any other metal. But I’m not an expert. It just seems to me if it was as effective as a ceramic that weighs a lot more, someone would be using it. Just a guess.

  2. Edward says:
    January 26, 2016 at 2:56 am

    Some do, but if they still do rgey’re overshadowed by ar500 steel and ceramic.

  3. Ray says:
    January 26, 2016 at 5:47 am

    None that I know of. We almost never see real modern Russian military gear in the US Oleg. Is the Russian Vest/helmet/body armor any better than ours?

  4. Richard says:
    January 26, 2016 at 1:34 pm

    Actually the door gunners ridding in slicks wore armor that had Titanium plates sewn in, using an overlapping design, sort of like plate mail?. Frankly the squares were about 2 or 3 inch’s square, Some were a little bit bigger but not by much and didn’t do all that much to protect them, Also the vest the ground troops wore with the rolled collar were also made that way. The titanium was over about a dozen layers of Kevlar 534, and the whole thing was rather heavy. And hot. The thing no one seems to get is the ALL the body armor used during the Southeast War Games were made to stop explosive fragments NOT projectiles. The armor with out the Titanium plates was designated “Fragmentation Vest” NOT Body armor. They weren’t even capable of stopping a 45. let alone anything out of a long gun. My company experimented with titanium back in the late 80’s early 90’s but it’s too hard to work with and to put any sort of curve in it you needed one big honking Roller Press, and the material couldn’t be thick either which meant it couldn’t stop projectiles by itself, you Had to have some form of soft Ballistic material behind it. Like Kevlar or Spectra shield. Not to mention it was and is expensive.

  5. Tad Stratton says:
    January 26, 2016 at 1:51 pm

    I miss my titanium plates from the 9o’s. As far as I know we got armor made in the 90’s with optional titanium plates. Don’t remember who made them but all of the metal was from the US. I have one plate left and sent it to the sandbox with my cousin to use in his E&E pouch.

  6. Michael B. says:
    January 26, 2016 at 3:03 pm

    During the Vietnam War, US forces had the “titanium-nylon composite vest with 3/4 collar”. Weight only 4 kg; introduced in Vietnam about 1966. It was rarely seen, mostly used by riverine forces (who didn’t have to do much walking with it). The titanium plates weren’t very large, being a lot of overlapping small rectangles 0.8 mm thick.

    http://www.usmilitariaforum.com/forums/index.php?/topic/36131-unusual-armor-vest-worn-by-usn-swift-boat-crew/

    http://usarmy-collectors.pagesperso-orange.fr/fichiers%20listes%20et%20divers/body%20armor%20us%20navy.htm

  7. Paul Koning says:
    January 26, 2016 at 6:53 pm

    So what is used instead? Is the US alternative lighter for the same performance? Or cheaper?

    The A-10 “Warthog” airplane uses a titanium “bath tub” armor around the cockpit.

  8. Daniel E. Watters says:
    January 26, 2016 at 7:59 pm

    Don’t forget that the former republics of the Soviet Union possessed a huge share of the world’s reserves of titanium ore. They could afford to use it in applications that would make Western nations flinch at the price tag.

    • Will says:
      February 3, 2016 at 8:55 pm

      A friend in the early 90’s was in a small company that was working on importing Titanium from the post Soviet area. He was telling me the Soviets had so much of it, they had issued shovels made from it.

  9. Michael Z. Williamson says:
    January 27, 2016 at 10:43 pm

    I’ve seen one of the helmets used for close quarters riot control. It’s about 2″ thick Ti, has a very solid polycarbonate face shield, and can completely ignore a full swing bat strike from an adult male (me). It weighs about 25 lbs.

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