Patent ID: 8640590

Claim:
An armor system comprising: a ceramic armor layer including a strike face and an opposed, back face; and a ceramic composite armor layer including a front face and a rear face, the front face being directly bonded to the back face of the ceramic armor layer and free of any adhesive material therebetween, the ceramic composite armor layer comprising a matrix having a ceramic structure and unidirectionally oriented fibers embedded within the ceramic structure, wherein the ceramic armor layer and the ceramic composite armor layer each have an impedance of 15-40 x 10 6 kilograms per square meter seconds (kg-m −2 −s −1 ) such that an impact between a projectile and the strike face causes compressive stress waves to move through the ceramic armor layer toward the back face, at least a portion of the compressive stress wave reflecting off of a front face of the ceramic composite armor layer as a tensile stress wave and a second portion of the compressive stress wave travelling through the ceramic composite armor layer and reflecting off of a rear face of the ceramic composite armor layer, the tensile stress waves destructively interfering with the compressive stress waves, reducing the total stress within at least the ceramic armor layer.