Patent ID: 8151685

Claim:
An armor system for defeating a solid projectile, said system comprising: a first solid armor plate; an interior solid armor plate disposed approximately parallel to the first armor plate and displaced therefrom to form a first dispersion space between the first armor plate and the interior armor plate, the first dispersion space being sufficiently thick to allow significant lateral dispersion of material passing though the first dispersion space; and an inner solid armor plate disposed approximately parallel to the interior armor plate and displaced therefrom to form a second dispersion space between the interior armor plate and the inner armor plate, the second dispersion space being sufficiently thick to allow significant lateral dispersion of materials passing therethrough; and wherein at least one of the first, interior, or inner solid armor plates comprises a material having an elongation at tensile rupture of greater than 7% and an ultimate tensile strength greater than 50,000 lbs./in. 2 ; and wherein a plurality of spheres is located in the first dispersion space, the spheres including a material selected from the group of brittle metal, ceramic, and glass.