Patent ID: 7117780

Claim:
A composite armor plate for absorbing and dissipating kinetic energy from high-velocity projectiles, said plate comprising a single internal layer of pellets which are bound and retained in plate form by an elastic material, substantially internally within said elastic material, such that the pellets are bound in a plurality of rows and columns, at least one of said rows and columns being spaced apart, the other of said rows and columns being in contact, said pellets being made of a material selected from the group consisting of ceramic material glass and sintered refractory material, and said pellets being substantially fully embedded in the elastic material so that the pellets form an internal layer, characterized in that a majority of each of said pellets in direct contact with four adjacent pellets in the same layer to provide mutual lateral confinement therebetween and is retained in spaced-apart relationship relative to pellets in the same row and pellets in the same column by said elastic material.