Patent ID: 8220378

Claim:
A composite armor panel, comprising: an armor substrate selected from the group consisting of steel, hardened metal, aluminum, and high hard steel; a single layer array including a plurality of coplanar ceramic spheres positioned in contact with the armor substrate, each interior ceramic sphere of the plurality of ceramic spheres having ceramic-to-ceramic contact with six other ceramic spheres and ceramic-to-armor substrate contact with the armor substrate and each exterior ceramic sphere of the plurality of ceramic spheres having ceramic-to-armor substrate contact with the armor substrate; a polyurea polymer layer interposed between the plurality of ceramic spheres, the polyurea polymer layer fully encapsulating the plurality of coplanar ceramic spheres and bonding the plurality of coplanar ceramic spheres to the armor substrate such that the plurality of coplanar ceramic spheres of the single layer array are oriented in a direction of anticipated impact, the respective ceramic surfaces being concealed; structural support of the composite armor panel consisting of the armor substrate, the single layer array including a plurality of coplanar ceramic spheres, and the polyurea polymer layer; and the coplanar positioning of the single layer array of the plurality of coplanar ceramic spheres and the polymer layer in combination with the polymer layer encapsulation of the ceramic spheres provides ballistic mitigation and resistance equivalent to at least 1.0 inch of wrought-steel homogeneous armor platting such that mitigation and resistance to 20 mm projectiles is achieved.