# Britain unveils its new plastic tank.



## 404SqnAVSTeach (31 Oct 2005)

UK company QinetiQ unveils new British plastic tank.


Our new plastic armoured fighting vehicle (AFV) has sailed through its battle tests and proved to have major advantages over conventional metallic armoured vehicles of a similar size.






Plastic Tank Armoured Vehicle.



The 'plastic tank' is a world first in military engineering. It's a groundbreaking new project, in conjunction with the UK Ministry of Defence and Vickers Defence Systems. The vehicle can withstand attack from a whole range of threats - including high performance cannon fire - while increasing the survivability of the crew against small arms fire, shaped charge anti-tank rounds and shrapnel from artillery shells, compared with conventional vehicles. In addition, the vehicle incorporates stealth technology to reduce its visibility to radar and infrared sensors.

The Advanced Composite Armoured Vehicle Platform (ACAVP) is the first composite moncoque plastic AFV to have been made in the world. Vickers believe it could prove a tremendous asset; it's faster, lighter and therefore easier to transport by air than conventional vehicles, so it can be flown rapidly to war zones.

AFV construction hasn't changed much since the 1960s, when aluminium was introduced as an alternative to steel, so why the need for such a radical departure now? It's all a question of weight and of how the British Army is increasingly becoming involved in policing the world.

A significantly important role for the Army in the 21st century is as a rapid reaction force; as seen in May 2000, when a battalion of Paras was flown overnight from the UK to Sierra Leone to evacuate British nationals. This occurred just two days after 300 UN peacekeepers had been taken hostage and rebels were ransacking the capital. Although armoured vehicles could be useful in such operations, their weight can prohibit rapid air deployment. When Britain spearheaded the peacekeeping forces in Bosnia in 1992, for example, the troops were on 24-hours notice to fly from their bases in Germany, while their vehicles took nearly a month to be shipped to Split. This effectively left soldiers stranded, unable to venture up country without protection from their armoured vehicles.

The answer was to develop a vehicle with at least the same protective capabilities as those currently in use, but light enough to be airlifted easily at short notice. This meant abandoning metals for a lightweight, but extremely tough, moulded E-glass fibre composite: plastic.






The ACAVP on trials at QinetiQ's test track.



For many years, composites have been used to make protective liners in armoured vehicles to prevent spallation - the potentially deadly shower of metal shards that can shear off inside the hull when the vehicle is hit. By removing the metal hull and replacing it with a plastic construction, there is no need for the weight-increasing spall liner and the danger to the crew from a hit is reduced by the design. It has passed all the tests required of a fully operational military vehicle and the technology can now be taken up by industry to be used in production vehicles.

We envisage a whole range of armoured vehicles being developed from the basic composite hull, each with a different role, such as armoured personnel carrier, reconnaissance, command, communications, logistics and ambulance. Its most important role may be during peacekeeping, during which the safety of the vehicle's crew becomes the overriding requirement.

The plastic tank at a glance:



Weight: just 24 tons, four tons lighter than the similar metallic vehicle

Top speed of 40mph over rugged terrain

Decreased fuel consumption, reducing the need for supporting fuel tankers

Increased survivability for the crew, through: reduced visibility to radar and infra-red scanners; reduced risk of shrapnel inside the hull; better protection against bullets, mortars and land-mines

Ideal for use in salt-water conditions, as plastic is less susceptible to corrosion than metal.

http://www.qinetiq.com/home/case_studies/defence/plastic_pank.html


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## Koenigsegg (3 Dec 2005)

Interesting idea, and yes, good find.

But is it just me, or does it look like a M113 on steroids?


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## geo (5 Dec 2005)

from the look of things, it looks like it would fit in the back of a Herc... and that would present all sorts of interesting possibilities.
Lightweight (relatively) and airportable (+/-) 24tons = 24385Kg VS Herc capacety of 17320 Kg... Wonder if the CC130J has increased capacity?


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## Douke (6 Dec 2005)

Very interesting find, I wouldn't build a main combat tank with plastic, but it definitly seem like a very viable idea for lightweight APCs and suchs.

Douke


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## Seamus449 (6 Dec 2005)

Wow, thats the kind of armour that the Sheridan designers dreamt of. I won't bash it becuase its made of out plastic rather than metal becuase in a lot of cases plastic, or something very similar, has replaced metals in the last few decades.


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## AoD71 (6 Dec 2005)

He means "in a lot of cases plastic, or something very similar, has replaced *metal* in the last few decades." And he is right. One good example would be Kevlar, aka poly-paraphenylene terephthalamide. Its a polymer, which means its plastic.


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## Bin-Rat (6 Dec 2005)

Hmmm, sounds good, and they say it passed all tests... Well what about a heat test as in somehwere where temps are really really hot like a desert, could that not soften the plastic... and or how about a place like Russia, Canada North during winter, how would it stand up to those friget temps... 

Dunno but plastic when cold doesn't work as well from it normal climate conditions.... Hope they think about them.. and not just if it can withstand smalll arms fire... I think small arms fire on a frozen tank could take it out, well IMO...

But none the less, a nice achievment anyhow...


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## geo (6 Dec 2005)

Polymers are designed from the ground up so if you place an order for some stuff that will work at +40C AND -40C.... then the supplier will provide you with same and bill you for his work.... simple


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## GO!!! (10 Dec 2005)

What about fires?

Plastic burns, and the trouble spots around the world right now often have an affinity for immolating vehicles, flags and their victims!

The idea seems good though!


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## WogCpl (10 Dec 2005)

As far as fires go plastic, (as we are calling it although it is probably more of a composite like a c-7 handguard, glass fiber reenforced blah, blah blah,) will probably do better that Aluminum, which melts at 1100deg C or, my favorite, Magnesium, which will catch fire before it melts.

But, what about repair? how do you fix the hull if you can't weld it? A liittle bondo, or fiber glass? is the repair stronger, like a weld, or weaker?


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## Kirkhill (10 Dec 2005)

> But, what about repair? how do you fix the hull if you can't weld it? A liittle bondo, or fiber glass? is the repair stronger, like a weld, or weaker?



Interesting point. On the other hand they do describe it as a "monocoque" construction which if I remember correctly means there is no frame or chassis and that structural strength comes from the front, back, sides, top and bottom all being attached to each other so that they are effectively one piece.  That kind of suggests to me that they have some method of melting/welding the edges of those flat panels so that they don't just stick together but actually, like a weld, make one piece out of two.

Speculating.


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## AoD71 (11 Dec 2005)

I believe monocoque is unique by how they fabricate it. Space shuttles and planes use this technology, and its now popular among high-end bike frames and some cars. The way it is made involves no welding, but it is molded/formed/folded into its shape. This makes it stronger because there are no seams. Also speculation  :


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## inferno (27 Dec 2005)

Monocoque is sort of like a unibody car.. the frame/body is all one peice. Instead of designing a ridgid frame, and hanging everything else off it.. the body is designed to be the frame itself.

The best example and most commonly cited Monocoque is formula1 karts.. they are carbon fiber, and vaccume formed.. the body has its own strength that keeps the entire structure from flexing.

Interesting to know... the Space Shuttle, and most aircraft except maybe portions of the F22 are old style frame and skinning.. scary as hell if you ask me. A lot of composite is used in modern aircraft... but essentialy most aircraft and the space shuttle are built the same way they were 30 years ago.. which is the same way they were built in WW2... frame.. pannels.. rivets.


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## DG-41 (27 Dec 2005)

I dealt a lot with composites, particularly carbon fibre, in my other life as a racecar engineer.

What you can do with plastics is simply amazing. You can get lighter, stonger, stiffer structures than you can with metal. Or by changing the type and direction of the weave, you can tune the strength and stiffness in the direction you want it.

The driveshaft in my race car is made of carbon fibre - which means it is plastic - and it handles 400 HP no problem at all.

I've also dealt with some structural plastics, like the plastic that is used a lot these days to make front and rear bumper crash structures on OEM cars. Cutting that stuff is a serious pain in the ass, as it rips the teeth off sawblades, and if it gets too hot the binding polymer melts and heals the cut behind the blade. I can easily imagine an armour made of siimilar stuff - lots of kevlar bound together with a hard matrix plastic.

Yeah, it'd probably burn - but so does M113 armour. 

DG


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## geo (27 Dec 2005)

M113 armour?... yeah (sounds like a bit of an Oxymoron doesn't it?)
They incorporated Magnesium alloy to make it lighter; the same thing they did for HMS Sheffield - the UK Warship which made quite the blaze in the Falklands - resulting in considerable thought to naval warship design....

From where I stand, if they can make weapons out of plastic (and they aren't disposable/throw-away), they can make AFVs out of manmade materials.


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## Michael OLeary (2 Aug 2006)

Sanitized, and reopened for further discussion.


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## Shamrock (2 Aug 2006)

Here is the Jane's Defence article on it from 12 Mar 2001.  I'll reproduce it here.

UK AFV with composite hull passes field tests

CHRISTOPHER F FOSS JDW Land Forces Editor DERA, Chertsey

The UK's Advanced Composite Armoured Vehicle Platform (ACAVP), Europe's first armoured fighting vehicle (AFV) with a plastic/glass-fibre hull, has successfully completed extensive field trials. 

According to the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency (DERA), these trials demonstrated it would be possible for future AFVs to use a plastic/glass-fibre hull that would offer the user significant advantages over current aluminium/steel hulls. These advantages include a reduction in weight by integrating the spall liner into the composite structure, decreased acoustic signature and the incorporation of stealth characteristics. These characteristics increase battlefield survivability. 

ACAVP development started in 1993 under the leadership of DERA with the involvement of a number of UK contractors. Vosper Thornycroft, which has extensive experience in advanced composite materials, built the hull. 

Vickers Defence Systems (VDS) at Leeds carried out design work as well as being responsible for integrating all of the subsystems and delivering the complete vehicle to DERA early last year ready for trials. 

Other companies contributing expertise included Ciba; Hexel Composites; the Army Base Repair Organisation; Kidde-Graviner; and the Perkins Engine Company. 

As the basic idea was to test the viability of a composite hull, all of the key subsystems were taken from existing and well-proven vehicles. The complete running gear is from the Alvis Vehicles Warrior infantry fighting vehicle with the power pack of the Desert Warrior. The latter consists of a Perkins Engines Company CV8 Condor developing 550hp coupled to an X-300 automatic transmission and a modified cooling system. With a weight of around 24 tonnes, the ACAVP has a power-to-weight ratio of 23hp/tonne. 

The ACAVP hull is made from E-glass, which is a plastic/glass-fibre composite, and compared with a normal AFV hull provides a higher level of protection at a lower weight. An appliqué layer of passive armour is fitted to the hull front and sides for more protection. 

It is guarded against 14.5mm armour-piercing (AP) attack through 360º and has protection against 30mm AP attack over the frontal arc. The appliqué armour can be rapidly removed to allow the vehicle to be transported by a Lockheed Martin C-130 Hercules. 

Following initial trials at VDS's Leeds facility, the ACAVP went to Chertsey for a series of functional and safety tests. These included measuring climbing ability, gradient, side slope, trench crossing and speed characteristics. It then went to the British Army's Armoured Trials and Development Unit (ATDU) at Bovington for a further 1,800km of battlefield day trials. 

While there were failures of subsystems, for example, a split fuel tank and several fuel and hydraulic line fractures, there was no damage to the composite hull, which met all of its design requirements. 

By fitting a more compact power pack and hydro pneumatic suspension, further weight savings could be made. A rubber band track could further reduce noise levels. 

DERA hopes to start a four-year Integrated Survivability Demonstrator (ISD) programme in 2005. This vehicle will probably have a composite hull as well as a number of other features such as active armour and a defensive aids suite. 

As yet there is no production application for the ACAVP, although its design has been configured as a reconnaissance vehicle where the two-person crew compartment is at the front, mission module is in the centre with the Fox 30mm turret and the power pack at the rear. 





The UK's Advanced Composite Armoured Vehicle Platform has completed its trials at the Armoured Trials and Development Unit. (Source: CF Foss)


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## Rocketryan (9 Sep 2006)

FatwogCpl said:
			
		

> But, what about repair? how do you fix the hull if you can't weld it? A liittle bondo, or fiber glass? is the repair stronger, like a weld, or weaker?



I saw a show about that like 4 years ago. For short term repair they just glue on a piece of the armor. But thats short term. For a real repair no idea.


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