Shot Day 4: White Horse Ballistics

[Derek Zeanah]

Some really cool stuff here. Mostly these guys are working on advancing the state of the art in armor.

Here's a basket made for EOD. Its designed to direct all the force upward, is reusable, and is priced so that with the Homeland Security grants it's essentially free to the police department. The video they were showing was very cool, with solid recommendations from EOD folks who'd been testing it.

Armor plate that's lighter than conventional ceramic plates, very inexpensive (don't know that I'm supposed to share the price), won't chip/break if dropped, and is flexible.

Armor plate. This was about 2 inches thick, but it stopped multiple rounds of .50 BMG as well. Available as a component for buildings, or as a movable barrier, or as bits and pieces for armored vehicles, etc. Much smaller (and more affordable) if you're "only" trying to protect against AP .308 rounds.

 

[Chris Rhines]

Sadly unavailable for those of us who are not Mil/LEO. This is a trend that I would like to see stop.

Impressive material, though. I spoke to one of their reps about a lightweight, portable clearing bucket for gun shops and 'smiths.

-C

 

[JShirley]

The impression I got from these guys was that a pressing reason would let them sell to you- security, for instance.

 

[hso]

The strike plates are sold through the folks at Armor Shield so if you can purchase an Armor Shield product you can get to these.

The protective panel material that snubs .50 AP in the version shown weighs in at 25 lbs/sqft. A 7.62 AP proof panel is much thinner and lighter. Either are available to anyone interested in building a protective room/wall/bookcase/yacht.

The "bomb bucket" is about the size of a tall kitchen trashcan and light enough for a bomb tech to carry up a flight of stairs. The bomb squad set a 6"x1.5" pistol powder pipe bomb off in it and it just shrugged it off. They then fed the same bomb bucket an 8"x1.5" big brother and it shrugged it off as well. They finally spit the seams with a .25lb block of C4. It contained all of it and only suffered a partial failure with the C4.

These guys are very eager to make sure that folks make it home to their families at the end of the day.

 

[JShirley]

The cost on the armor inserts is low enough that a deploying troop (or a family member of one) will find them readily affordable. I'm also eager to see a laptop-sized insert panel for briefcases and backpacks.

 

[lobo9er]

Sadly unavailable for those of us who are not Mil/LEO. This is a trend that I would like to see stop

what do you mean?

The cost on the armor inserts is low enough that a deploying troop (or a family member of one) will find them readily affordable.

I'm pretty sure if a soldier uses body armour that is not gov't issued to them and they get hurt or killed it voids their life insurance. I watched a little story on dragon skin which they dont allow are soldiers to use, I'm pretty sure that was the threat if they did use it.

Is this stuff a better system than Dragon skin?

 

[JShirley]

I haven't seen Dragonskin in person, but White Horse does make panels that can directly replace currently issued rifle plates. I believe one of the best potential uses for them is in a plate carrier with agency ID panels and a few rifle magazines. In an active shooter/known high risk situation, the LEO user can just throw the plate carrier over his uniform and SBA. He then has COM protection from rifle fire, as well as reloads for his patrol rifle.