An Interesting Development in Lightweight Armor

The material is called Dyneema, which is an ultra high molecular weight polyethylene.

I've seen high strength polyethylene used for bullet proof garments and butcher's gloves, where it has a real advantage over Kevlar® in that it does not degrade in a washing machine.

They were showing at a show what happened when a 500g high speed (about 1500 m/s) projectile at it.



It looks like the projectile had a low sectional density, but it's still impressive.

Here is a test stand with penetration of multiple layers:


With the detail of the final layer stopping the projectile:


Definately neat.