I guess this means they saved the whales

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**Manchu**

While the U.S. Navy is busy with the development of a new bulletproof material called Spinel, Surmet Corporation is already commercially producing its own version called ALON®. Technically known as aluminum oxynitride, Star Trek fans may be more familiar with the term “transparent aluminum” first proposed by Scotty in the 1986 movie, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. While ALON isn’t quite what Scotty had in mind (it’s not truly a transparent metallic aluminum, but rather a transparent aluminum-based ceramic), it’s pretty darn close.

Developed by Raytheon, ALON begins as a powder, which is then molded and baked in very high heat. The heating process causes the powder to liquefy and cool quickly, leaving the molecules loosely arranged, as if still in liquid form. It is this crystalline structure that provides ALON its level of strength and scratch resistance comparable to rugged sapphire. Polishing the aluminum oxynitride strengthens the material and also makes it extremely clear.

Traditional bulletproof glass is comprised of multiple layers: polycarbonate sandwiched between two layers of glass. Similarly, transparent aluminum armor is also composed of three layers: an outer layer of aluminum oxynitride, a middle layer of glass and a rear layer of polymer backing. However, the similarities stop there.

Aluminum armor can deflect the same rounds from small-caliber weapons as traditional bulletproof glass, but it will still be more clearly transparent even after being shot. Also, a .50-caliber armor-piercing bullet could sink nearly three inches into bulletproof glass before stopping. Aluminum armor can stop it in half the distance and yet is half the weight and thickness of traditional transparent armor.

In addition, transparent aluminum armor can be produced in virtually any shape and can also hold up to the elements much better than traditional bulletproof glass, which can be worn away by blowing desert sand or shrapnel.

Despite aluminum oxynitride’s ability to produce a superior transparent aluminum armor, this material has not been put into widespread use. The largest factor in this is cost. Transparent aluminum armor can be anywhere from three to five times as much to produce as traditional bulletproof glass. In theory, however, it would not need to be replaced as often, saving money in the long run. Further, there is no existing infrastructure to produce the material in large panes like the size of a front windshield of a vehicle. ALON is currently used for smaller applications, such as the lenses in battlefield cameras or the windows over the sensors in missiles.

http://www.tssbulletproof.com/optically-clear-aluminum-provides-bulletproof-protection/

**Ghazkuul**

That is simply amazing and will revolutionize the way we utilize bullet proof glass. Unfortunately the US government will have already signed a large and lucrative (for the company) contract for a company to provide bullet proof glass to the military. Even though an alternative exists which is far superior we will continue to lose soldiers because....yolo.

For further readings, research DragonSkin Body Armor.

**LordofHats**

Ignore that DragonSkin Body Armor never worked in the first place (Dragon Skin, aka, the greatest scam in the history of body armor)

**BeAfraid**

We already have Transparent Aluminum.

It is called "Sapphire or Corundum.

It is Aluminum Oxide, and when purified of Iron, Titanium, or other contaminants it is as transparent as Glass (assuming it is lab grown, like they grow ruby-crystals for Lasers, also corundum.

MB

Automatically Appended Next Post:
I forgot to say, we have been using it in labs for decades as beam-splitters for lasers, and for polarized filters, tuned to specific frequencies by the lattice structure of the crystals as they are grown.

We even have been using it for window panes that have optic-electric properties (such as turning a window opaque).

It is not surprising that it is being developed for a bullet-proof glass, considering sapphire is a pretty freaking hard substance.

Several species of Carbon Based (Diamondoids) have also been seen as excellent possibilities for bullet-proof materials.

But they are either freakishly expensive to make, or they are cheap, but they dissolve in volatile solvents easily (meaning regardless of how hard they are, throw some alcohol on them and they dissolve)..

But ideally, the various species of Corundum present the best possibilities for extreme protective surfaces.

They could be grown using what are known as SAMMs (Self-Assembling Metal-Monomers) as a fully formed chassis for a vehicle that was essentially a single, giant sapphire molecular crystal.

In theory the same thing could be done with a diamondoid, but the growth of synthetic carbon-based crystals is too hard to control without flaws creeping into the crystalline matrix. And then you get a section that just needs to be tapped with a hammer to separate.

Corundum Synthesized crystals don't have this property, and we can scale their growth pretty easily so that no flaws exist, making them suited to use as armor, or structural components.

MB