SPAIN – Researchers from the Polytechnic University of Cartagena (UPCT) have designed and built a ballistics testing system to test body armor being developed under the Applications of Graphene project Personal Equipment Defense (Agepad) funded by the Coincident program (Cooperation in Scientific Research and Strategic Technologies Development) of the Ministry of Defense.

The devise for ballistic data acquisition system will study the properties of the developed flak ‘nanocomposites’ graphene-based material.  The tests will be performed outdoors with live ammunition and in collaboration with the Legion sharpshooters of Levante Marine.

“The number and variety of physical and chemical phenomena involved in a process of terminal ballistics is very large, to be nonlinear systems, so that their study is a complex task,” explains the researcher Israel Gago. For a comprehensive characterization of a ballistic impact “sufficient to determine impact speeds and escape the projectile, it is also necessary to obtain all the information possible about the penetration of the projectile,” he adds.

The system to be developed and experimentally tested  consists of a steel reinforced concrete designed to withstand repeated impacts and has been built in garage of Support Service for Technological Research (SAIT) UPCT.  It is equipped with several laser precision chronographs for measuring velocities of projectiles, with thermal imaging cameras and high-speed shooting.

After the tests, the Integrated Ballistics on Foreign Experimentation with Ammo Real (Siebemr) System will be transferred in the coming days to Naval Station Algameca, which will be delivered to the Directorate General of Ordnance.