|
GLASS
CHALLENGE
This year's
shooting events, which took place on a Thursday afternoon
and a Friday morning, opened with AFJ's traditional glass-busting
challenge. At previous Shoot-outs, this event pitted the latest
in bullet-resistant glass from American Defense Systems (ADS)
against the hottest bullets that LeMas' RBCD can muster. The
glass sold by ADS is manufactured by Cardinal LG.
During
the past three years, ADS and LeMas have developed increasingly
effective products for their annual showdowns at Shoot-outs.
On balance, the two concerns have battled to as close to a
draw as could be expected. Last year's glass-blasting contest
concluded with the RBCD guys hammering five .50-caliber "Medium
Armor Killer" (600 grains) rounds from a 30-inch-barreled
Barrett Model 99 into an ADS "Heavy-Plus," 4.35-inch
glass panel from a distance of 100 feet. The rounds impacted
about eight inches from each other: Two penetrated the glass
barrier; three were stopped.
Quite
appropriately, the ADS folks call their latest line of glass
"VistaSteel Transparent Armor." Shown publicly for
the first time at Shoot-out 2002, the line is available in
Lite, Medium, Heavy and Heavy-Plus compositions.
Not surprisingly,
the panels are consistent crowd-pleasers at Shoot-outs. As
an evaluator remarked at last year's event: "By far the
best [glass] in the world. I've never seen anything like it.
Hell, I didn't even know this was possible."
His observation
is particularly compelling in light of the extremely devastating
effects created by RBCD ammo, as detailed in previous Shoot-out
reports. Another evaluator at the 2002 event summed up his
impressions of the bullets-versus-glass competition this way:
"I am impressed. This was the second-most amazing thing
I saw today. The ability [of the glass] to stop the rounds
I saw it stop is totally awe-inspiring. It stopped everything
shot at it with the exception of the LeMas [RBCD] rounds."
Against
this background, ADS and LeMas squared off once again. The
ADS team set up an array of its latest glass products which,
like the glass featured at last year's demonstration, use
a nonpolycarbonate polymer as the lamination medium in lieu
of polycarbonate laminates used previously. This process gives
thinner, lighter glass the bullet-stopping power of considerably
thicker, heavier products.
CHANGE
IN PLANS
As originally
planned, this year's bullet-versus-glass contest was set to
pit both RBCD ammo and some special glass-penetrating rounds
from Switzerland's Ruag against the ADS products. Unfortunately,
AFJ was told that the Swiss company was prohibited from exporting
its ammo to the United States because of a blanket Swiss government
prohibition against weapons-related exports to any country
engaged in a war. With activities in Iraq still underway at
the time, the Swiss company was forced to bow out of the competition.
Considering the results of the RBCD ammo against the new glass,
it may have been a good thing for the Swiss to stay home.
Despite
repeated attempts by the LeMas team to punch through the glass,
the transparent barriers held. A .90-inch-thick "Lite
Armor" panel withstood 36 hits, including 12 RBCD rounds,
from a .45 ACP from 15 feet. A .96-inch panel bettered 15
RBCD rounds fired from a 24-inch-barrel H&K carbine, again
from 15 feet. And so it went, all the way up to a pair of
shots with two different types of RBCD .300 WinMag ammo -
a 130-grain Hardened Armor Priority Penetrator (HAARP) and
a 112-grain Armor-Piercing Limited Penetration round - fired
into a 1.79-inch-thick panel from 100 yards.
In fairness
to the LeMas team, RBCD ammo isn't designed to penetrate glass.
What makes this "blended metal" frangible ammo worthy
of note is its ability to cut through most hard mediums, such
as steel plates, yet not penetrate soft targets such as tissue
or even several layers of wallboard (August 2001, August 2002
AFJ). That fact, however, provided little solace to the LeMas
team. It's a sure bet the firm is already working on a new,
glass-busting round for next year's Shoot-out.
Publicly
demonstrated for the first time at AFJ Shoot-out 2001, RBCD
ammo has attracted a considerable band of supporters throughout
the SOF community. It does, however, have its detractors,
who remain convinced that the bullets' performance is due
principally to their high velocities. Questions about the
bullets' characteristics and suitability for military use
should be answered soon: This year's defense budget includes
just over $1 million for testing RBCD ammo.
The inability
to test Ruag ammunition against ADS' glass presented an opportunity
for several other industry attendees to see what their weapons
(using standard ammo types) could do against the bullet-resistant
glass. By the time the smoke cleared from that exercise, the
VistaSteel line had bettered nearly all comers.
A 1.3-inch
panel stopped a 5.7-by-28mm round from an FNH FiveseveN pistol
at 20 feet; a 1.5-inch panel defeated the same type round
at the same distance fired from a P90 tactical assault weapon;
a 1.79-inch panel bettered a .408 Cheyenne Tactical cartridge
(419 grains/2,950 feet per second, or fps) fired through the
29.5-inch barrel of a .408 CheyTac Intervention Model 200
Military sniper system at 100 yards; and a 1.5-inch glass
panel was too much for a 334-grain full metal jacket (FMJ)
flatpoint slug pushed through the 12-inch barrel of an Alexander
Arms .499 Beowulf at 1,900 fps from 20 feet away. (A "standard"
Beowulf carries a 16-inch barrel; a 24-inch barreled version
is also available.) It wasn't until an FMJ slug was fired
from the 12-inch-barreled Beowulf at a 1.19-inch panel that,
finally, a sliver of daylight glinted through an ADS glass
panel.
|
