Alcoa [AA] and the Army Research Laboratory launched a cooperative effort to develop a single-piece aluminum hull for ground combat vehicles to potentially solve the main threat to soldier safety: IEDs.
The single-piece aluminum hull would replace today’s assembled and welded hulls and provide more strength and durability, the company said Oct. 21. The single-piece hull would also reduce the weight of the vehicle, assembly time, and overall cost to the military customer.
“For decades, the Army has recognized the survivability benefits of a single-piece hull due to its thickness, size and shape for ground combat vehicles,” said Ernest Chin of the Army Research Laboratory. “Our collaborative effort to develop continuous and seamless aluminum hull technology has the potential to be a game changer for how combat vehicles are designed and made to better protect our soldiers.”
Combat vehicle performance would be improved by a single-piece hull because using more blast-absorbent Alcoa alloys is expected to further increase damage resistance, the company said. Also, forging hulls as one unit eases three-dimensional shaping, allowing Alcoa to tailor the thickness where needed to maximize protection and allow for weight savings.
“Alcoa has helped the U.S. military stay ahead of emerging threats by innovating durable, lightweight aluminum technologies since World War I,” Alcoa Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer Ray Kilmer said. “Our experts are now developing the world’s largest, high-strength aluminum hull for combat vehicles to better defend against IEDs, which have been responsible for two-thirds of casualties in Afghanistan, while meeting the Army’s affordability needs.”
The Army Research Laboratory, in partnership with Alcoa Defense, initiated the program after Alcoa modeled significant performance advantages of the single-piece hull. Alcoa also brings proven advanced materials expertise and experience forging the world’s largest aluminum structures.
This initiative is part of the Army’s Affordable Protection from Objective Threats program, created to improve the military’s defense against modern-day threats, such as IEDs, using affordable, advanced manufacturing technologies. IEDs are a critical threat against soldiers in combat zones.
During the next 18 months, Alcoa Defense, the Army’s Research, Development and Engineering Command (RDECOM) and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) will coordinate research and development efforts with scientists at the Alcoa Technical Center, the world’s largest light metals R&D facility, to refine the hull design and develop the alloy requirements. Alcoa Defense will then work with engineers at Alcoa Forgings and Extrusions in Cleveland to produce 20- by 7-foot demonstrator hulls to validate the performance benefits. These hulls will be forged using Alcoa Cleveland’s 50,000-ton forging press–one of two heavy closed die forging presses of this size in the United States and a strategically important asset to the defense industry.