CHARLOTTE, N.C., Jan. 4 (UPI) -- The U.S. Army has added $29 million to a contract for reactive armor tiles to beef up the protection of tanks operating in Iraq and Afghanistan.
General Dynamics reported Thursday it had received a modification to a $59 million August 2006 contract for the tile sets produced for the Abrams tank by its Armament and Technical Products based in North Carolina.
The project is part of an over-all up-armoring project undertaken for tanks and other vehicles patrolling areas where roadside bombs and rocket-propelled grenades are a threat. Reactive armor is considered by many analysts to be a basic component of adapting armored vehicles designed for open-field battles to a cramped, slow-moving urban environment.
"Similar reactive armor systems are currently being used in Iraq on Army Bradley Fighting Vehicles and have been proven to prevent crippling damage to those combat vehicles," General Dynamics said in a news release Thursday.
The tiles attach to the outside of the tank and both help prevent the anti-tank warhead from penetrating the exterior and also absorb and deflect some of the force of the blast. Reactive armor comes in two types: Non-explosive, which basically consists of a sheet of heavy rubber sandwiched between two steel plates, and explosive which actually contains a small explosive charge that detonates when struck by an RPG and disperses the blast away from the vehicle.
