Low-cost titanium armors for combat vehicles

The U.S. Army has been using more and more titanium to either increase armor or reduce the weight of current combat vehicles. Future plans call for the development of combat vehicles that are 30 percent lighter. To achieve this target, the future-vehicle hull and turret will have to be manufactured using more ballistically efficient materials than rolled homogeneous steel armor. Lowcost titanium, with its good mechanical, ballistic, and corrosion properties and acceptable fabricability, offers the overall best afternative to achieving this objective.