How do light armoured vehicles keep weight down and maximise armour protection? It's all about absorbing energy over large areas of the armour surface. Dr Roelf Mostert is project coordinator for the Damascus Armoured Development Consortium and he explains how projectile and explosion threats dictate high strength and high ballistic resistance components, with an emphasis on combining the benefits of both. Conflicts in Namibia and Angola in the 1970s and 1980s - where landmine blast protection was of primary importance - have driven armoured development to new levels. R&D has continued from this critical benchmark, with the University of Pretoria in South Africa leading the way in this discipline.

[inlinead]