Mexas

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Canadian Leopard C2 (Leopard 1) tank with MEXAS-M additional armor

MEXAS ( M odular Ex pandable A rmor S ystem ) is one of IBD Deisenroth Engineering developed (Engineering Office Deisenroth) composite armor . MEXAS was introduced in 1994.

Structure and effect

It consists of a ceramic layer that is glued to Kevlar or Dyneema fabric. The ceramic plate fragments the bullet, then the fragments are caught by the Kevlar fabric. This type of armor achieves twice the level of protection of an armored steel plate with the same weight.

use

Many modern combat vehicles use MEXAS composite armor. The following vehicles, among others, have been equipped or retrofitted with MEXAS: Leopard 2 (Strv 122), ATF Dingo , Spähwagen Fennek , ULAN , Stryker , Piranha IV and the Panzerhaubitze 2000 .

Older combat vehicles such as the M113 or the TPz Fuchs were also retrofitted with MEXAS in order to increase their survivability. For example, Canadian Leopard 1 tanks were upgraded with MEXAS for use in Afghanistan . MEXAS-M was used, where M stands for medium and denotes the medium protection class.

The successor of MEXAS is AMAP ( A dvanced M odular A rmour P rotection), which in the latest generation of combat vehicles such as armored Puma and the transport vehicle Boxer is used and can be modularly adapted to different situations.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Company history on the IBD Deisenroth Engineering website (accessed February 4, 2009) ( Memento from January 1, 2012 in the Internet Archive )