US engineering firm Foster-Miller’s LAST Armor Division has signed a seven million dollar contract with the US Marines to provide ceramic door armor for Marine Humvees in Iraq that will increase protection from small arms fire and shell or bomb fragments.
LAST Armor and its suppliers, Sioux Manufacturing make an armor applique system for air and ground vehicles that can be installed without cutting, welding or drilling. The panels are attached with a proprietary, high-strength Velcro hook-and-loop fastening system using only the tools provided in the kit.
More than $100 million worth of LAST Armor has been sold since it was first used on Marine light armored vehicles (LAVs) in 1991 in Operation Desert Storm. Over the past 10 years, LAST Armor has been used on LAVs and transport planes in Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq. In addition to the United States, the armor is used by the militaries of Canada, France, Britain, New Zealand, Portugal, Italy, Spain and Japan.
Foster-Miller is an independent, privately held engineering, development and manufacturing company. The company maintains a staff of more than 350 working in the areas of transportation, robotics, advanced materials, custom machinery, power systems, biotechnology and aerospace. — (menareport.com)
© 2004 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
