Bullet Resistant glasses?

[AtomSphere]

Just curious, Can a .50cal rifle bullet penatrate the thickest bullet resistant glass made for cars to date?

Note: I use the term Resistant instead of proof.

 

[Don't Tread On Me]

Depends on the car I guess. I'd say generally - YES. The .50bmg is just too much, especially with AP. If I recall correctly, not even armored trucks can handle the .50BMG...and they are more armored than these special order VIP armored vehicles.


Now, I'd bet that the Presidential Limo window can stop a .50bmg no problem. Have you ever noticed from photos of the President inside with his wife that side by side on the bench seat, they barely fit to sit comfortably? That's because each door is a little over 1ft thick. Who knows how thick the bullet-resistant glass is on that. I'd imagine that a 8" slab of cross weaved bullet resistant glass could probably stop a .50BMG. Who knows?


They certainly will never release that info. The lesser potential assassins know about how much you can defeat, or what you cannot defeat, the better it is for you, since they will have to gamble or guess at what might work, and chances are they'll use something inadequate.

 

[Manedwolf]

One of the Mythbusters shows tested bulletproof glass against a number of calibers.

They were rather surprised when a Garand's 30-06 punched right through it and kept going with likely lethal force.

 

[RyanM]

Depends on the .50 cal, too. A .50 cal musket has a lot less penetrating ability than a .50 BMG.

Depends on the ammo. .50 BMG military ball is steel core. Most commercial bullets are lead core.

Depends on the type of glass and the thickness.

Depends on the angle the glass is struck at. Even a relatively small angle can make a big difference.

 

[brickeyee]

"One of the Mythbusters shows tested bulletproof glass against a number of calibers."

I do remeber they were not using the strongest stuff available.
It gets up to many inches (6-8-10) thick.

 

[Ol` Joe]

Here`s a artical from the Berret web site. The first couple paragraphs might shed some light on you question.
A 50 will definatly penatrate a lot of armor.
http://www.barrettrifles.com/news/ForbesOct-2001RonnieBarrett.pdf

 

[AtomSphere]

Didn't knowtised the president's car is so tight in there...

Maybe a AP .50 cal with diamond core can do it

 

[Lucky]

If it's just Lexan, then its got a thickness efficiency of 0.33, compared to RHAe. So that's something. A foot is easy to convert, too: 12" / 3 = 4". 4" of armour steel is more than anything a .50bmg can handle, I think.

As for real glass, I think that would be even more resistant, iirc it's an excellent armour material. A T72 with it's vision blocks shot up at the local museum here doesn't have anything but little chips knocked off the glass, and splinter lines. Some Russian tanks even used types of glass (quartz iirc) as a filler material in their armour designs. I think it's good similar to ceramic, it's hard and it breaks the thing hitting it.

 

[AtomSphere]

By the way. I saw a TV program before saying bullet-resist glass will eventually fail when subjected to prolonged firing at a certain spot.

So firing around 10 rounds of .50cal barret AP bullets at around 700meters should compromise (ALL?) bullet resist glass of any thinkness and type?


Some info from web:

CLASS
TEST
"S" WEAPEN & AMMUNITION SOLIVER CODE TOTAL
THICKNESS
IN MM TECHNICAL
REPORT
BR 1 Carbine
0,22 LR 3340 14 mm 00BP841
00BP842
00BP843

BR 2 Pistol
9 mm
Luger 3495 22,5 mm 00BP690
00BP691
00BP692

BR 3 Pistol
0,357
Magnum 3360 22,2 mm 00BP764
00BP765
00BP766

BR 4 Pistol
0,44 REM 3625 34,5 mm 00BP696
00BP697
00BP698

BR 5 Rifle
5,56 x 45 3646 38,6 mm 99BP717
99BP718
99BP719

BR 6 Rifle
7,62 x 51 3600 60 mm 00BP699
00BP700
00BP701

SG 1 Riot gun
CAL. 12/70
Brenneke 3625 34,5 mm 99BP682
99BP683
99BP684

SG 2 Riot gun
CAL. 12/70
Brenneke 3627 36,3 mm 99BP713
99BP714
99BP715

Kalashnikov
AK 47
Mild steel core
7,62 x 39 3627 36,3 mm 00BP705
00BP706
00BP707

 

[Byron Quick]

Bullet resistant glass sustains damage with each round defeated. This damage leads to degradation of resistance.

So, in theory, hitting the same spot will eventually defeat the glass. There's a big difference between hitting bullet resistant glass in the same spot when the glass is on a target stand at the range and hitting the same spot on an armoured limousine multiple times as it accelerates as quickly as possible while the security team is searching for the origin of incoming fire. If your hide is located, then you have the situation of hitting an accelerating bullet resistant window multiple times in the same spot as the security teams showers lead on you. Each additional shot you fire from the same location reduces your chance of survival. Each time you move to prevent your immediate demise, you have just added one more variable to adjust for in what is already a very demanding task.

I don't think such has ever been accomplished with a semi-automatic or bolt action .50 BMG rifle. If I knew of a case of someone pulling it off, my reaction would be to attribute it more to luck than to skill (Though you would have to have very high skills to even be in the position to get the luck.). So, I'd say,"Do it again."

From listening to the news, most successful assassination attempts against armoured VIP vehicles utilize large amounts of explosives buried under the highway or in a car parked by the VIP route.

 

[slyeugeneguy]

Got a hypothetical question? Seems like the box o' truth guys have answers:

http://www.theboxotruth.com/docs/bot6.htm


(And not to 50 cal question, but to the general question about how much the glass can handle.)

 

[AtomSphere]

There was a fello whose car got hit by a few RPGs and survived with minor cuts! Damn those armoured car r tough

It will be so cool to get a Hummer2 and armour it up!

 

[GregGry]

Humm, seems to make quick work of all these things

http://www.filecabi.net/video/50caliber.html

(note some banners aren't exactly safe for work)

 

[AtomSphere]

OMG!

NIce footage! Damn it can penatrate the safe!

I noted the bullet resist glass failed miserably. Maybe its an older generation of B.R. glass

 

[GregGry]

The glass was only 3/4 thick if I recall.. Thats not a whole lot, especially when your talking a .50bmg round thats AP.

 

[CypherNinja]

ALON For the win!!

http://www.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123012131

In a June 2004demonstration, an ALONtm test pieces held up to both a .30 caliber Russian M-44 sniper rifle and a .50 caliber Browning Sniper Rifle with armor piercing bullets. While the bullets pierced the glass samples, the armor withstood the impact with no penetration.

Stopped a 50BMG AP round, dunno what thickness, though. Its CONSIDERABLY thinner than than BR Glass in any case.

Some more:
http://www.surmet.com/alonArmor.html
http://www.afrlhorizons.com/Briefs/Sept03/ML0303.html

 

[TF_FH]

I like how it calls the Russian M44 a sniper rifle
Sounds like some strong stuff though

 

[Zero_DgZ]

This is off topic, but I misinterpreted the intent of the title of this thread and my first thought to myself was "Man, even if the glasses stopped the bullet that would hurt your face!"

I'm glad I'm a wiser man, now. Heh.

 

[Big Wooly Mammoth]

Apparently not this glass

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4555501444337670050&q=50+cal

 

[XDKingslayer]

While the .50 cal BMG is a much praised round, it has it's faults. The biggest being it's 1 degree of obliquity, meaning that if it hits anything hard at more than 1 degree of angle it will likely ricochet.

Seeing as it can penetrate 1" of homogeneous steel, I'd say most armor glass isn't going to slow it down.