AmSafe Industries Inc. — a Phoenix-based provider of engineered textile products for aviation,
defense and specialty vehicle applications — has received a $4 million contract from the United
Kingdom (UK) Ministry of Defence (MOD) to supply its Tarian QuickShield rocket-propelled-grenade
(RPG) protection system.
Tarian QuickShield is based on Amsafe’s patented Tarian technology, which comprises a
lightweight modular system that replaces traditional bar or slat armor on vehicles such as
high-mobility multipurpose wheeled vehicles (HMMWVs) that cannot handle the weight of traditional
RPG armor. The lightweight textile net system can be used in place of damaged or missing bar armor.
According to the company, it can easily be stowed aboard the vehicle and immediately fitted to
replace damaged bar armor without disrupting a crew’s mission.
“The introduction of Tarian QuickShield into operations in Afghanistan allows vehicle crew to
rapidly repair damaged bar armor in the field, without the need for specialist tools, and will
therefore help to ensure better vehicle protection during extended missions away from bases,” said
Major Gareth East, REME, UK MOD Specialist & Logistic Vehicles Project Team.
Introduced in 2009, Tarian technology has been tested in the UK by the Defence Science and
Technology Laboratory, a division of the Ministry of Defence, and in the United States by the
Department of Defense’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), and has been shown to
withstand more than 550 live firing shots. Tarian is up to 98-percent lighter than steel bar/slat
armor and up to 94-percent lighter than aluminum bar/slat armor.
March 29, 2011
