![\"metalfoambullet\"](\"https:\/\/hcsblogdotorg.files.wordpress.com\/2016\/04\/metalfoambullet.jpg?w=620\")
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For thousands of years, armor was something people wore<\/em>. Gunpowder, which could launch projectiles straight through metal garments, changed that, and with the invention of the tank in World War I, armor become something people rode inside<\/em>. The invention of Kevlar in 1965 brought back wearable armor, and then armor-piercing bullets were designed to punch through that. The next stage of armor might be more of a giant leap than an incremental improvement: A new type of composite metal foam can stop an armor-piercing bullet in just a fraction of an inch.<\/p>\n Developed by NC State professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering Afsaneh Rabiei, this foam absorbed so much of the bullet\u2019s impact that the indentation on the target was less than a third of an inch (8mm, to be exact). The armor itself is just an inch thick, and it\u2019s made of boron carbide ceramics as the strike face, a composite metal foam as an energy-absorbing middle later, and either a strong aluminum 7075 or Kevlar panels backing it up.<\/p>\n Rabiei tested the foam against the standard NATO 7.62\u00d751mm rounds. She also tested it against the 7.62 \u00d7 63-millimeter bullet, a type of ammunition rarely used in combat today. The composite metal foam armor met the Department of Justice\u2019s standards for Type IV armor<\/a>, useful against armor-piercing bullets.<\/p>\n Watch it, slowly, below:<\/p>\n