A Survey of Potential Ceramic Armor Materials, Revisited

Jake Ganor, Founder

In March 1968, 1st Lt. Jacob J. Stiglich, Jr. of the U.S. Army Materials and Mechanics Research Center (AMMRC) published A Survey of Potential Ceramic Armor Materials (AMMRC MS 68-04), a screening study compiled right after the first generation of monolithic alumina, silicon carbide, and boron carbide aircrew and personnel armor plates were fielded.

The primary aim of the study was to thoroughly document the range of materials that might be useful in future ceramic and ceramic-metal composite armor systems, and to then use that data to inform research into production. In most cases this was done on prototype scales. Unfortunately, you’ll notice that it didn’t result in anything to displace the three armor ceramics mentioned above.

But the original table is still useful, and I feel that it could do with a modern refresh. Before getting right into it, though, I’d like to highlight what I think you ought to look out for:

Promising Research Directions

Doped and boron-rich boron carbide (P2-CA-06, P2-CA-07): Small additions of silicon or a higher boron-to-carbon ratio modify the atomic chains between the B₁₂ and B₁₁C icosahedra that make up boron carbide’s crystal structure. This change mitigates amorphization at high pressure without significantly increasing density. A fully amorphization-resistant doped boron carbide has not yet been developed, but it doesn’t need to be fully resistant for use in body armor — it only needs to resist amorphization up to ~30GPa to defeat the tungsten-cored AP rounds in service today. (I’ll be writing another post about this soon.)

Multi-phase carbide and boride composites (P2-CA-04, P2-CA-05, P2-BO-01, P2-BO-03): Combinations of B₄C, SiC, TiB₂, AlB₁₂, and potentially MgB₂ have desirable properties. At a low density, and a low cost, they can be tuned for enhanced fracture toughness, amorphization resistance, and compressive strength. They can also exhibit multi-scale structural features: Widely-dispersed secondary phases keep the grains small during sintering, lock in compressive stresses on cooling, and stop cracks during impact.

Other icosahedral boron-rich ceramics (S1968-023, P2-BO-02, P2-BO-04): Boron suboxide B₆O, boron subphosphide B₁₂P₂, and the aluminum magnesium boride AlMgB₁₄ have densities of approximately 2.6 g/cm³ and hardnesses of 25-35 GPa. They have been of considerable institutional research interest for the past 15 or so years. Their current status is questionable, however, as B₆O and B₁₂P₂ are unavoidably expensive to produce, and AlMgB₁₄ has shown poor results in ballistic experiments [154].

Diamond and cubic boron nitride composites (P2-DI-01, S1968-069): Polycrystalline diamond, diamond-SiC, and various cBN composites are dense, generally much denser than boron carbide, but they also have superlative mechanical properties: Extreme hardness, extreme strength, and remarkable toughness. How to best utilize them and manufacture them is an open question in 2026, but diamond engineering is advancing at a remarkable pace, so I expect a meaningful update within the next few years.

In 1968, Stiglich looked for a single-phase ceramic with low density, high Young’s modulus and high hardness. Boron carbide had the best combination of these properties, and it was the high-end standard for almost 60 years. Static density, modulus and hardness are still the first filter for new candidate materials. However, the next improvement in ceramic armor doesn’t look like it’s going to come from a new two-element compound. The surer way to bet is that it’s going to come from doped lattices, engineered multi-phase composites, and eventually diamond-enhanced ceramics.

The table scrolls sideways and down inside its box. Download the full data (CSV) from Zenodo. It includes the 1968 values in their original units.

How to Read This Table

Part 1 and Part 2

Part 1 has all the materials in the 1968 table of Stiglich, in his categories. It also has the materials that his footnotes name. Part 2 has the materials that are not in the 1968 survey. These are new process variants and composites, materials that the 1968 survey did not include, and compositions that did not exist in 1968.

Density

The bulk density in g/cm³. A value with “>” is the minimum value that the manufacturer gives for that grade.

Young’s modulus

The stiffness in GPa. The 1968 survey gives these values in millions of psi. We converted them to GPa (1 Mpsi = 6.895 GPa) and rounded them to the nearest whole number.

Hardness

The hardness in GPa. The 1968 survey gives Knoop hardness in kgf/mm². We converted these values to GPa (1 kgf/mm² = 0.00981 GPa) and rounded them to one decimal place. The hardness value changes with the test method and the load. Do not directly compare Knoop values with Vickers values. Do not directly compare low-load values with high-load values. For this reason, read this column together with the next column. On the same material, nanoindentation gives values that are much higher than Vickers or Knoop values.

Hardness test

The indentation method and the load for the hardness value, when the source gives them.

Values from

“1968 survey” shows that the values are from Stiglich. We converted these values, but we did not measure them again. “Lab study” shows a value from one published specimen. This specimen is frequently small, and it is not a production plate. “Commercial grade”, or the name of a manufacturer with “grade”, shows the data sheet of one manufacturer. This value does not apply to all the material family. “Calculated” shows a value from the crystal structure or from theory. It is not a measurement on a bulk part.

Availability

The status in October 2026. We examined the pages of the manufacturers and suppliers. “Commercial, dense parts” shows that a company sells sintered or pressed shapes. “Powder only (catalog item)” shows that a catalog supplier lists the compound. Usually, the supplier makes it only when you order it. This does not show that a company makes dense parts from it. “Not found” shows that we found no current supplier and no recent research. The CSV file also gives the status that Stiglich printed in 1968.

Sources

The numbers are links to the list below. Source 1, the 1968 survey, applies to all Part 1 rows. A number after “availability” applies only to the Availability column. It does not apply to the property values.

—

The sources do not give a value.

The table includes beryllium compounds (beryllides, BeO, Be₂C and other compounds) because Stiglich included them. The powders of these compounds are toxic. Use special procedures to handle them. Use the property values only to select and compare materials. They do not replace ballistic tests of a finished plate.

Dataset: Ganor, J. (2026). Ceramic Armor Materials, 1968 to 2026: An Updated Survey Dataset (Version 1.0) [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23565137. The dataset has all 154 rows as a CSV file, with the 1968 values in their original units, the availability sources and a README.

Sources

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