Ford has been providing its Interceptors to the Police with protection from most of the bullets but now-a-days criminals have started using armour piercing ammunition which prompted the need of having some sort of protection against them too.
Now Ford has become the first automaker in United States to offer protection against armour piercing ammo in their saloons and SUV’s. Both of these vehicles are powered by petrol and diesel engines for performance and economy.
According to Department of Justice’s (DoJ) National Institute of Justice standard, Type IV is described as:
“Type IV hard armour or plate inserts shall be tested in a conditioned state with .30 calibre armour piercing (AP) bullets (U.S. Military designation M2 AP) with a specified mass of 10.8g (166 gr) and a velocity of 878 m/s ± 9.1 m/s (2880 ft/s ± 30 ft/s)”.
It is unfortunately becoming more common among criminals to use armour piercing ammo in shootouts between them and police. ArieGroeneveld is the Ford Police Interceptors chief engineer, he commented on this situation: “officers globally told us they needed protection from armour piercing ammunition and we added increased ballistic protection to an already great product – that’s continuous innovation.”
The existing vehicles are fitted with ballistic panel protection so what Ford did is fitted additional Type IV panels. In agencies across the United States, optional Type III ballistic panels are already in use, providing protection against non-armour piercing bullets of up to .30-calibre and all handguns.
There is a long list of safety feature that are already offered in these vehicles like the safety cell construction to air structural integrity. It is a function which helps absorb energy and direct impact forces away from the passengers in the event of a crash or attack. To make the vehicles even stronger, special materials such as aluminium, advanced plastics and boron steel are used.
