# All the Armor in the World?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-the-armor-in-the-world/278800
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [December 8, 2004, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-the-armor-in-the-world/278800 "2004-12-08T19:54:27Z")
**Posts on this page:** 10
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2004, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-the-armor-in-the-world/278800/1 "2004-12-08T19:54:27Z")
Rumsfeld got me wondering about the total tonnage of armor in the world.
> [@](#):
>
> “You can have all the armor in the world on a tank and it can (still) be blown up,” Rumsfeld said.
[here](http://www.armytimes.com/story.php?f=1-292925-545288.php)
Tanks, ships, body armor etc. etc; does anyone have an estimate of how much metal is in the world’s supply of armor? Would it make a cube 200 meters on a side, half a kilometer? How big a nuke would it take to vaporize it all at one go?
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### Author:  [@justwannano](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/justwannano)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2004, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-the-armor-in-the-world/278800/2 "2004-12-08T20:11:16Z")
> [@Squink](#):
>
> Rumsfeld got me wondering about the total tonnage of armor in the world.[here](http://www.armytimes.com/story.php?f=1-292925-545288.php)
>
> Tanks, ships, body armor etc. etc; does anyone have an estimate of how much metal is in the world’s supply of armor? Would it make a cube 200 meters on a side, half a kilometer? How big a nuke would it take to vaporize it all at one go?
You really need to get a hobby :rolleyes:
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### Author:  [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2004, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-the-armor-in-the-world/278800/3 "2004-12-08T20:45:59Z")
> [@justwannano](#):
>
> You really need to get a hobby :rolleyes:
You really need to get a username more in keeping with your total lack of curiosity.
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### Author:  [@John\_Kentzel-Griffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Kentzel-Griffin)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2004, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-the-armor-in-the-world/278800/4 "2004-12-08T21:43:05Z")
> [@justwannano](#):
>
> You really need to get a hobby :rolleyes:
**Moderator’s Notes:**
You need to keep insults out of General Questions.
Don’t do this again.
**DrMatrix** - GQ Moderator
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### Author:  [@citrus\_x\_paradisi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/citrus_x_paradisi)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2004, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-the-armor-in-the-world/278800/5 "2004-12-08T21:48:26Z")
OP: What do you consider armor? I mean, that’s kind of a broad term. Armored trucks are armored. Some bullets wear jackets. I hate to have to say this, but I think this is too broad for even the SDMB to answer.
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### Author:  [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2004, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-the-armor-in-the-world/278800/6 "2004-12-08T22:24:41Z")
> [@citrus x paradisi](#):
>
> OP: What do you consider armor?
Tank armor, ship armor (probably have to go with total tank and ship mass, unless they come in armored vs unarmored versions) Truck armor (e.g.
[Add-on armor for the Stryker adds approximately 7,000 lbs to the vehicle weight](http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/ground/iav.htm)). Include the ceramic bits. Forget helicopters and planes, they’re just too complicated, also bullets and ammo. Vests and such are probably too small a part of the total to matter. I’d just like some idea of the total amount of steel and ceramic used for the purpose of keeping explosions away from the inside of vehicles. For a start, you could add up total tank, armored vehicle, and ship weights. That information is probably on the web _somewhere_, but I’ve not found it in a decent, condensed form. On the other hand, you could find what percentage of steel output goes into such armor, and multiply by yearly steel production… There’s several ways to look at the question, but it’ll take a lot of digging, unless someone happens to know a good place to start.
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### Author:  [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2004, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-the-armor-in-the-world/278800/7 "2004-12-08T23:16:35Z")
Just to start us off with some numbers, the [USS Theodore Roosevelt](http://science.howstuffworks.com/aircraft-carrier3.htm) has 60,000 tons of structural steel. The US Navy has [13](http://www.chinfo.navy.mil/navpalib/factfile/ships/ship-cv.html) carriers in service or under construction. There are 26 submarines at around [10,000 tons](http://www.chinfo.navy.mil/navpalib/factfile/ships/ship-ssbn.html) each.
The M1 Abrams weighs around [65 tons](http://www.army.mil/fact_files_site/abrams/index.html) and according to [this site](http://www.fprado.com/armorsite/abrams.htm)
> [@](#):
>
> Over 8,800 M1 and M1A1 tanks have been produced - 3,273 M1 tanks were produced for the US Army. 4,796 M1A1 tanks were built for the US Army, 221 for the US Marines and 555 co-produced with Egypt. Egypt has ordered a further 200 M1A1 tanks with production to continue to 2005. 77 M1A2 tanks have been built for the US Army, 315 for Saudi Arabia and 218 for Kuwait
Anyone got a calculator?
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### Author:  [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2004, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-the-armor-in-the-world/278800/8 "2004-12-08T23:48:37Z")
Not to criticize **Tapioca Dextrin** ’s informative post, but in general “armor” as applied to military materiel references armor plate situated to repel shells and other material that is placed into motion with the intent of penetrating and killing/wounding/putting out of battle the people and weapons of the opponent, rather than structural steel. If you build a warship, you use steel framing, then you protect the outside with reinforced steel armor plate. A bulkhead or girder would not count as “armor” in this context.
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### Author:  [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2004, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-the-armor-in-the-world/278800/9 "2004-12-08T23:52:00Z")
**Squink** did say that we could use the total weight for both ships and tanks 😉
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### Author:  [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2004, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-the-armor-in-the-world/278800/10 "2004-12-08T23:56:10Z")
> [@Tapioca Dextrin](#):
>
> Anyone got a calculator?
AC carriers 60,000 tons X 13 = 780000 tons
subs 10,000 tons X 26 = 260000 tons
M1 tanks 65 tons X 8800 = 5720000
total = 16120000 tons or 1.462 X 10[sup]13[/sup] grams.
Using a density of 7.86 g/cc (iron) for the armor, gives a total volume of 1,860,536,641,221 cmsup]3[/sup].
**That’s equal in volume to a cube which is 123 meters (403.5 feet) on a side.**
It’d take a heck of a bang to get to a tank embedded behind 200 feet of steel.
* * *
-Of course you’re right **Poly** , but with the, admittedly squishy, definition of armor, I think the best I can hope for here is a ballpark figure.