Military Installations

The threat

Truck bombs at the perimeter, indirect fire and accidental munitions events all load a building in milliseconds. Unreinforced block walls fail brittle and throw fragments into occupied rooms. After the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing killed 19 Airmen¹⁰, the Downing Commission found there were no force-protection standards for fixed DoD facilities, which led to today's UFC 4-010-01⁵.

How polyurea helps

The Air Force Research Laboratory at Tyndall AFB began testing spray-on polymers in 1999 and chose a pure polyurea for explosive testing. In early proof-of-concept shots, about 1/8 in. of polyurea on the interior face cut the explosion distance that caused catastrophic wall failure by up to 80%¹. In later full-scale tests every uncoated control wall failed catastrophically, while coated walls resisted roughly a 10-fold increase in peak pressure without catastrophic collapse¹.

Where it goes

• Interior face of CMU and brick exterior walls
• Entry control points and guard booths
• Relocatable and expeditionary structures
• Bunkers, shoot houses and range structures
• Arms rooms and maintenance bays

Details that matter

• UFC 4-010-01 applies to all DoD inhabited buildings, and to existing ones when a renovation tops 50% of replacement cost or occupancy changes⁵. The engineer of record sets the design; the coating is part of it.
• Edge attachment decides the outcome. In AFRL testing a simple 6 in. (15 cm) spray overlap onto the supporting structure transferred the load and prevented collapse¹.
• Window and door openings are weak points. Coated walls with openings tore at the frames more often¹, so detail them deliberately.
• Document every lift: thickness readings, batch numbers, ambient and substrate conditions.

Who buys the work

Blast protection is an engineered system. Coatings complement standoff, glazing and structural design, and the engineer of record sets the design.