![](\"https:\/\/cdn.rt.com\/files\/2016.03\/thumbnail\/56e31fdbc36188cf288b45c0.jpg\")
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Ford Motor Co. is improving bulletproofing standards for its Police Interceptor line of sedans and SUVs, making them able to withstand armor-piercing bullets from high-powered rifles like an AK-47.<\/p>\n
The upgraded Ford vehicles will be the first in the US to meet a top standard set by the US Justice Department for body armor. New ballistic panels will be designed to handle armor-piercing ammunition; since 2008, Ford has offered panels that could only absorb handgun or non-armor piercing bullets.<\/p>\n
“Officers, globally, told us they needed protection from armor-piercing ammunition, and we added ballistic protection to an already great product,”<\/em> said Arie Groeneveld, chief engineer for Ford’s police car lineup,\u00a0according<\/a> to USA Today.<\/p>\n A Ford engineer\u00a0told<\/a> AP that police forces \u2013 particularly in the Middle East and Eastern Europe \u2013 had requested increased bulletproofing.<\/p>\n “In some places outside the U.S., they face the armor-piercing threat on a daily basis,”<\/em> Ford’s Randy Freiburger said. “This is the price of entry for those markets.”<\/em><\/p>\n More than a year in the making, the ballistic panels will cover most of a vehicle’s individual doors with two layers of protection. The outer layer is made of ballistic-grade ceramic tile that is designed to shatter a bullet on impact, while the inner layer is made of the same material used to make Kevlar vests, enveloping shrapnel from a bullet.<\/p>\n If a car panel is struck twice by bullets, it will still offer some protection, Ford said.<\/p>\n Windows on the new car door panels will not come with ballistic protection, the company said.\u00a0<\/p>\n The door panels will not be made available to the public, the company said, adding that panels should be destroyed once a car is discarded by police.<\/p>\n In 2015, Ford held 60 percent of the market for US policing vehicles. Costs for a Ford Police Interceptor SUV have been at least $30,000. The company will begin taking orders next week, USA Today reported, but no pricing levels have been disclosed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Via RT<\/a>. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News<\/a> with permission or license.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Ford Motor Co. is improving bulletproofing standards for its Police Interceptor line of sedans and SUVs, making them able to withstand armor-piercing bullets from high-powered rifles like an AK-47. The upgraded Ford vehicles will be the first in the US to meet a top standard set by the US Justice Department for body armor. New […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":231325,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-231324","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=231324"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231324\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/231325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=231324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=231324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=231324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}