October 11, 2005: The war in Iraq has been a bonanza for manufacturers of lightweight armor. This has led to new, and much improved, designs. One of the more successful is a new ceramic armor ( Light Improved Ballistic Armor, or LIBA) that eliminates the brittleness problems. Instead of layers of ceramics and metal, LIBA uses masses of tiny ceramic pellets held together by a fireproof glue. LIBA weighs about 40 percent as much as an equivalent thickness of steel, is much less brittle than other ceramic armor, and can be easily repaired when some of it is chewed up by repeated hits. The inventor is an Israeli, and LIBA got its first combat testing three years ago courtesy of Palestinian terrorists. LIBA was very effective, stopping RPGs, as well as bullets and bomb blasts. Pretty soon, LIBA armor kits were being used on Israeli military and civilian vehicles, as well as protective vests. The U.S. Marine Corps adopted LIBA to armor their new armored amphibious assault vehicle (the EFV), and many of the armor kits used in Iraq employ LIBA. This new ceramic armor is even showing up in Islamic countries, because international sales are handled by a French firm.