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Foster-Miller, Inc., is an independent, privately held engineering and technology development firm principally located in suburban Boston, MA, on Rte. 95, "America's Technology Highway." We also have offices in Washington, DC and Albany, NY In August 2002, we were named one of the most innovative businesses in America by Inc magazine. Our firm was founded in 1956 by three graduates of MIT who believed there was a need for a company that could solve clients' difficult technical problems through first-class analysis and design.
We maintain over 200,000 sq. ft. of offices, laboratories and shops and have a staff of more than 350 composed of mechanical, electrical, thermal, chemical, nuclear, aerospace, software and materials engineers as well as metallurgists, physicists, mathematicians, chemists, biologists and support staff.
Foster-Miller Inc.'s (FMI) answer to these requirements was LAST® Armor, a lightweight ceramic/composite armor mounted to a Velcro® base so that it could be rapidly installed or removed. The FMI LAST® armor system had been initially developed on an Army SBIR program to apply ceramic armor to the Army's lightweight ground assault vehicles. In this application hexagonal ceramic armor tiles have a Velcro® backing applied, then these Velcro® tiles are applied to the vehicle which has had the mating Velcro material applied to all its outer surfaces. The Velcro® not only provides the structural fastening of the ceramic armor tiles to the vehicle, but provides a degree of shock resiliency essential to the survival of the brittle ceramics subject to the high velocity impact of hostile projectiles as well as non-ballistic impact protection. In the aircraft application the Velcro® also provides the needed capability of efficient installation and removal.
Foster-Miller has delivered over 600 LAST® armor systems with 200 more still under contract, which will provide protection of virtually all the C-17, and C-130 aircraft and a good percentage of the C-141 aircraft still in service. FMI has also provided 50 C-130 systems to our allies and three LAST® systems to Spain for their new CASA C-295 aircraft. This has resulted in over $70 million in business for FMI in the past 13 years. The versatility of the technology makes armor protection rapidly available as new or additional aircraft enter the Air Force inventory. LAST® Armored aircraft are currently being used in both Iraq and Afghanistan. In recognition of the timely introduction of LAST® Armor for the Bosnia mission, McDonnell Douglas awarded LAST® Armor its Golden Eagle award - one of only two top vendor awards given by the company that initial year. Later, McDonnell Douglas selected the LAST® Armor team for their top honor, the Spirit of Excellence, as a result of this initial effort to ready and safeguard the Air Force aircraft and crews in the Bosnia mission.
Cynthia Black
Foster-Miller, Inc.
350 Second Avenue
Waltham, MA 02451
Phone: (781) 684-4093
Website: http://www.foster-miller.com/
Email: cblack@foster-miller.com
