Titanium Sword / Katana?

Mind you that the A-10 was designed in the 70:s. Steels have come a long way since then, but surprisingly enough, titanium hasn't.

A titanium lvl III plate is not practical with modern steel and ceramic alternatives being cheaper, and in the case of ceramic it's even got less weight for the same amount of "stopping-power". That's why you can't find any. You might be able to find some vintage ones form 70:s and 80:s, but that's all I can think of.

It all comes down to material properties; The absolute maximum strength and stiffness of titanium is much lower than modern steels. Only the weight-strength ratio is better. This means bullets won't deform and increase their cross-section as they do with steels. The shatter-gap effect in modern steels with high-speed bullets actually means that the faster the bullet is going, the LESS it's going to penetrate (up to a certain point). This is because the bullet's energy is spent deforming and shattering itself, rather than the target. Top-tier baintie lvl III steel plates can practically be shot indefinitly with smaller calibers without damage, because they absorb practically no energy from soft lead and copper bullets.

[video=youtube;FubQWpZ9J0w]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FubQWpZ9J0w[/video]
[video=youtube;3k3-ILfPexU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3k3-ILfPexU[/video]

Titanium is irreparably weaker. Until they manage to grow perfect monocrystals or make amorphous TI-alloys, steels will continue to reign. As a comparison, these 6.5mm plates stop 30-06 FMJ, not just the small 7.62x39. Repeatedly.
 
I see what you mean about the steel and ceramic armor plates, but to say titanium metallurgy hasn't advanced since the late 70s is laughable.
 
No problem, I didn't intend to sound mean! Metallurgy professors agree with you: they say that the attributes attainable with beta titanium alloys are still mostly unknown, and that there's much more to learn about them. The field of metallurgy in general is very exciting and advancing constantly!

Another factor in all this armored vehicle stuff is that a metal or fabrication process has to go through a gigantic battery of tests and certifications to be used for government and military purposes, and I suspect that the huge body of knowledge that already exists for steel alloys makes the paperwork and experiments happen faster and cheaper.
 
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