Concrete Canvas Shelters: Rapidly Deployable Hardened Shelter – Just Add Water!

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I’d imagine some of you who have recently served in the military may have seen these Concrete Canvas Shelters (CCS) but they’re new to me so I thought I would share them with you. In fact, it was my eldest son (he’s only 11) who pointed them out to me… no idea how he found out about them but he loves everything “military” so I’m sure he was searching YouTube.

Anyway, these CCS shelters have been around for a handful of years or so and appear to have found their way into military applications but I immediately saw how useful such a structure might be for preppers. Here’s some highlights from ConcreteCanvas.com:

“CCS have two major advantages over conventional tented shelter:

Operational: CCS enable a hardened structure from day one of an operation. They provide much better environmental protection, increased security and vastly improved medical capability.

Financial: CCS have a design life of over 10 years, whereas tents wear out rapidly and must then be replaced. CCS are a one stop solution, saving effort and cost over the lifetime of medium to long term operations.

The key to CCS is the use of inflation to create a surface that is optimized for compression loading. This allows thin walled concrete structures to be formed which are both robust and lightweight.”

Watch this video on setting one up as well as important characteristics I’ll reiterate below:

As you saw in the video, once you have the shelter where you want it, setup is relatively straightforward. Granted, you’re going to need a few things to make it happen, including the ability to lay it out flat (probably using a vehicle), a generator to run an fan in order to inflate the shelter, and water (probably under pressure) to saturate the canvas so it hardens. According to the video the shelter will be operational within 24 hours.

The video also says the shelter can be covered in “earth, sand, or snow providing an excellent thermal performance” and offers significant protection from small arms fire and fragments. In fact, I think they recommend you berm the structure to offer such protection. Beyond that, the CCS is even 100% fireproof since it’s made from some sort of ceramic. Moreover, the plastic inner is apparently a sterile environment too. Finally, it seems you can even link more than one shelter together to form an even larger structure. Now that’s cool!

They also make concrete cloth that’s not intended to be a deploy-able shelter as shown above but, rather, for other purposes. Here’s a few ways the military has utilized Concrete Canvas to harden their defensive structures, shore-up failing walls, slopes, and more (just watch the first two minutes):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRF965uZI1Q

Pretty cool, huh? I thought so. I never could find any pricing info… seems they want you to contact a sales rep which is code for “they’re probably expensive.” Perhaps someday they’ll be a great and affordable option for the rest of us.


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Comments

10 responses to “Concrete Canvas Shelters: Rapidly Deployable Hardened Shelter – Just Add Water!”

  1. GERALD A CAMMIDGE

    great idea , would like to get info on concrete canvas shelter, dia available and price , if any available to view in southern ontario or as close as possible , tks gacammidge p.s. also would like to dis. for u in this area if possible .

    1. I believe you can get that from them directly: http://www.concretecanvas.com/contact-us/uk/

  2. looks interesting, need more info

  3. Linda

    Does anyone know where to call for pricing and more info on this Concrete Canvas Shelter? I am very interested in finding out more and talking to someone about this.

  4. I like it. I saw something like this, only Hexagonal shaped-so it can be easily folded, in Beatty, Nevada during 1999. The building was the Public Library of Beatty.

  5. Michael

    They look awesome. However, if there’s a situation where the electric grid is wiped out, (i.e. EMP blast) how do you inflate the shelter?

    1. Rob Jackson

      In the event of the grid being down, you could inflate by coupling your exhaust to the shelter, if you don’t have to go inside prior to it being complete. You could also use a pedal powered air pump for the task if you needed to. If you are planning ahead enough to have such a shelter on hand, plan ahead and ensure the pump is available too.

      1. I like the car exhaust idea, Rob. Thanks!

  6. Monty Leverett

    I am curious on the availability of these shelters to buyers in the U.S. Also, what options (sizes, shapes, etc) are there, and of course, pricing.

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