Personal armor protection: classification and purpose

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:43

In our time, everyone knows about personal armor protection. Still, people at least from time to time watch action movies, news and other programs that regularly show strong guys who are reliably protected from bullets, shrapnel and knife attacks. Of course, this includes not only bulletproof vests, but also many other items that some readers will be interested to know about.

Protection for feet and hands

It is very important to provide reliable protection for the limbs in combat (especially in urban areas, when there are a lot of broken bricks, rusty sharp objects and other dangers). Of course, armored elements are not usually used - most often either ordinary metal inserts or high-strength plastic are used.

First of all, safety shoes are included in the kit. Unsuccessfully hitting a brick, it is quite possible to break your toes, and stepping on a protruding nail with a run, pierce your foot and fail for a long time. Sothe military use berets - reliable boots that firmly fix the lower leg, which reduces the risk of damage to the ankle joint. High-strength soles on good products are more likely to bend or break a nail than to be pierced. Some boots are equipped with metal inserts on the toe - this allows you to break bricks without harm to yourself, and at the same time can be useful in battle. The only negative is the heavy weight of the boots - getting used to them is not always easy.

Also used are special knee pads, elbow pads, and in some cases special armor shields that protect the limbs. Knee pads, like elbow pads, allow you to fall on any surface without fear for the integrity of the joints. Just imagine: falling with a swing with your bare knee on a pile of broken bricks. This will lead, if not to a fracture, then at least to a painful shock.

Bulletproof Shield

Also in many films and computer games you can see a metal shield. Of course, ordinary fighters do not wear it - it is too bulky and inconvenient when moving. But for air assault brigades, who need to ensure high reliability when crossing open spaces or moving along long corridors, it can save lives.

Few people know, but the first armored shields appeared at the end of the 19th century. However, insufficiently strong materials led to the fact that they were not widely used. Today, everything has changed - special alloys allow you to stop almost any bullet fired even from a short distance. There are both small shields (individual), protecting only the head and chest of a fighter, and huge (group), thanks to which you can protect the body from head to knees. Usually the first fighter in the group, carrying a metal shield, uses only a pistol. But the rest, being under the cover of this shield, may well work productively with shotguns and machine guns.

Proven helmet

But this attribute is the oldest one used today. Indeed, from the time of edged weapons, helmets were used, which were transformed into helmets, and there was practically no break in use.

In a more or less familiar form, this means of individual armor protection appeared before the Great Patriotic War. The reason for this was a real breakthrough in the field of metallurgy. New alloys have appeared that make it possible to produce thin and at the same time very durable army helmets that can withstand even a shot from a rifle and a machine gun from a relatively short distance.

Today they are made not only from metal, but also from aramid materials. They boast not only less weight, but also a reduced risk of concussion when hit on a helmet. Often a new helmet protects not only the top of the head, but also the face - in this case, high-strength glass is used to provide good visibility.

What are body armor made of?

In our time, a variety of materials are used to make bulletproof vests. It can be metal alloy, special ceramicplates or high-strength fabric - the well-known Kevlar. There are also composite and combined options.

You can't say that one of them is better than the other. The bad ones are simply sorted out and sent to the dustbin of history. The fact is that for high security you have to pay with mobility. For example, a fighter, wearing body armor 6B45, receives much more reliable protection than when using body armor of the 1st protection class. However, you have to pay for this - you can run with such armor, but your agility is significantly reduced.

But if you take a sapper suit, then this bulletproof vest frankly fades in front of him. Already this colossus reliably protects the limbs, body and head. That's just it is impossible not only to run, but also just to go fast. Of course, it would never occur to anyone to use such a colossus in battle. Even if it protects against fragments and most bullets, but due to terrible slowness, sooner or later one of dozens or even hundreds of bullets will find a weak spot.

Probably worth talking about the different materials that are used today for the manufacture of personal armor protection, in more detail.

Fabric

Every person interested in the military must have heard of aramid fiber. It is also called Kevlar (not exactly - about the same as calling all copiers copiers).

The main advantage of such body armor is weight. It is small. In addition, Kevlar protection, even with 5-7 layers, still remains very soft - it can behide under a jacket. She does not restrict movement at all. It is also almost impossible to cut through it - the knife simply slides off the armor during cutting blows.

It would seem that the perfect defense has been found! Alas, this is not entirely true. After all, aramid fiber has its drawbacks.

The main one is the instability to moisture. Yes, yes, if the armor is exposed to rain or simply used in high humidity conditions, its strength is almost halved! Yes, it will recover when it dries. But until that time, the fighter is seriously risking his he alth and life.

In addition, Kevlar, which is almost impossible to cut through, is pierced relatively easily. Where an ordinary knife cannot cope, an ordinary awl will easily pierce the armor.

Finally, it is gentleness that can lead to the death of the owner. From a bullet fired from a rifle, machine gun or even an ordinary hunting rifle, the armor will not be able to protect. The vest itself will not be damaged. But the blow to the body will be so strong that it will break the bones, damage the insides.

Therefore, completely other types of Kevlar body armor have not been replaced.

Ceramic

Ceramic plates were considered a good solution for some time. In the USSR, bulletproof vests with them were developed back in the 1980s. For a while, it was even planned to produce tanks with ceramic armor, everyone was so impressed with the test results.

Relatively light, body armor perfectly extinguished the blow, protecting a person from shell shock, which metal counterparts could not boast of. That's just a minus was foundpretty fast. After the first hit, the plates were damaged - this ensured the absorption of the momentum of the bullet and reliable protection of the body armor wearer. For the first time, that was enough. But when it hit the same plate again, it simply crumbled, leaving the fighter almost defenseless.

So this development was effective, but disposable. Coming out of a serious battle, the military air assault brigade would have to almost completely change the filler, and even the uniform itself, which is simply unacceptable.

Metal

Finally, the most common and time-tested body armor is metal. Both titanium plates and many others are used as the main protection - today there are quite a lot of alloys with high strength.

Unfortunately, in most cases, the weight of body armor, providing a high level of protection, is quite large. This means that the effectiveness of the fighter is sharply reduced.

In addition, there is the question of the size of the plate. If it is too small, it will not be able to effectively distribute the momentum of the bullet throughout the body when it hits. And the metal simply cannot extinguish the impulse. If the plate is large, then the distribution will be much more efficient. But the mobility and, consequently, the mobility of the soldier is sharply reduced.

Combined

Therefore, combined means of personal armor protection are very often used today. In their manufacture, both Kevlar and metal orceramic inserts. For example, steel bibs in this case are complemented by an aramid base. Steel reliably protects against bullets and piercing blows, and Kevlar softens the blow, allowing you to avoid shell shock.

Of course, they are more difficult and expensive to create, and in most cases they weigh more than conventional body armor. On the other hand, they provide a high level of protection, and in terms of mass they are still much lighter than a sapper suit.

Pros and cons of body armor

Someone may be surprised by such a statement of the question. After all, it is clear that bulletproof vests regularly save the lives of law enforcement officers and the military. However, not everything is so simple.

With a plus, everything is clear - reliable armor will protect against a knife, shrapnel, bullets or a regular blow with a butt in the stomach. Nothing more is needed.

With one minus, everything is also clear - a decrease in mobility with more or less reliable body armor.

But there is another drawback, not so obvious. It's a matter of concussion. In some cases, bullets traveling tangentially could inflict a relatively minor wound - scratching the skin or even tearing out a piece of muscle, but such a wound is easily treated even in the field. And in the presence of a bulletproof vest, the plates of which take the blow, the bullet delivers a terrible blow to the internal organs, beating off the liver, tearing the kidneys. As a result, even emergency hospitalization does not always save.

However, usually such situations are private and cannot compete with cases where body armor saves lives.

Body armor classes

Podegree of protection all bulletproof vests are divided into classes. They most often differ in the materials used in the manufacture. It is clear that the lower the protection class, the less armor fetters the body.

First class provides protection against weak pistol cartridges (5-6 mm), as well as some types of edged weapons. It is usually made from several layers of aramid fiber.

The second class already has 7-10 layers of fabric, stops bullets from PM and revolver, as well as shot from a hunting rifle. Like the first one, it is easily hidden under a jacket or jacket.

The third class combines 20-25 layers of Kevlar and hard armor inserts. It is no longer possible to hide such a vest under clothes, but it stops any bullets from pistols and even from smoothbore weapons.

The fourth class is similar to the third, only there are more inserts, and their thickness is increased. Can stop 5.45 and 7.62mm non-rigid core bullets.

Fifth grade is made mainly of solid inserts. Reliably protects against almost all non-armor-piercing bullets, even fired at a short distance. This includes body armor 6B45.

Sixth grade is the hardest and most reliable. Stops non-armour-piercing bullets fired from sniper rifles and machine guns (assuming they aren't point-blank, of course).

What is the weight of the vest?

It is impossible to say unequivocally how much the body armor weighs. After all, there are a lot of them, and the mass, as mentioned above, is seriously different. Only approximate data can be given - depending on the protection class:

First class - 1.5-2.5 kg.
Second class - 3-5 kg.
Third class - 6-9 kg.
Fourth grade - 8-10 kg.
Fifth grade - 11-20 kg.
Sixth grade - over 15 kg.

As you can see, the weight variation is very large, as is the level of protection.

Conclusion

This concludes our article. Now you know how much a body armor weighs, what materials are used in its manufacture, and also learned something about other elements of protection for a modern soldier. We hope this will seriously broaden your horizons.