A history on the development of modern armour

[Sodin]

@Kings_Rook

Yes there are. The question is whether the benefits are worth the costs, and not just in money. you also have to take into account things like endurance, temperature stress, mobility, flexibility, etc.

• For me it is more important that a soldier is wounded and survives as if he were dead. Because a wounded soldier can return to fight, a dead soldier can only be replaced by a new inexperienced soldier.

But you have a different opinion on this.

@Kings_Rook

To address the second two points, the most successful generals in WW 1 did not believe either of those two points. The worst did yes, but even the best didn’t issue body armor, and the reasons varied by country, though all included a cost/benefit analysis that would have precluded their use outside of certain roles.

• The generals mostly came from higher classes and did not care for the lower class.

@Kings_Rook

Let us assume for a second you are right here and ask who needs the armour that is only rated to protect against pistols more:

the soldier with a gun that can kill the enemy or at least force the enemy into cover thereby preventing bullets from flying towards your troops

or

the medic running around wrapping bandages around people, without a weapon, and even if they had one, would have been too busy to use it.

• You seriously think that now is something different and ordinary soldiers have much better protection?

Bulletproof vest from early 1980s until the mid-2000s protects you from small arms and not from rifle bullets.

• The PASGT vest utilized Kevlar for the first time in the United States military’s body armor, unlike the Ballistic nylon that was used in the models of body armor that preceded it. While generally incapable of stopping rifle bullets, the PASGT vest provided better protection against shrapnel and reduced the severity of injuries from small arms fire when compared to the M-69. Despite its ability to stop pistol rounds, including 9×19mm Parabellum FMJ,[7] the vest was only ever designed or intended to stop small fragments without injury to the user. The PASGT vest weighs approximately 9 lb (4,080 g), a small increase over the previous model.

Personnel Armor System for Ground Troops

Interceptor vest from from the late 1990s to the late 2000s protects you from small arms and with two ceramic plates can stop rifle bullets.

• The Interceptor vest was tested to stop a 9×19mm 124-grain FMJ bullet at 1,400 ft/s with minimal backface deformation, and it has a V-50 of roughly 1,525 ft/s. This means that the bullet in question must travel faster than 1,525 ft/s for it to have more than a 50% chance of penetration. (An unlikely prospect, given the muzzle velocity of a typical 9mm handgun or submachine gun). The Interceptor cannot, however, be called a Level III-A vest, since military standards do not require protection against heavy .44 Magnum ammunition. The vest will stop lower velocity fragments and has removable neck, throat, shoulder, extended back and groin protection.

• Additionally, two ceramic plates may be added to the front and back of the vest, with each capable of stopping up to three hits from the round marked on the plate. For SAPI, this is a caliber of up to 7.62×51mm M80 FMJ. For ESAPI, this is a caliber of up to 30-06 M2 AP.[7] This performance is only guaranteed when backed by the Interceptor vest, or any other soft armor which meets military requirements for protection. SAPI and ESAPI are the most technically advanced body armor fielded by the U.S. military, and are constructed of boron carbide ceramic with a Spectra shield backing that breaks down projectiles and halts their momentum.

Interceptor Multi-Threat Body Armor System

Improved Outer Tactical Vest from the 2007 until now protects you from small arms and with four ballistic plate can stop rifle bullets.

• The IOTV is designed to take the weight of the vest off the shoulders and move it to the lower torso. The vest is also equipped with a mesh inner cover that is designed to improve airflow inside of the armor. There is also a back pad in the lower back area of the vest, which is designed to defeat fragmentation impacts to the lower back/kidney areas. However, the back pad does not provide significant ballistic protection. The vest can withstand a direct impact from a 7.62 millimeter (both NATO and ex-Soviet types) on the front or rear if using the older SAPI plates (NIJ standard III). Use of the new E-SAPI plates increase protection to armor-piercing versions of the aforementioned rounds in addition to .30-06 Springfield M2 armor-piercing rounds (NIJ standard IV). The IOTV provides, without the ballistic ceramic plates inserted, protection from small caliber rounds (i.e. 9mm) and fragmentation. The soft kevlar panels have been tested to stop 9 mm 124 grain full metal jacket bullets at 1,400 ft/s (426 m/s) with minimal deformation and has a V-50 of roughly 1,525 ft/s (465 m/s). This means that the bullet has to be traveling faster than 1,525 ft/s for it to have more than a 50% chance of breaking through the soft armor panel. These specifications are similar to the NIJ standard level III-A certification, however, military standards do not require their vests to be NIJ certified as this is primarily a law enforcement standard.

• A size Medium IOTV weighs 3.6 pounds (1.6 kg),[7] less than a Medium OTV vest, while providing more coverage. However, a fully equipped IOTV, complete with all its components (soft armor panel inserts, four ballistic plate inserts (front and back plates and two side plates), collar, and groin protectors) still weighs 30 pounds (14 kg), with a Large IOTV weighing about 35 pounds (16 kg). The functionality of the enhanced side ballistic inserts, which provide coverage under the arms and down the sides of the torso, is built into the IOTV.

Improved Outer Tactical Vest

If you go to the bottom page, you can read more about Body Armor Protection Levels

• NIJ Levels Ballistic Tables

		NIJ Level IIa	NIJ Level II	NIJ Level IIIa	NIJ Level III	NIJ Level IV
	Areal Density	3.5 kg/m	4.2 kg/m	5.9 kg/m	25.9 kg/m	32.5 kg/m
	Thickness	4mm	5mm	6mm	15mm	20mm
.9mm		x	x	x	x	x
.44 Magnum				x	x	x
5.56mm					x	x
7.62mm NATO					x	x
.30 Armour Piercing (M2 AP)						x
PROTECTION LEVELS – SafeGuard Armor