Body armor
The first record of body armor in history was found on the Stele of Vultures in ancient Sumer in today's south Iraq.
In East Asian history laminated armor such as lamellar, and styles similar to the coat of plates, and brigandine were commonly used.
[7] In European history, well-known armor types include the mail hauberk of the early medieval age, and the full steel plate harness worn by later Medieval and Renaissance knights, and a few key components (breast and back plates) by heavy cavalry in several European countries until the first year of World War I (1914–1915).
[10] The small skull cap evolved into a bigger true helmet, the bascinet, as it was lengthened downward to protect the back of the neck and the sides of the head.
In the early 15th century, small "hand cannon" first began to be used, in the Hussite Wars, in combination with Wagenburg tactics, allowing infantry to defeat armored knights on the battlefield.
At the same time crossbows were made more powerful to pierce armor, and the development of the Swiss Pike square formation also created substantial problems for heavy cavalry.
In the early years of pistols and arquebuses, black powder muzzleloading firearms were fired at a relatively low velocity (usually below 600 m/s (2,000 ft/s)).
As gunpowder weapons greatly improved from the 16th century onward, it became cheaper and more effective to have groups of unarmored infantry with early guns than to have expensive knights mounted on horseback, which was the primary cause for armor to be largely discarded.
Soldiers in the American Civil War (1861–1865) bought iron and steel vests from peddlers (both sides had considered but rejected it for standard issue).
The effectiveness of the vests varied widely—some successfully deflected bullets and saved lives but others were poorly made and resulted in tragedy for the soldiers.
In any case the vests were abandoned by many soldiers due to their weight on long marches as well as the stigma they got for being cowards from their fellow troops.
[citation needed] At the start of World War I in 1914, thousands of the French cuirassiers rode out to engage the German cavalry who likewise used helmets and armor.
Metallic components or tightly woven fiber layers can give soft armor resistance to stab and slash attacks from combat knives and knife bayonets.
The ceramic material is typically structured with a Kevlar layer on one side and a nylon spall shield on the other, optimizing ballistic resistance against different projectile threats, including various calibers of shells and bullets.
The PASGT helmet and vest used by United States military forces since the early 1980s both have Kevlar as a key component, as do their replacements.
Civilian applications include Kevlar reinforced clothing for motorcycle riders to protect against abrasion injuries.
Among the examples of Twaron-made materials are body armor, helmets, ballistic vests, speaker woofers, drumheads, tires, turbo hoses, wire ropes, and cables.
Its purpose is to intercept attacks, either by stopping projectiles such as arrows or by glancing a blow to the side of the shield-user, and it can also be used offensively as a bludgeoning weapon.
In the 20th and 21st centuries, ballistic shields are used by military and police units that specialize in anti-terrorist action, hostage rescue, and siege-breaching.
[28] At that time, they were purely military equipment, protecting the head from cutting blows with swords, flying arrows, and low-velocity musketry.
During the 18th and 19th centuries, helmets were not widely used in warfare; instead, many armies used unarmored hats that offered no protection against blade or bullet.
The arrival of World War I, with its trench warfare and wide use of artillery, led to mass adoption of metal helmets once again, this time with a shape that offered mobility, a low profile, and compatibility with gas masks.
Today's militaries often use high-quality helmets made of ballistic materials such as Kevlar and Twaron, which have excellent bullet and fragmentation stopping power.
Most modern soldiers sacrifice limb protection for mobility, since armor thick enough to stop bullets would greatly inhibit movement of the arms and legs.
The "backface signature" or transmitted impact energy is measured by shooting armor mounted in front of a backing material, typically oil-based modelling clay.
This concluded that water, long-term use, and temperature exposure significantly affect tensile strength and the ballistic performance of PBO or Zylon fiber.
This NIJ study on vests returned from the field demonstrated that environmental effects on Zylon resulted in ballistic failures under standard test conditions.
Because the energy of a bullet is a key factor in its penetrating capacity, velocity is used as the primary independent variable in ballistic testing.
Under the assumption that the energy of impact is dissipated in breaking the yarn, it was shown that Here, After the Vietnam War, military planners developed a concept of "Casualty Reduction".
[47] The large body of casualty data made clear that in a combat situation, fragments, not bullets, were the greatest threat to soldiers.
