I've been looking into what the upper limit is for lightweight body armor, and it looks like IIIA is totally possible for full body armor. Now I'm not concerned with military or economical viability. I just want to know what it would take to have the lightest, strongest, most durable armor (a few mags worth of small arms fire). No ceramic crap, and nothing is off limits (including carbon nanotubes). Before anyone asks, I'm not a prepper, just interested in the material science needed for super-soldier type armor.
Armor
Jacob Fisher
Elijah James
The problem is you need a light material that can disperse energy without damaging the material
Steel is good for the latter
Kevlar is good for the former
The compromise could be chain mail but idk the ballistic properties and that's still pretty heavy but it's moveable
t. Engineering senior
Owen Young
What I had in mind wasn't meant to be indestructible, but just strong enough to survive a firefight until field repairs can be made. Obviously easier with fabrics than metal plates because you can just stick a new layer over the holes.
Jaxson Diaz
Usually the armor gets replaced because you cannot guarantee it will stop another round
Field repairs would be difficult for liability and skills reason
Kevlar gets split and cannot get repaired
Ceramic is usually a one off thing and transferres energy into cracking
Steel is strong enough to be hit thousands of times but the anti spall coating would be removed way before that
Anthony Gray
What about carbon nanotubes? As far as I know, it's kevlar on steroids. Also, those splits can be covered by a patch too. Of course it's not perfect, but it's better than trying to seal up open steel plate (which is also too heavy for what I'm considering).
Nolan Torres
The problem is applying that patch, stitching will also damage the material
This is why if I get stabbed once with an ice pick, my vest gets replaced
I don't know enough about the nano tubes, but any patch work is very bad with any material
Steel won't get hole, if it did then the operator is dead and/or the rounds are outside the rating of the armor
Easton Cruz
Replacing the vest ISN'T an option because I'm talking about what it would hypothetically take to make a one man army. There wouldn't be any stitching involved either. As you said, that weakens it, and has other issues. I'm talking literal ballistic bandage.
Nathan Wilson
What about an outer-shell layer of steel with standoff distance, then kevlar underneath. Put in a couple 30 cm computer fans and run coolant under the kevlar. We mechfudd now.
Charles Torres
I get that steel plate is basically impervious to small arms, but it would still need to be replaced at some point due to warping. Not a big issue for longevity, but a big one for mobility. Rigid full body armor doesn't sound so great if it's all bent out of shape with newly exposed gaps. Not to mention weight.
Isaiah Ortiz
Why not make it modular so you can remove pieces when they are damaged?
If we're mech now then weight is much less of a problem
Steel would be cost effective and adequate
But now you run into the problem of energy and the human factors
Christopher Richardson
Exactly! Parts can be exchanged, but the patches would be for when you don't have access to your unobtainium of a suit's parts. As for power armor, I only consider that viable for things like HUD, heating/cooling, etc. We have no near or mid future solution to putting powered exoskeleton type power into a suit.
Austin Allen
Why not use panels of, lets say 3x3 inches, overlapping like old scale armor? Easy to repair by disconnecting the damaged panels and attatching new ones, might move better too
Elijah Anderson
Why has no one recommended UMPWHE?
Asher White
Lightweight pretty much rules out steel. Frankly if you just need 3a protection then kevlar or similar fiber armor is going to be the best current choice, as it has been since the 80s. Hell, the north hollywood shootout guys walked through walls of lead for a prolonged period of time, pretty much doing exactly what you're asking for back in the 90s. Ceramic lacks the same degree of multi hit capability(for the most part) while being much better at stopping higher velocity rounds, steel does both at the cost of weight when properly coated, and carbon fiber armor is in its infancy. Also worth considering is the natural downside of BFT with soft armor, stopped rounds can still cause great discomfort or even internal injury as the force is so narrowly focused. Not a huge deal if you're high off your ass on pain pills and amphetamines, but otherwise it could seriously limit combat effectiveness, and reducing the weight/thickness of soft armor will significantly exacerbate this issue. The biggest probable step forward in this general area, IMO, will probably be some sort of super lightweight non newtonian or similarly behaving state changing body armor which AFAIK is already an idea being worked on. Allowing an individual to wear an extremely thin and flexible outer layer that can turn solid for fractions of a second around the impact area of a round both stopping it cold and diffusing the force over a wide area.
Mason Russell
Material structure is the new fad. Look up metal foams. More recently researchers managed to create a composite that was as as hard and titanium but more ductile without compromising weight and it was made from a significantly cheaper and workable material. I'm looking for the article.
There's also deflection and energy baffling.
Jackson Flores
Aiden Barnes
boom, headshot
Jeremiah Hill
Armed attack turtle!
Liam Baker
interesting read
Brandon Turner
That's pretty cool, thanks user
Besides the massive Fab. cost, the other problem I see can be splintering with a shock load (see projectile)
I would love to get my hands on some and do some calculations and testing but I probably can't until graduate school
Christopher Clark
Do what that guy did for armor in the North Hollywood bank robbery. The police couldn't get through his armor and he an heroed.
Caleb Hill
Why no ceramic "crap"? Had one NCO who took three rounds of 7.62x39mm point blank into the SAPI on a previous tour, guy lived.
Owen Allen
I've never lied on the internet
Thomas Cruz
Why would it need to be indestructible? Small overlapping plates could be easily discarded and replaced.