Best and Worst Body Armor and Shields in Military History

the current body armor the military uses is the best I've ever seen but it wasn't always that way let's go over the evolution of modern body armor journey over the highs and lows throughout history it sounds insane now but before 2001 soldiers didn't really have protection against the enemies a k47 762 firing rifle thankfully now everyone has issued ceramic plates that can stop sometimes multiple impacts but where do we draw the line should we line the entire soldier's body head to toe and have the body armor some major rival militaries still don't even owe any body armor unlike us Western soldiers most PLA Chinese soldiers are not issued body armor the logistics instructor for the People's Liberation Army said and I quote the PLA feels that providing protective gear to soldiers would SAP their fighting spirit yeah thanks for issuing that to me it saved countless lives and it's really been great I feel safe in this thank you yeah about that we're gonna need that body armor back we don't want it to hurt your fighting spirit I mean my fighting spirit is fine this just stops bullets and everything alright fine great good thank you thanks PLA my fighting spirit has improved already so where where are we what's the sweet spot between protection and mobility let's look at the history and evolution of body armor because the answer is a moving target across time originally body armor was worn as animal skin to protect against crude weapons at the time Greeks used shields which were made of wood leather and hammered metal plates in the Middle Ages body armor was often fancy and highly polished used for ceremonial purposes to impress viewers the original peacocking if you will to get to the bottom of this I read a book written in 1920 by Dean Bashford from the Congressional archives link in the description the book is an incredible painstakingly detailed account of the history of an effectiveness of armour developments throughout history up until the World War one there are reports of soldiers in the 1500s complaining bitterly about their armor crippling their ability than preventing them from fighting effectively some things never change but they also admitted the armor was amazing at protecting them even when gunpowder weapons first showed up on the scene and became prevalent in the 1600s troops did not initially throw away their metal armor that is a common misconception it took hundreds of years before they stopped using armor and when they did it may have been more having to do with the change in military tactics instead of an effectiveness of the armor that they had the military doctrine changed drastically during the time period and there was an emphasis placed on the importance of maneuverability they needed to cover large distances and short periods of time on foot in 1800 the Australian police found the famous outback outlaw Ned Kelly who had fashioned a suit of iron armor which helped him stand up to the concentrated fire of multiple Australian police officers so between the 1800s and the 1990 we had almost a complete dropping of the shield camouflage and cover became more important during this time and depending on the strategy and tactics of any given war the body armor needed changed with it I think part of the reason why we've seen a rise in heavy armor recently is because our military has not had the same need for maneuvering very far as of recently we usually leave the base walk a few miles on patrol and then come back to the same base instead of pushing hundreds of miles into enemy territory in World War one the German army used a kind of lobster looking steel armor that weighed 24 pounds and covered most of the torso there are reports of this armor deflecting rifle round and shrapnel now we're likely grazing hits at angles because the direct hit from a rifle round can go straight through steel easy the report from the time makes the case that as many as 60% of ki is in the first world war could have been prevented by the use of body armor that they had available at the time because the low velocity of shrapnel wounds at the time in World War 2 that theory was proven correct with the United States Air Force using flak jackets which reduced casualties by 60% because they stopped low velocity shrapnel we would have to wait until the late 1990s for the real technological jump forward just in time for Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts science invented a ceramic plate which could be placed into the interceptor body armor this was the first ballistic protection against rifle rounds that could be realistically worn then we took a step backwards in 2008 the army issued the iotv which was supposed to be an upgrade to the iba it would cover even more of the soldier and included way more of that heavy armor soft insert you could cut soft armor with a knife but it would stop a pistol round the full weight of the thing plus the helmet was over 40 pounds and I'd argue they went overboard with this body armor making it cumbersome and difficult to even move around in don't even try putting those shoulder pads on and those promotion pads if you want to be able to move at all the iotv was like a smock filled with rocks it was the heaviest load in the history of military once you'd grow weapons ammo and cargo pockets full of pop-tarts on you're looking at an unrealistic amount of weight I know how you guys like busting me in the comments about how I complain about weight but half the fun of being in the military is complaining a few years ago they did away with the iotv in favor of a lighter modular body armor vest which is much improved but in the background they continued a tool weigh on their dream of a body armor utopia I bet you didn't know advances in protection from small arms could actually be hurting the United States soldier's ability to fight effectively sometimes science can bump up against practicality case in point the new program which the media dubbed the Ironman project it's obvious to anyone with any common sense this is a fever dream fantasy of some research and development guide the Pentagon we're gonna save lives up making it easier for soldiers to never be in danger how they'll have a third arm exoskeleton suit it'll prohibit them from being able to move anywhere so we'll never have to worry about them being in a dangerous location in the first place brilliant in 2018 a report from the Center for a New American Security detailed how soldiers routinely carried an average of 119 pounds apiece in Iraq and Afghanistan as a result one-third of medical evacuations from the battlefield between 2004 to 2007 were due to spinal or muscular skeletal injuries that's twice as many casualties from back injuries than from actual combat look at the footage from this Ironman program and you'll see I'm not even kidding about the military's recent obsession with personal protection equipment this is what happens when you have a failure of communication between the enlisted soldiers and top brass you get this armor and you get it in the worst camouflage ever invented va CEO this reminds me of the future warrior system which turned out to be a huge waste of money in time and I don't think you want a big heads up display featured on the front of your visor that would be incredibly annoying if you've got some kind of augmented reality crap that you have to pay attention to while you're trying to scan your sector it's gonna make it impossible to see what you're trying to look at task and purpose reporter Jared Keller spoke with the engineers of the newest prototype Talos body armor we learned that with this new Talos program 44% of the body will be protected from small arms fire compared to 19% offered by the standard infantry body armor the chief engineer for the Talos program said the new armor is lighter and offers better protection against a que 47 rounds the new Special Forces armor will weigh 25% less than standard gear this light weight polyethylene armor is likely to be fielded to Special Forces units at first for the first time soldiers will have a ballistic face shield which I like will finally get us one step closer looking like the Mandalorian the only real problem here is how am I supposed to know if someone is being serious or not behind that mask with the amount of sarcasm we use what are we supposed to do about being able to read each other's facial cues yeah private go over and kick that IUD wait are you serious cuz I can't tell through the mask he's good do it it's really good you know I I think you're joking but I but I just can't see your face so I'm gonna assume you're being serious honestly I don't know how stormtroopers communicated in those things I'm not saying science shouldn't continue dreaming what I'm saying is when you have a disconnect between the needs of the soldier on the ground and the development teams you get this dumpster fired called the improved outer tactical vest or iotv body armor which replaced the IBA and was issued starting in 2007 just in time for me to use it that piece of crap equipment was born out of an overprotective Sensibility which apparently has penetrated every aspect of our lives in the military there's a stigma against complaining about the weight that you carry there are some justifiable instances where the bag is trying to duck carrying his share of the load but increasingly it comes down to an unrealistic expectation of what the human body can carry and how long you can carry it this brings us to the Ironman project sure every inch of the operator will be covered and protected out of a huge cost the inability of being able to see clearly of the helmet it's a fantasy the developers hearts were in the right place they wanted to stop anyone from getting hurt but it wasn't really practical and won't be practical until science takes another leap forward with the type of soft armor that hardens instantaneously once it's impacted by a bullet the exoskeleton suit is a terrible idea if you try to put a tourniquet on someone wearing that thing it would be impossible to get through it the third arm which was part of the Talos armor is one of the worst ideas to come out of research and development and I hope they don't continue with it the new weapons the military is developing should be lighter weight so you don't need a third arm to carry it redistributing the weight from the operators arms to their back that's not a good idea either it looks like a Steadicam rig for a camera attached to someone in uniform the only advantage is that you might be able to catch the enemy off guard while they're laughing at you personally I have complete faith in the military to keep making mistakes with body armor and then continuing to fix those mistakes by bouncing back with something better than we ever could have imagined [Music]

Channel: Task & Purpose

Views: 968,616

Rating: 4.8580537 out of 5

Keywords: body armor, future technology, army, military, future weapons, military technology, gear, analysis of history, weapons and gear, china vs us, global war on terror, us army veteran, marine infantry, world war, IBA, IOTV, ballastic plate, iron man body armor, future military, sheild, protection, armour, bullet proof

Id: OTdeRqdh_zA

Length: 10min 7sec (607 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 04 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/[deleted]]

I wonder what he thinks of dragon skin.