modern armor and defense

Armor died with the decline of knights and it was a long time before it was revived. Now its back in many forms, most noticeably Kevlar. New weapons are coming out and "cop killers," Teflon bullets can piece light Kevlar vests. Armor cannot just be made thicker or it would become too heavy and bulky. I have heard of extremely strong ceramics but seen no actually articles about them. So a question is posed. What will the next advance in armor be?

 

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How do you mean, extremely strong ceramics? They use ceramic inserts to make bullet proof vests actually bullet proof, they shatter and absorb the force of the fragments. ( I dont know exaclty which ceramics they use, perhaps I'll go google.) The americans in Iraq just now apparently have really good vests and its hard to kill them because of that.
So, for personal body armour, probably spider silk type stuff that has been promised for years. Lighter and stronger than almost everything. But you'd still need ceramic plates or suchlike to help absorb the force and stop bigger stuff. Aside from that, no sign of personal force fields any time soon.

 

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Body armor came back with flak jackets in WWII. Yes, WWII. Kevlar came and made it practical for more purposes. Those ceramic plates have varying durabilities. I've heard of ones that will take several 7.62mm rounds before failing. Of course, it's expensive. lighter, more durable materials, eventually some powered armor will show itself. Here, weight isn't as big of an issue.

 

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I've heard the spider silk armor thing from about 100 different sources, isn't spiders silk also extremely flexible as well as strong? What good would a spiders silk vest be if the bullet doesn't penetrate the vest but instead pushes part of it through your chest?
I read somewhere that the ceramic plates U.S. troops are using are for sale at about $700 each.

 

Spectra Shield® is the strongest, lightest, composite ballistic material made today!
It isn't a woven fabric like most ballistic materials i.e. [ Kevlar©] But instead, a thin, flexible ballistic composite made from layers of unidirectional fibers held in place by flexible resins. These fibers are arranged so they cross each other at 0 and 90 degree angles, then, both fiber and resin layers are sealed between two thin sheets of polyethylene film similar to saran wrap.

Spectra Shield® is ten times stronger than steel !!.

This latest material delivers full ballistic protection in a softer, more flexible, non-woven fabric that is ideal to make your Vest more comfortable "wearer friendly" personal armor.
Spectra Shield® is a ballistic armor material that combines "all the performance of Kevlar in a more comfortable and more flexible material that is about 40% lighter than [ Kevlar©] .

Spectra Shield® material offers no compromise in performance while providing ultimate comfort .

 

what about carbon nanofibers (buckytubes)? or synthetic diamond coatings?

 

Give them time. Believe me that the Army is absolutely salivating over the strength characteristics of some of the nanotube lattices they've been able to produce in labratories. (I agree with you)

 

Just a side note, whether or not a bullet is coated in Teflon doesn't have anything to do with its ability to penetrate armor. The Teflon coating just serves to help the bullet slide down the barrel smoothly, which reduces wear on the inside of the barrel. Early armor-piercing handgun bullets had hard steel cores that tended to damage gun barrels, so they were coated in Teflon to help prevent wear. The armor penetration comes from the bullet's steal core, not the Teflon coating. Some people who shoot extremely expensive and high-precision guns (think competition target shooters, that sort of thing) use Teflon coated standard lead bullets that don't have any special armor penetration abilities, simply because it's less stressful on the gun's internals.

 

excess heat + excess pressure = unblockable.
Now researchers have to deal with that.
(sorry if this short post is 'disturbing')

 

Nothing is "unblockable" or armor would never have been developed. The problem is weight and cost. It is very likely that Bill Gates could have almost invincible armor made but the cost would in the millions or billions. The problem is developing something cheap enough to be competitive.

 

Powered personal armor is the ultimate form of bullet protection. But then, everyone is blasting each other with AT rocket already.

 

Personal armor has been lagging far behind personal weapons technology ever since the crossbow.

 

heh true better armor breeds better weapons and so on, i guese they just have to add point defence and shield to the Powered armor.

Powered armor always reminds me of the fallout games

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Okay, James, you just give me.... wait a sec... (read below)

hmmm, I suddenly wonder about 'counter-armor', or 'reaction-armor', that is, the armor that is somewhat works as an anti-attack (duh, I'm bad at explaining this...). An example would be an armor that uses automatic cooling when exposed to fire.... sort of...... bad idea?

 

I am dreaming some kind of future nano armor that can quickly average out the damage during combat through nanobots, so that a second bullet hit on the same spot won't penetrate it.

 

How about this defense:

Don't piss anybody off!
Don't fick with somebody else's life or country!

Works every time.

And what do you do with someone who literally fucks with your friends or country?

Contract hit.

 

Armor is not necessary only for battle situations. Think exploring some hostile places, like space walk. An orbiting screw can kill.

 

Another problem I posed to someone else who was developing his own theory of body armor: mobility.
Technically speaking, you could provide 100% protection against small arms over 100% of the body...the trade off? You would basically be encased in a giant coffin. Kind of like the "bear-proof" suit someone was developing a while back.
Any sort of joint is a vunerable spot.

Now practically no one needs armor over all of their body. However this means that all armor has some sort of weak point. Modern armor? Mostly it's neck/face. That is almost always a lethal hit right there. Thankfully most criminals and soldiers that we have had to deal with can't hit that small an area because of a combination of lack or training and lack of accurate weapons. I remember reports of some early assaults in the Gulf Wars where people would take two or three AK rounds and all it would do is knock them down. I'd say that's pretty good. Most of the deaths of law enforcement on the civil side came from sheer firepower (i.e. the ATF agents who were killed at Waco). Anyone who has the advantage in both suprise and firepower is most likely going to inflict damage.
Personally, it seems right now the best defense is some body armor, lots of training, a good bit of luck, and shooting back!

 

That would certainly be cool, but who knows what our weapons will be like by the time we have that sort of technology? Maybe we won't be shooting bullets any more. Maybe we won't even be using aimed projectile weapons in the traditional sense.

 

Why not geneticly modify the outer layer of human skin to make it tougher to withstand small arms fire?