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Armor composition


The purpose of the armor is to protect the entire body, as opposed to just the torso like with flak vests, with armor sufficient to stop shrapnel and high velocity handgun rounds, as well as minor threats such as bayonets and punji spikes. The armor is very stiff, in comparison to the softer flak vests in used by the U.S. army, being made of a material similiar to U.S. Marine Doron plates, essentially fiberglass backed with ballistic nylon, and in the case of the armor a thin layer of hardened aluminum. When ceramic plates are added, the armor can stop rifle rounds at point blank range over covered areas, with Boron Carbide plates or tiles added to the armor, protecting the head, chest, groin, spinal cord, neck, and other vital areas, however this increases the weight of the armor from 20 pounds (at approximately 1 pound per square foot), to 35-55 pounds, depending on how much of the body is covered. Less ceramic is needed given the stiffness and energy absorption of the armor, and as boron carbide is lighter weight than many other ceramics it further reduces the weight, with approximately 5-6 pounds of boron carbide needed per square foot to stop a rifle round on top of the existing 1 pound per square foot of the Doron plates. Unlike the U.S. marines, the helmet is also made of the same material, but spots a thicker aluminum interior, to help increase energy absorption further. The rest of the armor can stop a rifle round at approximately 300-400 yards, or at point blank range certain smaller caliber rounds (such as handgun rounds or carbines), allowing for soldier's to be immune to virtually all forms of enemy fire at 300 yards and beyond. The armor is designed to be paired with a number of electronic systems, powered by a methanol fuel cell, including a cooling suit, air filter for a gas mask, various lights, a starlight scope, short-range acoustic signature sonar device and radios, all of which provided strategic capabilities for the soldier. In particular the scope can easily see through smoke and fog, allowing the soldiers to deploy smoke grenades in order to effectively blind enemy troops, but still allow U.S. troops to see through. This provides not only direct protection from enemy fire but indirect protection through the strategic capabilities added. The armor as it covers the entire body also acts as camouflage, and is designed to break up the shape of a person, making them harder to recognize, especially at a distance. Variants of the armor only cover parts of the body, such as the Torso, head, and legs, and come with and without Ceramic plates and tiles, with some variants abandoning all electronic measures all together.

The armor is made out of roughly the same material as the U.S. marine Doron plates, such as those used in the Battle of Okinawa and the M1951 vest, designed to cover the entire body, and capable of stopping handgun rounds up to a 7.62mm Tokarev. The armor is broken in to smaller plates, designed to fit ergonomically over the body, like the original doron plates, with segmented overlapping armor acting similarly to ancient lamellar armor. The plates are coated in a thin layer of hardened ceramic, designed to break up and deform projectiles before entering the softer armor below, and have a thin aluminum backing to absorb energy and further prevent deformation. Like the doron plates, the armor was primarily made out of ballistic nylon and fiberglass, with a hardened outer coating and backing. The purpose of the plates was not only to stop limited amounts of weak shrapnel such as with Army Flak vests, but also to easily stop handgun rounds, and submachine gun threats, such as a .45 ACP from the Thompson submachine gun, and the 7.62mm Tokarov which was much higher velocity and known to penetrate softer armor at the time. The armor was also designed to stop close range hand grenade shrapnel, and also a direct hit from a bayonet, which could easily penetrate softer vests at the time. Being hard and stiff, it resulted in less backface deformation, and thus less energy being transferred to the user, and as well helped to stop additional threats such as knives, punji spikes, and other sharp or blunt instruments which historically have had an easier time penetrating armor such as kevlar or U.S. Army flak vests.

The vests were specifically designed to protect against a wide range of shrapnel, including US hand grenade fragments at three feet, 75% of 81mm mortar rounds at 10 feet, as well as 120mm mortar rounds at various ranges, and resultingly large artillery shrapnel at further ranges. This had the effect of reducing the effective lethal area of many explosive weapons, increasing the survivability of the soldiers dramatically and decreasing their overall casualty levels. Through the use of nylon and the aluminum, fiberglass was unlikely to enter the wound, decreasing the previous perceived threat of the armor if pierced by a rifle round. If a rifle round did penetrate the armor, it would reduce it's lethality, absorbing much of the energy and stripping off the copper jacket as well as additional lead fragmentation, making the wound smaller and thus easier for a surgeon to operate on, and resultingly less bleed-out, thus giving more time for a soldier to get medical attention. Thus the armor not only protected from rounds directly, but also reduced the severity of the injury to the soldier when penetrated, increasing their chance of survival. The armor is raised approximately an inch over the body with a small amount of foam rubber, acting as a cushion and spacer to allow the force of a bullet to diffuse over the body, as well as catch debri such as dirt or other potentially harmful materials which could lead to an infection. Over the heart, spinal cord, helmet, and other key vital areas of the body, an additional layer of ceramic similar to the T-65-2 chicken plate can be added, which helps to stop rifle rounds at point blank range, allowing the soldier to survive otherwise lethal wounds from full sized rifle cartridges at point blank range. However injury can still result over the body and if not treated can easily lead to death. The armor is designed to stop a 7.62mm tokarev over the entire body, .30 carbine rounds at 50-100 yards, and rifle rounds at 300-400 yards, while it can stop rifle round over key vital areas at point blank range when the chicken plates are added. The armor is designed with venting holes and grommets which provides air circulation, helping to prevent overheating which is often present with the armor.

Various electronics can be used with the armor, typically reserved for front line infantry or vehicle crews. An optional semi-powered cooling system can be utilized, which can be powered in part by a battery and the heat generated from an oxygen candle, or by a methanol fuel cell. The cooling system can either be powered by a combination of electricity from the methanol fuel cell, heat reclaimers from the fuel cell and oxygen candle designed to reuse waste heat, or from a delayed release cooling pack, which can be refrigerated and refrozen between uses. The system circulates both air and coolant throughout the body, with the coolant being placed over key vascular areas such as the hands, feet, and neck, while the air circulates virtually over the entire body. The air circulation while low energy provides substantial cooling effects, both by allowing fresh air in to the armor, and by taking advantage of the soldier's natural cooling system on their skin, including sweat. Both electrical and mechanical means are used to cool the body down, combining a relatively simplistic mechanical air conditioning system with a more complex liquid coolant system, and an endothermic chemical (ammonium nitrate) which cools the body down. The chemical composition is similar to what's used in instant ice packs, and is delayed released so as not to harm the user or burn through the chemical too quickly. The system primarily focuses on cooling down the feet, hands, jugular vein, heart, and other major vascular areas, but also cools down the rest of the body. The ice packs are designed to last for approximately 3 days per use, and the rest of the system can operate for approximately a month. For prolonged use in combat, soldiers need to carry additional ice packs, and these are often not used by frontline troops who instead rely on the methanol fuel cell, which provides several months worth of power. The cold packs and methanol fuel cell both weigh approximately 6 pounds, while the rest of the cooling equipment weighs 6 pounds as well. The armor is designed to be incorporated with a gas mask and other electronics systems, as well as an NBC suit, although the NBC suit is an optional feature. The gas mask not only helps to filter air from toxins, such as tear gas, smoke, and various chemical weapons, as well as pollen and other allergens in the air, but also circulates air to the soldier's helmet, both cooling them down and guaranteeing a steady supply of air. In this way, the gas mask doesn't impede the soldier's breathing as much as an ordinary gas mask, allowing it to be worn at virtually all times. In combination with this, high oxygen can be pumped in to the mask with an appropriate oxygen candle, allowing the soldier to breathe nearly 90% oxygen at all times, increasing their athletic performance and resistance to certain forms of injury, as well as acting as a pain reliever. A single kilogram of the chemical can produce enough oxygen for the soldier as needed for approximately 6.5 hours, with more provided for longer periods of time; alternatively it can be burn at a slower rate, to generate approximately double normal atmospheric oxygen levels, allowing for 25 hours of operation per kilogram. This also allows the soldier to completely close off their NBC suit to the environment if the gas mask fails, or if the soldier is submerged underwater or in particularly low oxygen environments, such as those with heavy smoke. A small methanol fuel cell, at approximately 6-8 pounds, can provide electricity for the entire system, possessing approximately 15 times the energy density as modern lithium ion pound for pound, being the ideal alternative to power the electronics over batteries. When using methanol fuel cell power, the ice packs are not necessary, and thus replace them in terms of weight.

The suit is as much designed to protect the user from environmental threats as combat related one's. Water, bugs, allergens, and temperature are all elements the system is designed to combat, both by being sealed off from the environment and through the use of active measures. Obstacles such as punji spikes, wooden traps and shrapnel are also protected against, preventing the soldier from being killed or injured against minor threats which could halt the advance of a military. The standard soldier variant is 35 pounds and only stops shrapnel and handgun rounds, or rifle rounds out to 300 yards, while the heavier variant uses chicken plates and an advanced cooling and high oxygen system to increase the soldier's strength. The cooling and oxygen system are paradoxical, in that the system adds endurance to the user, but also adds weight, which can hamper the use in some ways. For many front line infantry units the 55 pound variant is utilized, although due to the heavy maintenance requirements and weight, the 20-35 pound variant is used for most U.S. soldiers in the support role, which constitutes approximately 80% of troops. The armor represents a massive shift in military tactics from WWII, with the system developed from the observation that the majority of casualties in WWII were from shrapnel and other explosives, which resulted in approximately 75% of injuries and death, and could have easily been stopped by steel armor available at the time, roughly equivalent to the strength of steel in a helmet. While the steel armor could not protect the soldier from rifle rounds at point blank range, it could stop them at 300 yards, of which nearly 50% of engagements occurred past this distance, and could stop sumbachine gun rounds and most importantly shrapnel, which were by far bigger killers than rifles and machine guns. Thus while a soldier is not protected against an enemy rifle at close range, at 300 yards and beyond or against mortar, artillery shells, and grenades, the soldier is almost completely protected, making them virtually immune to enemy fire of this type and protecting them from 90% of causality causing agents. This has the added effect of decreasing medical requirements in the field approximately 10-fold, and thus allows for a higher degree of care for the size medical resources, increasing survival rates from medicine despite no fundamental change in care. While in most U.S. wars medical teams were often overtaxed with the sheer volume of casualties, and thus unable to treat most wounds with the proper care required, with the armor this number is greatly reduced, and thus increases the quality of care per soldier. In this way the armor has an exponential increase in survival rates by reducing the necessary medical resources required in the field and giving greater attention per soldier.


Electronics
The armor incorporates a variety of electrical components in it to help the soldier's combat capabilities, ranging from a cooling and oxygen system, to advance radios and optical systems. The radio has headphones the soldier wears in the helmet under their hearing protection, and a mike for the soldier to speak in to, as well as is attached to the suits primary battery system. The suit also utilizes two starlight infrared scopes, one that attaches to the soldier's helmet, and another to their back, which allows the solider to see at night and detect heat sources, such as living creatures (humans) and vehicles. The starlight scope is able to amplify light to 1000 times the natural level, although this still is not enough to see in complete darkness, and thus required moonlight or "starlight", or other faint light sources to operate correctly. To overcome this obstacle in part, the scope also incorporate a faint infrared scope, allowing the soldier to observe a dim glowing outline around their targets, as well as a micro-light on the backpack of the user which is mounted on the shoulder which provides a dim infrared and light signature which illuminates the surrounding areas. In environments with close to no light visible to the scope, this allows the soldier to see out to several hundred meters, and illuminates the soldier's immediate vicinity with a reliable and adjustable light source. The scopes can also see through smoke, fog, and other aeorsals for several hundred meters, allowing the soldier to identify targets most forces cannot. By utilizing smoke cover, the soldier's can conceal their own positions before approaching the enemy, thus protecting them by concealing their location rather than by stopping bullets directly.

In addition, there is an acoustic signature detection system mounted next to the camera on the shoulder, which in combination with shared data and signals received by nearby soldier's systems helps to detect the direction of incoming fire and other sounds. However, these systems are easily disrupted by the environment and only given approximate directions for loud noises and thus despite their expense are only of limited usefulness. In particularly intense combat it can give a rough direction of enemy fire or at the beginning of the battle to detect initial gunshots or sniper fire, although normally this is available to the soldier through their own hearing, making it situationally useful. More useful it can amplify sound, allowing the soldiers to hear approximately 20 times as well as the normal human ear, but does not transmit sounds loud enough to damage the soldier's ear. The same system can more usefully act as sonar, giving a rough indication of enemy movements in the immediate vicinity, which is useful at close ranges in the jungle, but also paradoxically limited by the fact the dense and complex jungle terrain creates large amount of clutter for the sonar system. The system is more useful indoors, for detecting hidden enemies in confined, homogeneous spaces, as opposed to the more cluttered nature of the jungle. It is particularly effective at detecting enemies coming from underground, as sound waves travel farther underground and virtually any movement underground indicates enemy activity, a feature particularly useful against guerrillas such as in Vietnam.

A methanol fuel cell is widely used to power the suit's electronics, which was not only far more energy efficient than batteries at the time, but even with the weight of the fuel cell is still 15 times more efficient than modern lithium ion in terms of weight for providing power. There is no self discharge rate, the fuel cell can be turned on and off at demand, and is more resistant to environmental changes such as from the heat or cold. The primary drawback is the need for fuel instead of the more varied means of electric charging, and the heat produced by the fuel cell, which is sapped off and used in part for the cooling suit of the armor. With the methanol fuel cell, cold packs are not required, and the cooling suit as well as the methanol fuel cell only add approximately 12 pounds to the soldier's equipment, while the rest of the electronics add an additional 6 pounds, for a total of 18 pounds. Minor additions, such as radios and signaling methods, for the time period provided novel communications abilities, while more complex additions such as starlight scopes or acoustic systems offered strategic capabilities in addition to raw protection. When paired with the oxygen candle soldier's endurance can be dramatically increased, at the expense of extra weight, which in part offsets this advantage, and is largely used by special forces on specific missions, or in battles where the use of chemical weapons is expected. Because the armor sports a gas mask, with the air filter mounted on the back and ran to the helmet in a tube, and is easily paired with an NBC suit, it can be used to resist chemical attacks, but quickly causes the soldier to overheat without the use of a cooling system, which is already integral to the armor even when not in use. Regular soldiers tend to only carry the 20 pounds of Doron plates and the gas mask, while more advanced front line units more frequently utilize the complex electronics. While not directly increasing the soldier's strength, the use of electronics which improve the soldier's endurance help to prove their natural biomechanics, allowing them to operate longer and more comfortably in the field.