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The armor is roughly equal to a combat helmet in thickness and performance, but it slightly stronger, and covers the entire body to keep the body protected from shrapnel and handgun rounds, as well as minor threats such as fire, poison or punji spikes. At 1mm thick, the high strength, surface hardened steel is slightly stronger than a combat helmet, and has an energy absorbent backing designed to raise and lift the armor above the body by about two inches, to allow the metal to defuse the energy over space and to absorb spalling from the armor. The armor 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. Against rifle rounds at close range it can strip the round of the copper jacket and remove large amounts of the fragmentation, reducing the energy transferred to the user and making the wound smaller and less lethal. However, it does not stop the rounds, increasing survival rounds but not defeating them at close range. The armor uses roughly the same thickness of steel as the U.S. army steel helmet, being slightly thicker at 1mm, but is made of much stronger, surface hardened steel, and is coated in a thin layer of chromium carbide. The steel itself is comprised of high-strength vanadium chrome steel, that is cold rolled and then hammer-forged to increase it's mechanical strength, and curved to further increase the strength and energy absorption, while also increasing the chance of a round deflecting and directing spalling outwards from the armor. The armor is cryogenically treated to increase it's hardness and durability, along with other mechanical processes which work in tandem with the previous elements to increasing the strength of the armor, thus allowing the steel to be much stronger than simple pig iron or low quality steel. The steel has a brinell hardness of 480, and an MPA of 1000. On the outside is a thin layer of chromium carbide, which is extremely hard but not as brittle as ceramic, which deforms or flattens rounds before entering the soft steel below, and is more durable to repeated impacts. Backing this is a thin layer of approximately 1mm of hardened aluminum to serve as an energy absorbent backing and to prevent deformation or spalling of the steel, and behind this is fireproofed high strength fiberglass, which is mixed silicon carbide fibers, which increases the strength of the material and helps capture the fragments of rounds which penetrate the primary layer of body armor. Behind this is a thin layer of ballistic nylon designed to further help catch fragments and absorb the energy of projectiles, acting as a cushion and spacer to allow the force of a bullet to diffuse more slowly 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 .30 carbine round over the entire body 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 rest of the body is covered in a thin layer of ballistic nylon and fiberglass which helps catch small fragments, but without a high end internal cooling suit the armor could not afford to be very thick. The armor is designed with venting holes and grommets which provides air circulation and pumps coolant through the soldier's armor as the soldier moves, cooling the soldier as they walk largely be relying on the soldier's own movements.

An optional semi-powered cooling system exists, which can be powered in part by a battery and the heat generated from an oxygen candle. The cooling system is a combination of both a delayed release cooling pack, which can be refrigerated and refrozen between uses, and then a system which circulates both air and coolant throughout the body. 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. These weight approximately 6 pounds, while the rest of the equipment weighs 6 pounds as well. The steel the armor is made of is highly thermally conductive, which transfers the heat of the user to the outside world, cooling the individual, acting as a heat sink, avoiding overheating the soldier. The material is cool to the touch, feeling colder than the surrounding environment, as is the backing of the material, which prevents the soldier from overheating like in some forms of armor.

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 40% 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.

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 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.