In a video that was circulated in China some time ago, foreign firearms enthusiasts used a 7.62mm high-power rifle to test a Chinese bulletproof insert with a retail price of only US$100. The result was that several consecutive shots could not penetrate. Today, China is the world's largest producer and exporter of personal bulletproof equipment, and can provide products with the highest level of protection in the mainstream standard system at very low prices.
However, before introducing Chinese bulletproof products - especially bulletproof vests/bulletproof inserts, it is necessary to popularize some basic knowledge of bulletproof vests - for example, can bulletproof vests be stab-proof? Can it be gun-proof? Many people still have some misunderstandings when it comes to body armor.
One: Can body armor be bayonet-proof?
Let’s start with the conclusion: soft can’t, hard can.
There are two types of body armor, soft and hard. The main structure of soft body armor is made of bulletproof fibers - and any pure fiber fabric cannot effectively resist puncture damage. Therefore, although soft body armor can withstand pistol bullets and even some submachine gun bullets, it really cannot withstand the piercing attack of sharp knives-especially acupuncture knives.
Although all countries are promoting the research and development of soft body armor with integrated bullet-proof and stab-proof functions, at least at this stage, there are no products that can meet the standards of professional stab-proof clothing in terms of stab-proof performance.
The principle of traditional soft body armor is to use the process of breaking, deforming and pulling out high-strength fibers to consume the kinetic energy of the warhead, and finally make the warhead lose the ability to penetrate further, but it cannot prevent the puncture of sharp objects.
Among the hard bulletproof equipment, products with high-strength metal materials as the core cannot rely on manpower to penetrate the tool. Although there are no professional test results for ceramics, it is only theoretically speaking that because ceramics are fragile, it cannot be ruled out that the ceramics are broken during the process of multiple strong stabbings, and then the probability of the blade passing through the ceramic cracks; but this Even if the probability exists, it is very low, and basically it can be considered as meaningless.
Two: Can body armor protect against rifle bullets?
Let’s go to the conclusion first: soft body armor can’t, hard body armor depends on the grade, and high-level can.
At present, the highest level of mainstream bulletproof products (level IV under the NIJ system in the United States) can withstand 7.62 mm high-power caliber armor-piercing projectiles. That is to say, sniper rifles such as the Soviet SVD and the American M40A1 cannot penetrate such bulletproof products when firing armor-piercing bullets.
The protective ability of the bulletproof vest requires support from two aspects. The most basic requirement is of course that it cannot be worn, but at the same time, it is also required that the depression formed at the moment when the bulletproof vest is hit cannot be too deep - generally speaking, the standard is limited at 44mm. Because if the depression is too deep, the impact and kinetic energy of the warhead will still be transmitted to the deeper tissues in the human body in large quantities, causing serious bone and internal organ damage, resulting in serious injury and death.
The disadvantage of soft body armor in this regard is obvious. For high-speed, high kinetic energy rifle bullets, only bulletproof materials with a hard structure can ensure that the impact of the bullet is evenly distributed on a larger area of the body surface, and the depth of the depression at the moment of impact is controlled within a very small range.
Three: Can bullets shock and kill soldiers without wearing body armor?
Conclusion: Yes, the mechanism is called "blunt trauma behind bulletproof vest"; but in most cases, the degree of injury is limited, and there are very few fatalities.
Body armor protects soldiers by consuming the kinetic energy of bullets by itself, but the maximum rate of absorption is always limited (about 90% or slightly higher), and a part of it will be transmitted to people. Therefore, contusions of the skin, muscles, bones, and even the heart and lungs within a certain range and depth will occur to varying degrees; and because the liquid cannot be compressed, the impact will also be transmitted along the bones and blood, which may cause certain degree of cerebral hemorrhage.
The damage caused by this impact can usually destroy the soldier's ability to respond to actions within a few minutes. It will take more than a few days for the body to fully recover. The extreme case of such shock injury serious to death is very rare. In fact, the first case was not discovered by the US military until 1969.
4: Will the lethality become greater when the bullet penetrates the body armor?
Conclusion: There is such a possibility, but in most cases, the lethality will only become smaller.
The lethality of a warhead depends not only on its own kinetic energy, but also on how much kinetic energy it can release to the human body. For some bullets with very old designs and high flight stability, it is true that after the bulletproof vest is penetrated, the warhead will tumble forward in the human body due to deformation and loss of stability-so that although it loses its small size before penetrating the human body Part of the kinetic energy, but on the contrary, the speed and total amount of kinetic energy released after piercing the human body is greatly increased, which leads to an increase in lethality.
However, this situation can only be established on two preconditions: the bullet itself does not have a tumble killing design, and the high-power bullet penetrates low-protection-level body armor at close range, consuming very little kinetic energy. In fact, after World War II, new rifle bullets designed based on modern ballistic trauma theory, including all small-caliber rifle bullets, rely on enhanced tumbling to kill. Therefore, even if the lower warhead cannot be intercepted, the effect of the bulletproof vest can greatly reduce the kinetic energy of the warhead, thereby reducing the killing effect on the human body.
As for the problem of bringing in fragments of bulletproof vests - if you are hit without bulletproof vests, a large number of other foreign objects will enter the wound. This is confirmed by the statistics of firearm injuries in various countries for more than 100 years.
5. China's early body armors used ceramic armor materials on tanks and armored vehicles.
The earliest research on body armor in China began in the late 1950s. At that time, the main purpose was to provide protection for security personnel and logistics convoy personnel. The former was aimed at grenade fragments and pistol shells, and the latter was aimed at the sub-bombs dropped by the US military during air strikes.
The material combinations used at the time included fiberglass/epoxy and kapok; fiberglass/epoxy and chrome corundum; high-strength aluminum alloys, etc. However, objectively speaking, the protective performance of these early products is very limited.
It is particularly worth pointing out that the main component of chrome corundum is alumina, which is the main component of ceramic armor materials widely used in tank armored vehicles later. The United States first completed the development of ceramic composite armor in 1962. Therefore, in terms of ideas, the development of domestic chrome corundum body armor at that time was still very forward-looking - but it should be emphasized that China's ceramic bulletproof products are technically not directly related to this chrome corundum body armor. inheritance relationship.
In the 1980s, China's own 81 body armor was made of aluminum alloy-nylon material. Although much better than the fiberglass of the 1950s, nylon materials and contemporary American Kevlar (aramid) materials are far behind. After the 1990s, China introduced the production technology of a large number of advanced materials including aramid, which laid the foundation for the development of a new generation of domestic bulletproof products, especially to catch up with the international mainstream and advanced level.
Six, the domestic gun ban, so the body armor industry standards are different from the United States
From the 1960s to the 1990s, China's body armor development actually mainly aimed at domestic security work and public security law enforcement, rather than military operations. This has brought about two phenomena - the first is that the developed body armor is mainly aimed at small weapons such as pistols and submachine guns that are easy to conceal and carry, especially 64 pistols, 54 pistols, and 79 submachine guns; secondly, standardized and standardized products, First of all, it will be installed by the public security department, and the public security system will first formulate relevant industry standards for body armor.
It should be mentioned that since people are actually not allowed to carry guns in China, the protection level of bulletproof vests formulated by domestic public security departments is significantly lower than the most mainstream American NIJ system standards in the international market. Therefore, while emphasizing the level of body armor, it is necessary to know which standard system it is based on.
For example, the bulletproof vest under the domestic public security standard is divided into five levels, and the highest level can only defend against ordinary bullets (soft steel core) fired by 56 semi-automatic rifles and 56 submachine guns - in most cases, the crimes faced by domestic police officers And terrorists, the probability of having more advanced firepower is very low.
In 2002, the People's Liberation Army also began to build its own military standards for bulletproof vests. As far as the core protection capability requirements are concerned, the Ministry of Public Security added the sixth-level protection capability for 95 rifles to fire 5.8mm ordinary bullets.
7. The design and manufacture of domestic bulletproof vests are subject to the American NIJ system.
However, it should be emphasized that the low standards set by the domestic military and police departments do not mean that the development level of domestic bulletproof vests is low. In fact, the demand for domestic bulletproof products is still very small. The main markets of domestic enterprises are all overseas. Their design and manufacturing are based on the most mainstream American NIJ system. The protection capabilities of advanced products far exceed domestic standards.
Simply put, the NIJ standard is close range—within 15 meters, IIIA-level protection for all types of pistols, III-level protection for medium-caliber high-power and lower-level rifles to fire ordinary bullets, and IV-level protection for medium-caliber high-power and lower-level rifles Fires armor-piercing projectiles. For example, the $100 retail price of the Chinese bulletproof insert mentioned at the beginning of the article is NIJ's level IV protection product. The five and six levels of protection standards for the domestic military and police correspond to the level III standards under the NIJ system.
Therefore, in terms of the protection capabilities of mainstream body armor products, there is no difference between domestic and foreign products of the same level - everyone follows the same testing standard system. The level of qualified products of the same level is reflected in reducing the weight of the entire product as much as possible, reducing the thermal load of the product when wearing it, and improving the comfort and flexibility of wearing.
Eight, there is still a gap between domestic bulletproof vests and foreign countries
At present, compared with high-end foreign products, the lagging part of domestic products is often more of some design in use - such as quick wear and tear, or quick access to various firearms when wearing and so on. This is because in terms of the development of bulletproof products and the progress of the new tactical shooting system, the domestic environment cannot be compared with foreign countries where there is a huge civilian shooting market.
The most fundamental gap is that the foundation of the entire industry is highly dependent on foreign countries - for example, some high-end equipment needs to be imported from abroad. Our dependence on imported equipment and even raw materials is difficult to get rid of in a short period of time.
