The Necessity of a New Body Armor System and a Solution for the Lack Thereof
Speculation really
Section I
Modern war, defined as the time from which gunpowder weapons became absolutely dominant until now, has been characterized by a nearly complete inability for armor to overcome projectiles except in the interval from 1916 to 1945 in the form of tanks. Armored vehicles have lost their edge with the development of HEAT munitions and furthermore with man carried guided weapons which have increased the rate armored vehicles are destroyed to levels both intolerable and which render any offensive bereft of the sustainability needed to make meaningful use of a victory. Even in 1945 when guided weapons were still relatively nascent the ability of a small crew or even one man to devastate armor had increased to levels which led to some military planners considering heavy armor simply a waste. Besides that tanks required the support of infantry who did not have armored protection, at least outside of a vehicle, which is where they will have had to fight eventually. Not much has actually changed since then except that infantry now has a modicum of armor that can at least save them from a short burst to the chest and that tanks are now even more vulnerable despite efforts to make active defense systems.
Strategically speaking war now lacks a certain measure of maneuver which was present before the advent of radio and telephones. Front lines have crossed the entire border between warring states since the first world war. Up until then armies would move as a relatively tight group which would fight all at once within convenient horseback distance. Thus, while amassed the armies could position themselves through marches, maneuver and use stratagems to get around the enemy flanks, now there is no end to the enemy lines on a strategic level. War extends border to border, thus to roll up an enemy’s lines requires a breakthrough and exploitation explicitly, rather than an outflanking. So to say, the modern front could be considered similar to premodern lines but extended, however it lacks that key room to maneuver around the enemy. Furthermore, a successful breakthrough and exploitation cannot be relied on to break an enemy all across the line, or even very far at all. A breakthrough must be sustained until it becomes an encirclement and then destruction and victory. The only other way to destroy the enemy on the battlefield is to swallow the enemy wholly and all at once in a broad offensive. In either case there is a distinct lack of superiority and survivability for the offensive side. The ability to survive attacks and keep fighting is important for both sides in a battle, but for the advancing soldiers it is even more key for getting where they need to go without dying or being wounded, which takes even more soldiers off the field.
Beyond that is the problems of drones, as well as air strikes to a lesser extent, lesser because of the proliferation of long range SAMs and one’s own interceptors. Missiles, drones, suicide drones, whatever else similar, none excel at killing man sized targets. Almost all of it is geared towards larger targets like tanks. Besides that, it’s all quite expensive, aside from a drone dangling a grenade. Artillery is still the primary killer of men, which just goes to show the need for better armor. There has been success in high individual mobility for avoiding air strikes in desert wars. Men on motorcycles and technicals can apparently move fast enough to avoid getting hit, besides being small targets. Thus, armored men on highly mobile vehicles are the solution.
Section II
The armor itself has been the perpetual problem. Almost anything that works is too heavy and breaks after too few bullets hitting it. The coverage of current armor set ups is also mediocre. However, there is a severe issue of mindset surrounding the way soldiers carry equipment. American infantrymen carry upwards of 100 pounds of equipment. Only around 30 is in the form of armor, trending towards less because for some reason that’s what people jump to to cut down on. There is some inevitability in carrying excessive weight on campaign somewhere like Afghanistan where the military insisted on chasing Taliban up mountains, but the kind of wars to be fought are no longer anti partisan police actions. Conventional warfare between peer level belligerents is what the world is shifting to. Moreover, it is simply unnecessary to carry all that instead of having motorcycles or quad ATV type vehicles to carry it. Simply operate like the dragoons of old and drive where you need to go and dismount. Auxiliary soldiers can bring the vehicles up from the rear if necessary. All this is to say that weight should be made available for armor as opposed to gear that could be left out of normal combat.
The composition of the armor is arguably the most important part of this equation. Luckily recent advances have made materials available that are superior to current armor materials. Currently, militaries and civilians usually work with silicon/boron carbide or Kevlar, which suffer from the issue of durability. Very recently a company called Kraig Biocraft Labs has developed genetically modified silk worms that produce spider silk. Slightly less recently a scientist at the University of North Carolina developed Composite Metal Foam. Spider silk is exceptionally strong and durable and the military is already testing it. Composite Metal Foam (here on referred to as CMF) is several times more effective than normal steel at stopping projectiles at 30% of the weight for the same volume. It is steel usually, but technically could be made of any metal. The metal is made to have hollow spheres within it which changes the structural qualities and makes it extremely good at absorbing impacts as well as insulating. Currently it is relatively difficult and expensive to produce, but this writer has conceived a way to change that. CMF plates over a full body under suit of thick but flexible spider silk in combination with pyramidal or domed silicon/boron carbide tiles on top and a helmet visor of Aluminum Oxynitride are the main components of this proposed armor system. This composite system should be adequate to increase the survivability of soldiers in the assault to a point even of melee contact and further attacks. The ceramic tiles will break upon being hit, but given their size will not affect the rest of the armor. The soldiers would be equipped with extra tiles in convenient tubes with a quick adhesive that locks the tile onto a grid type thing. The tiles alone may not stop large bullets but will blunt them and set them off course such that the CMF will be able to absorb them with less damage than normal, increasing the resiliency. The spider silk layer should not even need to take any brunt.
Spider silk is several times tougher than Kevlar at 120,000-160,000 joules/kg before breakage and a density of 1.18-1.36 g/cm^3, as opposed to Kevlar at 1.44 g/cm^3 and steel at 7.84. CMF allegedly has 100 times greater ability to absorb kinetic energy than its parent material. Standard steel CMF would only have a density of 2.35 g/cm^3. It has been tested against several munitions, including .50 caliber bullets, .308 caliber and 23x152 mm High Explosive Incendiary, all of which it was able to stop with the damage contained to the area immediate to the impact, thus preserving more overall durability than solid steel or other current armor materials. It only took a 16.7mm thick piece of CMF to block the 23x152 mm round. As for Aluminum Oxynitride it can stop a .50 caliber round at 1.6 inches thick and has a density of 3.696 g/cm^3. Except for the spider silk all the materials mentioned herein can be produced by a sintering process, making most shapes easy.
CMF is a rather new material and by virtue of that and the powder metallurgy process with which it is made could possibly be improved upon further through alloying or metal matrix composite construction. Powder metallurgy makes alloying an almost trivial process.
Section III
The armor is to be composite in nature and complete in coverage of the body whether by hard armor or soft. The spider silk layer should cover the entire body, while the hard armor will be limited by the maintenance of movable joints. The hard armor will cover the head completely, shoulders partially, arms on the outer side, forearms completely, hand partially, torso from the gorget at the neck area down to where the torso bends under the ribs and along the sides. The torso portion will be designed with a lip at the bottom that extends in the fashion of the armor of a Cuirassier such that it provides some protection for the soft stomach while not compromising ability to bend. The armor will be designed to benefit from hip support as opposed to putting all weight on the shoulders as most present armors do. Hard armor will be designed to cover the crotch from the front as much as possible. The upper legs will be covered nearly fully and with a small lip at the top and around the outside leg portions. The lower leg armor will cover the shin completely and extend over the knee vertically which will not compromise movement given that the lower leg only extends to straight with the upper, not beyond. The feet will most likely only have a spider silk reinforced boot. The helmet style is up in the air, however the Adrian type is recommended for the top part. An Aluminum Oxynitride face shield will be in place.
Auxiliary systems in the armor such as a heads up display or an integrated drone control panel and screen are possible but not of concern here. A cooling system is probably more pressing in any case.
The following is a rough estimate of the weight of the armor based off of the surface area of the average male and the density of the component materials and an estimated thickness of each material respectively.
Spider silk: 13 pounds for full body coverage at 2.5mm average thickness.
Regarding this weight I have remembered since writing that the density is for an absolute solid spider silk and not whatever weave would be used. Any weave would have a certain amount of empty space, which would make it thicker for less weight.
CMF: 78 pounds at 50% coverage and 16mm average thickness
Aluminum Oxynitride: 3.5 pounds for the angled face plate.
Ceramic tile: Customizable.
Total Estimate: 94.5 pounds
The weight estimate is heavy, however weight can be sacrificed in areas like parts of the back and behind the legs. The estimates are very much estimates and would change with any serious research and development, which could as well lead to CMF alloys that are superior to relatively simple steel. It should be understood that in writing this I am only making people aware that these possibilities exist. I am no expert. I'm not even very good at math. In any case, modern man simultaneously sees the lowest of people and new heights of strength and knew knowledge of increasing that strength. With a new military program based off of much longer term training of the soldiers, and their long term commitment to the soldiery, it can be done. But, it requires a distinct shift in the prevailing mindset of modern militaries, that is, the very democratic mindset that leads to treatment of personnel as interchangeable parts without regard for innate quality.
Links
https://www.kraiglabs.com/
https://advancemnm.com/
http://www.surmet.com/technology/alon-optical-ceramics/