Chinese gun enthusiasts can’t test the power of 7.62 mm gun in a period of time, and the power of domestic gun enthusiasts can’t be inserted in a period of time.
Today, China is the world’s largest producer and exporter of personal bulletproof equipment, and can provide products with the highest protection level of the mainstream standard system at a very low price.
However, before introducing Chinese bulletproof products, especially bulletproof vests / bulletproof insert plates, we need to popularize some basic knowledge of bulletproof vests – for example, can bulletproof vests prevent stabbing?
Can you guard against rifles? Many people still have some misunderstandings when talking about bulletproof vests.
1： Can bulletproof vests protect against bayonets?
Let’s first say the conclusion: soft vest can’t do it , but hard vest can!
The soft bulletproof clothing has good comfort and is suitable for wearing for a long time, but its protection ability is limited.
There are two types of bulletproof clothing: soft and hard. The main structure of soft bulletproof clothing is woven by bulletproof fiber – and any pure fiber fabric can not effectively resist the damage of puncture.
Therefore, although the soft bulletproof vest can resist pistol bullets and even some assault bullets, it can not resist the puncture attack of sharp knives, especially needle knives.
Although all countries are promoting the research and development of soft bulletproof clothing with the integration of bulletproof and stab proof functions, at least at this stage, there are no products that can meet the professional stab proof clothing standards in stab proof performance.
The principle of traditional soft bulletproof clothing is to use the process of fracture, deformation and extraction of high-strength fibers to consume the kinetic energy of the warhead, and finally make the warhead lose the ability of further penetration, but it can not prevent the puncture of sharp objects.
In hard bulletproof equipment, products with high-strength metal materials as the core cannot be penetrated by tools by manpower.
Although there are no professional test results for ceramics, in theory only, due to the fragility of ceramics, the probability that the ceramic breaks in the process of multiple strong stabbing and then the blade passes through the ceramic crack cannot be ruled out
But even if this probability exists, it is also very low, which can basically be considered to have no practical significance.
2：Can bulletproof vests prevent stepping bullets?
Soft bulletproof vests cannot be. Hard bulletproof vests depend on the grade, and high-grade ones can.
At present, the highest level of mainstream bulletproof products (class IV under the American NIJ system) can resist armor piercing bullets with 7.62mm high-power caliber.
In other words, sniper rifles such as Soviet SVD and American M40A1 can’t shoot through such bulletproof products when firing armor piercing bullets.
The protective ability of bulletproof clothing needs two aspects of support.
Of course, the most basic requirement is that it cannot be pierced, but at the same time, it is also required that the depression formed at the moment when the bulletproof clothing is hit should not be too deep – generally speaking, the standard is limited to 44mm.
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, resulting in serious bone and visceral damage, serious injury and death.
The disadvantages of soft bulletproof clothing in this regard are obvious. For the rifle ammunition with high speed and large kinetic energy, only the bullet proof material with hard structure can ensure that the impact of the warhead can be evenly distributed on a larger area of the body surface, and the depression depth at the moment of impact can be controlled in a very small range.
3： Can bullets injure and kill soldiers without wearing bulletproof vests?
Conclusion: Yes, the mechanism is called “blunt injury after bulletproof vest”; However, in most cases, the degree of injury is limited and there are few deaths
Bulletproof vests protect soldiers by consuming the kinetic energy of bullets, but the maximum absorption rate is always limited (about 90% or slightly higher), and some will be transmitted to people. Therefore, skin, muscle, bone and even visceral contusion such as heart and lung in a certain range and depth will appear in varying degrees
Moreover, because the liquid cannot be compressed, this impact will also be transmitted along the bones and blood, which may lead to a certain degree of intracerebral hemorrhage.
4： Will bullets become more lethal when they break through bulletproof vests?
First of all, this possibility exists, but in most cases, the lethality will only become smaller.
It depends not only on the kinetic energy released by the warhead to the human body, but also on its own lethality.
For some projectiles with very old design and high flight stability, it does exist that after piercing the bulletproof vest, the warhead rolls forward in the human body due to deformation and loss of stability – so that although a small part of kinetic energy is lost before piercing the human body, the speed and total amount of kinetic energy released after piercing the human body are greatly increased, resulting in increased lethality.
However, this situation can only be based on two premises: the projectile itself does not strengthen the roll killing design, and the high-power projectile can penetrate the low-grade bulletproof clothing at close range, which consumes very little kinetic energy. In fact, after World War II, the new rifle bullets designed based on the theory of modern ballistic traumatology, including all the current small caliber rifle bullets, themselves rely on the enhanced rolling effect to kill.
Therefore, even if the lower warhead cannot be intercepted, the effect of bulletproof vest can greatly reduce the kinetic energy of warhead, so as to reduce the killing effect on human body.
As for the problem of bringing in fragments and debris of bulletproof clothing – if you are hit without bulletproof clothing, a large number of other foreign objects will enter the wound, which is confirmed by the statistical work of firearm injuries in various countries for more than 100 years.
5、 China’s early bulletproof vests were made of ceramic armor materials on tanks and armored vehicles
The earliest research on bulletproof clothing in China began in the late 1950s.
At that time, the main purpose was to provide protection for security personnel and logistics team personnel. The former was aimed at grenade fragments and pistol bullets, and the latter was aimed at the killing fragments of submunition dropped by the US air raid.
The combination of materials used at that time included glass fiber / epoxy resin and kapok; Glass fiber / epoxy resin and chrome corundum; High strength aluminum alloy, 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 tanks and armored vehicles.
The development of ceramic composite armor in the United States was first completed in 1962.
Therefore, from the perspective of thinking, the development of chromium corundum bulletproof clothing in China at that time was very forward-looking – but it should be emphasized that China’s ceramic bulletproof products have no direct inheritance relationship with this kind of chromium corundum bulletproof clothing in technology.
In the 1980s, China’s own 81 bulletproof vests were made of aluminum alloy nylon.
Although it is much better than FRP fiber in the 1950s, nylon material is far from Kevlar (aramid) material in the United States at the same time.
After the 1990s, China introduced a large number of production technologies of advanced materials, including aramid, which laid a foundation for the development of a new generation of domestic bulletproof products, especially to catch up with the international mainstream and advanced level.
6、 Guns are banned in China, so the industry standard of bulletproof vests is different from that of the United States
From the 1960s to the 1990s, China’s development of bulletproof vests was actually mainly aimed at domestic security work and public security law enforcement, rather than military operations.
This has brought about two phenomena: first, the developed bulletproof vests are mainly aimed at small weapons that are easy to hide and carry, such as pistols and submachine guns, especially 64 pistols, 54 pistols and 79 submachine guns;
The second is the standardized and standardized products.
Firstly, the public security department shall list and install them, and the public security system shall first formulate the relevant industry standards of bulletproof vests.
It should be mentioned that since people are not allowed to hold guns in China, the protection level of bulletproof clothing formulated by the domestic public security department is obviously low, which is different from the most mainstream American NIJ system standard in the international market.
Therefore, while emphasizing the level of bulletproof clothing, it is important to know which standard system it is based on.
For example, the bulletproof clothing 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 probability of domestic police facing criminals and terrorists with higher firepower is very low.
In 2002, the people’s Liberation Army also began to build its own military standards for bulletproof clothing – in terms of the most core protection capability requirements, the sixth level protection capability for 95 rifles to launch 5.8mm ordinary ammunition was added on the basis of the Ministry of public security.
7、 The design and manufacture of domestic bulletproof clothing shall be subject to the American NIJ system
However, it should be emphasized that the low standards formulated 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 ability of advanced products far exceeds the requirements of domestic standards.
In short, the NIJ standard is close range – within 15 meters, class IIIA protects all kinds of pistols, class III protects medium caliber and high-power rifles and below to launch ordinary bullets, and class IV protects medium caliber and high-power rifles and below to launch armor piercing bullets.
For example, the $100 retail price of Chinese bulletproof insert plate mentioned at the beginning of the article is NIJ’s class IV protection product. The level 5 and level 6 protection standards of domestic military and police correspond to the level III standard under the NIJ system.
Therefore, in terms of the protection capability of mainstream bulletproof clothing products, there is no difference between domestic and foreign products of the same level – we all follow the same test standard system.
The level of qualified products at the same level is reflected in reducing the weight of the whole product as much as possible, reducing the thermal load of the product when wearing, and improving the comfort and flexibility of wearing.
