So, you noticed too, how in the cgi scenes they were shooting the whole bullet too, seriously you look at it you can see the jacket and percussion cap on the bottom of it.
As a young Marine in Vietnam, i was issued body armor, a thick fabric vest with inserted plates that (to me) appeared to be some type of ceramic. That thing is why one day I collected a bruise on my upper left chest instead of a hole.
@intrinsicimagery I believe you, but that also means that your body armor worked and bullet was stopped. I've heard from multiple people who've been shot (especially some decades ago), and all describe the experience similar to being hit by a truck and most had ribs broken. Of course depends on the energy, weapon and munition used. I doubt even Zeglend himself was really "completely unharmed" after that famous public test.
“Cave Johnson here. Introducing the consumer version of our most popular military-grade product: the turret. N/A How do we get so many bullets in them? Like this! Plus, we fire the whole bullet. That's 65% more bullet per bullet. This is the same technology we've been using on robots for decades. Scares the hell out of them. They come in hundreds of designer colors including forest, desert, table, evening at the improv... what idiot picked the...” ~ Cave Johnson
65% more bullet per bullet you say... could this be combined this with square cartridges for square barrels allowing perfectly square magazines as well?
Atleast John Wick seems to get pushed and suffer from some blunt force of the bullets too when he was shot directly (John Wick 2 Violinist stumbled him down temporarily by the bullet on the back of his Bulletsuit, and it seems to hurt that bad enough to make him fell down
My father is a retired federal agent who lead and participated in raids. One time in my childhood, I saw his kevlar vest. I asked if I could put it on to see what it feels like. He allowed it. I was i awe at how thin and light it was. He inserted a reinforced plate in that goes over the heart. I looked at him in wonder. "And this stops bullets?" "Yep. But it's still going to hurt. A lot. Like getting hit with a 16 lbs sledgehammer in the chest." "That sounds horrible!" I cried. He looked me straight in the eye and said very simply "It's better than being dead." That conversation has stuck with me over the next 35 years.
People would ask me about the steel plates I had (at the time) "isn't that heavy and uncomfortable"- yes but so is being shot Ive heard. You can't predict crazy. It just happens, and ya hope to God it ain't you that it finds.
We had the plates at the front and rear, they were ceramic for us. The rest of the body armour was a Kevlar material. On a break you could upzip the front plates at the sides and it would fall down to make a decent table for your coffee. Of course you wouldn’t do this out in the open.
@@somnambulist7705perhaps some kind of helmet mounted coffee dispenser? Except that is directly hooked into your brain and it takes a 95%< complete snapshot of your mind every day whilst deployed and every 5mins during combat. Incase you get irreparably injured you can just be mostly recreated from either a brainless clone (unethical) or a complete organ carrier of your choice: criminal, democrat or republican*depends party in power drug user pacifist *person of whatever faith you're not
These days federal agents are conducting no knock kill not catch raids on American citizens like in Arkansas. An arrest that could have been a simple standard traffic stop with a box in. Then again, what's better than feds putting tape over your cameras in the morning darkness to kick in your door to say we're not here to kill you...
This was in the 1980s and '90s. A flack vest is as heavy as the rest of the field uniform, and awkward to move in. We wore them when ordered to, but most of the time, we chose not to wear them because of the limitations in maneuverability. During the war, however, we wore them. They don't protect much against a direct shot, but they do help with flack -- shrapnel.
I'd have to agree. Doc knew who he was battling, and would have 'upgraded' his protection as it became clear what weaponry was likely to be used. Doc lives!
Guy built a time machine out of a used car. That he could come up with improved body armor that could be "concealed" under an over sized jumpsuit is hardly a stretch.
My brother was Force Recon in the Marines. He served 33 years. He saw alot of action and was hit in his armor many times. He said it felt like someone hit him with a baseball bat. It would hurt for days after and even broke ribs one time. It never went through though and was much better than the alternative. He had a round go through his calf. He said he didn't feel it until the fire fight was over. I wish i could get him to let me do a video with him sharing his experiences.
That was a far more thorough history of bullet resistant armor than I was expecting, but well worth it. Also, your bonus facts here were the best summarization of what caused WWI that I've ever heard.
They also sold stuff saying make politicians afraid again. And then feigned being a victim when someone tried to assassinate Trump and was wearing demolition ranch merch.
@Nevyn515 Kentucky Ballistics has succeeded in forcing the vest through the dummy while still catching the round. The 4 Bore could not penetrative the ballistic fabric but that did not make much difference to the ribcage and spine behind it, lol.
Ned Kelly and the Kelly Gang deserve a shout in the history of the bullet proof vest. An Australian gang of Outlaws made their own bullet proof vests and helmets out of old boiler plate. This was the late 1800s by the way...
I was a ghetto security in Toronto. The vest company would replace our vests if we got shot... and survived. We used to keep 3-4 thick magazines in our plate carriers because an ice pick or syringe will go through Kevlar, but paper stops it.
Good lord. Magazines. I mean, they would work, I can't fault you there. But seriously, a stab and ballistic rated vest is only gonna run you a few hundred to few thousand depending on quality and other features. Plus, living in Ontario, you have no restrictions on owning or wearing body armour. Get yourself some quality equipment, bro! Especially if you're still living in the GTA. Even as a civvie, I wear a concealed IIIa when I'm going out for awhile, and I have an oversized UHMWPE lvl III+ SP plate in my pack at all times. Light enough not to bother me, and big enough that if shit goes down, I can put my son(until he gets a bit bigger) between me and the plate which covers almost all his vitals while I GTFO. His diaper bag has a IIIa panel in it as well. It's inevitable to become a statistic. But you don't have to be THAT statistic.
Real thing! Well, not sure about the one from Super Troopers, but there are ballistic rated cups on the market. Genuinely not sure whether I'd rather my nuts blown off and bleed out, or take the world's worst nut shot and have them splattered against my pelvis lol. Aim higher or lower, please.
The animation showing a full cartridge impacting on a piece of Kevlar!🤣🤣🤣 Also, an AK-47 is not a "full power" rifle round. It is actually an intermediate round.
@@ellwoodwolfyou're asking what the core of the bullet is made of? Typically lead, with a copper "jacket" or coating to help keep the gun clean and engage with the barrel's rifling for more consistent accuracy. Now, there are more specialized ammunition types that have other materials, but that's going to be your "basic" bullets. Armo(u)r piercing rounds will typically have a small diameter penetrator made of steel, or tungsten, or a similarly dense material that is pushed into and through armor by the rest of the bullet and its own inertia.
In the early 2000s Second Chance (a body armor company) started marketing a vest made out of a material called Zylon which was manufactured by a Japanese company called Toyobo. The weight of the vest was nearly half of what the standard issue level 2 soft body armor vest was and was much more flexible. I, along with several of my fellow officers, paid extra to upgrade to these vests from our standard department issue vests. About 1-2 years later we were getting reports that officers were suffering penetrating gunshot wounds, including an Oceanside PD officer being killed, while wearing this new vest. Apparently the material would start to degrade after about a year of sweat and body heat. It resulted in numerous lawsuits for injuries and replacement of the vests, and the company Second Chance filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. When I retired the body armor being issued was just as stiff as the stuff I was first issued in 1996...but at least it worked.
@@bsadewitz Yes. I think it ended up with a couple of officers being killed while wearing the vests. The feds had also bought a bunch of them. I was fortunate because my department reissued us their stock vest made of kevlar, reimbursed us the extra we paid for the zylon vest, then sued Second Chance for the money we paid out. Second Chance was bought out by another company, probably as a result of the millions lost on this vest.
@@Cgopatglad you were in a department that actually cared for your officers. Thanks for helping keep law and order in the land. It's a role not many of us have the capacity for.
Yes, that whole situation sucked. But I think it would be fair to mention that the founder of Second Chance Body Armor, Richard Davis, was granted a handful of patents in 1969 (‘70?-‘71?) and was the first to develop a successful concealable Kevlar vest that saved the lives of many cops for decades to come. The only way he could create sales (no concealable garment yet had been effective enough to trust the concept) he built that trust by shooting himself in the chest in front of an audience of cops. The first time with a .38 special and immediately turned and engaged targets to confirm that the impact didn’t take him out of the fight. He continued this demonstration about 150 times, and for most of them he used a .44 magnum (but added a thick phone book under the vest to dissipate the .44 shock, the bullet never penetrated the vest). Last time I checked, which was years ago, he can be found during those early days, right here on RUclips. The first time was on what appears to be 8mm film.
I have a tattoo covering up a compression scar that was left after my vest stopped a round in the Army. I found it was easier to explain the tattoo to my fiance and mother, than the scar.😅
In defense of “Back to the Future”, Doc Brown was a genius who would have known about the limitations of normal bullet-proof vests and would have invented armor that was effective enough to stop rifle rounds.
Kevlar, in the tire market, was also known as Aramid. I was working at a Sears tire center, in New York, in 1974 when Aramid belted tires first came out. They didn't last long but I don't know why.
Jesus Christ, to people of this era, seeing the inventor at survive two point blank shots with no visible injuries must have seemed like magic, a real life sorcerer.
Something about that saying that goes something like "technology sufficiently advanced enough will seem like magic" I don't remember the exact quote, someone will eventually chime in with it I'm sure
I think the "no visible" is the key part, unless there were medical examination stright afterwards. Getting shot at point-blank range in any soft bodyarmor is like getting hit with a truck or a bat to this day, depending on munition. I bet Zegelend had to hide a bunch of pain for public, after having air knocked out of him.
@@dannydetonator an injury vs a reaction feel like two different things. Especially given that in that era a gunshot would way more certainly cause death than any other outcome. Anything less than bleeding out on the ground feels like an injury that isn't visible. He may have reacted, but who doesn't when they get shot? Hurting like hell beats dying any day. Also for the sake of this, being impacted heavily vs being injured are also different. I think it really comes down to how specifically you want to define the word "injury" more than anything.
24:30 I'm an actor who worked on a mobster movie earlier this year and part of the story had the Arizona mob getting bullet proof suits from an arms dealer and I had no clue it was a real thing.
Bonus facts: I think that’s the best description of why WWI became WWI. I remember them teaching that the world war was because of treaties, it makes more “sense” now.
Except they got the cause of the US entry slightly wrong. It was the Zimmerman telegram that pushed the US into joining WW1. Germany was trying to get Mexico top attack the US to ensure it stayed out of WW1. Except this was sent from the Foreign Minister, Arthur Zimmerman, by telegram and it had been intercepted by the UK as the telegraph cables passed through UK territory. Being canny, the British held off passing this to the US, only doing so after Germany restarted unrestricted submarine warfare and sinking American shipping. The sinking of US ships might have tipped things eventually, but the UK 'suddenly breaking' a coded telegram, offering German support for a Mexican invasion of the US to retake Texas, Arizona and New Mexico, was the straw that broke US isolationism.
The one thing Simon didn't explain in that appendix at the end was why Franz Josef was mad at his grandnephew, so much that he was relieved by his assassination. The answer is that Franz Ferdinand was supposed to marry in order to produce an heir for the Austro-Hungarian throne. The Austro-Hungarians were an *Empire*, not a Kingdom. It seems like hair-splitting to us, but Emperors are supposed to have royalty (the families of Kings and Emperors) as spouses, not mere nobility (the families of Dukes, Earls, and the like). The former Sophie Chotek, Franz Ferdinand's wife, was a mere Countess and therefor an unsuitable consort for Franz Ferdinand. His children with her would have been deemed ineligible for the Austro-Hungarian throne, because they weren't descended from royalty on both sides of their families. Franz Ferdinand's (I think) brother, the Archduke Karl (who became Kaiser Karl on Franz Josef's death in 1916) married a Belgian princess. This absurd series of rules regarding Imperial succession is similar to Imperial Russia's; it's why there's no legitimate heir to the Russian throne alive, and why the last German Czar was almost 100% German in nationality. The Imperial Russian house typically looked for wives for their Princes among the German city-states, because many of them were ruled by what was considered royalty.
I said the last German Czar and clearly meant Russian. He was Czar of all the Russians, but German by heritage--almost completely, depending on who got Catherine the Great pregnant...a mystery lost to history...
I used to play escape from Tarkov, and it is a surprisingly realistic representation of body armor. You have all the different levels and materials they are made of. The different areas they cover. And the different types of rounds and bullets in the game, have varying odds of penetrating specific armor based on distance too. Not only that, but repeated hits on armor degrade it, depending on the round that hits it, and how far it was fired from. Then you really see that in a fast paced realistic sim shooter, with a variety of different equipment levels that different combatants have... Strong bodyarmor really makes a difference. It does not make you invincible. But in a scenario where you get ambushed and hit multiple times by an enemy, it is preferable to be knocked out by the first 2-3 rounds hitting your armor, then left bleeding from the next couple that manage to hit your legs or arms, but be able to stop the bleeding and evacuate. When wielding no armor, or just level 1-2 armor, you get penetrated in the body and that's really not good. Also when shooting at an armored target, even if the plate leaves a lot of areas open, those are usually hidden by good firing positions that hide the thighs and feet. And you tend to aim for center mass anyway, in hectic combat. They also train infantry to shoot for center mass, not for the head or other spots. And those center mass hits are usually the most lethal apart from head wounds. So stopping them from happening, increases the chances of you returning home, or even returning to the fight.
I am pretty sure that it isnt broken rips mostly, but dislocated cartilage. This hurts and happens very easily. I did this to myself by pushing my bicycle seat against my breast because the chain was stuck in between the gears. I guess it depends on the size of the plate and the wearer. A bigger plate could just extend over the bony end part of the rips so the whole rip acts as a lever so it breaks at your side as rips typically do. Google a picture of a ribcage and you see where the rips actually are. I really can't believe that hard body armor breaks rips since it dissipates the force very, very evenly. Maybe it only happens if you get hit at the outer edges of a plate just overlapping a bit rip. Sorry for the novel and oversciencing this lol. 😅
@@AllisterCaine Soft body armour doesn't spread the energy as much a you might hope and keeps leaving people shot with small guns with broken ribs. Same's true for plates. If you get shot with something like 7.62x39 or 7.62x54 as many a marine has, they still got broken ribs and collapsed lungs. Those people how ever made it home alive instead of in a pine box.
Bulletproof vest in movies be like : If no one mentions it's bulletproof vest. It won't stop bullet. If one of the characters say it's bulletproof. Even kevlar will stop 50bmg.
Also, bullets kill bad guys instantly almost every time regardless of shot placement, but good guys have a good minute or two to say their goodbyes or whatever BS they need to do for the plot before they drop lol
I joined the British Army in 1995, and unfortunately / fortunately depending on point of view, I never saw active service. I was occasionally required to do gate guard duty and during those occasions, I was issued 'body armour' consisting of a Flak Jacket. This item was a heavy green waistcoat about 1 1/2 inches thick with a high collar, very similar to the type used by American Armed Forces during the Vietnam War. It DIDN'T contain any hard ceramic plates, and I was told very clearly that it wouldn't stop a high velocity round. IF I was lucky, it might stop a 9mm handgun, or submachine gun, but anything from a rifle would go right through. The main purpose I was told was to hold my remains together in the event of someone throwing a 'blast bomb' at the gatehouse. Really great for inspiring confidence. At least my helmet offered some ballistic protection as it was the relatively new Mk6 helmet!
I remember those things from the 80’s. We knew them as Flak jackets (from the German word for anti-aircraft jackets) & we generally wore them as a protection against Schrapnell.
17:55 & 18:35 - who ever created the animation of the 9mm round impacting the kevlar fabric apparently has never fired a firearm because the animation shows the entire cartridge (casing, primer, and bullet) going down range and hitting a target. Only the bullet is fired while the casing and primer is ejected once fired.
As a Navy Corpsman of Marines, wearing full body armor with SAPI plates is physically stressful being over 40 lbs in weigh of armor, but it was so important for deployment I would feel naked without it if I happen to be in our vehicle sleeping when we had to camp out on long missions between bases
Interesting Medieval plate armour was about the same weight. Likely weight has always been the limiting factor. IIRC the weight carried by soldiers in a professional army hasn't changed much since Roman times.
@@markevans2294depends on the plate armor in question. Later, full coverage battle plate and it's foundation layers could easily weigh in the realm of 80ish libres. Sorry, had to use the old word since we're bringing up Romans. That's the word that gives us "lbs" for pounds. But yes, the typical weight carried by infantry has stayed fairly consistent. As our gear weighs less, we carry more of it and carry the same amount of weight overall. Weight is most certainly the limiting factor. Or at least a major one. There's some others.
@@markevans2294plate of the olden days covered the whole body and left the wearer very maneuverable because it dispersed the weight very evenly instead of dumping it all on your shoulders. Knights were very mobile...
19:50 The "Back to the Future" scene where Doc Brown survives shows how he used some kind of fore knowledge, maybe some message to himself sent back after the reveal on the placement of thick metal round plates where the bullets were to impact. That was how he survived.
2:20 I have the gorget that my Mom wore while walking out of Warsaw when the uprising fell. It has the Polish Eagle and Virgin Mary with baby Jesus engraved on it. She was 5 years old. It's a great honour to keep it.
In 1538, Duke Francesco Maria della Rovere, a condottiero, commissioned Filippo Negroli to create a bulletproof vest. In 1561, Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor is recorded as testing his armour against gun-fire. Similarly, in 1590 Henry Lee of Ditchley expected his Greenwich armour to be "pistol proof". Its actual effectiveness was controversial at the time.
@@kenofken9458 No, that's just wrong. Top plate armors provided reasonable protection against bullets, and that's why cuirassiers kept wearing breastplates well into 18th century.
Simon thank you for the interesting video on the actual history of bullet proof/bullet resistant vests. And the short history lesson on what actually lead to WW1.
20:07 this in incorrect. Hard plates are not the only way to stop rifle caliber rounds. A brand called SafeLife has FRAS armor. its a flexible armor made of multiple parts. Rated to stop most rifle calibers. its a US NIJ level 3 rating.
This video was higher quality than the usual good stuff. I learned a lot, it was interesting and the WW1 footnote was fascinating. Only lack I felt was it could have gone more in depth on the vest technology but I get that would have gotten boring to most viewers. Also great job with all the difficult pronunciations and acronyms!
0:50 - Common myth, well made plate armors were actually able to withstand a shot from pistols and muskets, and the indentation left by a test shot was used as a proof of quality left by the armorer.
Exactly. Heavy armor was never that common other than breastplates, and generally the biggest issue was that they were expensive. Plus, significantly limited army mobility. Plus, these things called cannons happened and, while they would protect against musket rounds, cannon shot was another matter.
The ESAPI (enhanced small arms protective insert) boron carbide plates I was issued in 06 were rated for up to 10 hits of steel core armor piercing 7.62x51mm. Had a buddy take a 7.62x54R round from 100 meters right on the edge of his plate and minus some frag that ended up in his forearm and a sore chest he was fine. They were heavy though. Each front and back plate weighed 8lbs. The side plates weighed 4 and all the extra Kevlar side, groin, and neck collar came to around 13lbs. I see why the guys running dismount patrols in Afghanistan went with plate carriers. You felt safe, but with even a basic combat load you felt the weight quickly. Luckily we were mech infantry so we always had a ride everywhere.
I read a story in Newsweek or some such back during Iraqi Freedom about the protection offered by armor. There was one anecdote where apparently some guy got hit by a 30mm cannon round that went off for whatever reason (obviously not fired out of the barrel) and while it smashed the vest and some ribs and some internal injuries, the guy survived. Insane.
@@alexyoon-sungcucina7895I mean, I believe it possible at the least, whether or not it actually happened or the way it's said to have, I don't know. But I do know that men have jumped on and survived full contact frag grenade blasts. Very, very rare, but possible with modern armor and medical treatments.
He had one, but he decided not to use it because of wardrobe choices. He had used it in the way to Serbia, it looked just like a fancy suit vest of the era, but it did not matched his military dress uniform that he was wearing in the parades. It also would not have made any difference, because he was shot in the neck, just above the end of the neck protection, and because the military doctors were not able to undo his jacket buttons in time to stop the bleeding, given that it happened just outside of an army barracks were he had visited some of the injured soldires from the previous assasination attemps, on that same day.
I’m disappointed that your research did not uncover the story of Rich Davis, founder of the company “Second Chance.” It was Rich, and his firm, that popularized modern soft body armor. Rich owned a pizza shop and was injured in a shoot-out. Inspired, he invented the Kevlar vest. The rest is history.
Firearms and armour existed together for several hundred years Many layered cloth as protection was known before guns Silk as protection was well known before guns
There are actually three common levels of soft armour with two more for military or special threat purposes only: NIJ IIA, II, IIIA, and III, IV, with STP (special threat plates) providing some odd-round protection or in-conjunction-with ratings. Ratings do not take into account soft or hard armour, as you can have level III soft (which protects against 7.62x39 (AK47)), but, yes, level IV is only hard, to the best of my personal experience. I will argue that II or IIA is the most common as that is what almost all of law enforcement uses, and I am fairly confident that police employment numbers surpass that of the military (at least in North America). NIJ is manufacturer independent and must certify all body armour for sale in North America. NIJ has also switched over to a more readable HF and RF (handgun and rifle, respectively) rating. VPAM is the EU rating authority with a lot of different levels, and again does not leave the standard up to the manufacturer. It is NOT manufacturer specific. Plate carriers also are usually made of ballistic nylon, NOT soft body armour. Carriers are by definition just that: carriers. They may have hangers or sleeves for soft armour as well as hard armour, a carrier is just the outer, wearable shell (with attachment points such as MOLLE or Velcro) as sewing on attachment points to soft armour would greatly reduce its effectiveness. Side note: there are also hybrid soft armours that have spike/stab resistance in addition to ballistic. Simon, thank you for the video-it was enjoyed as always. But, for a channel that does so well, and got so much history, how did you miss the present standards and current implementations? Coming from one who wears armour every day. nij.ojp.gov/specification-nij-ballistic-protection-levels-and-associated-test-threats-nij-standard-012300 mehler-protection.com/blog/ballistic-protection-levels-explained-vpam/
Another thing to make note of. There is NIJ *Certified* armour, that is samples have been sent to the NIJ for their industry testing standards. It is rather expensive unless you're a large and profitable business, or you're new to the game and wanting to make sure that people will reliably purchase your products and depend on them. Then there's NIJ *compliant* armour, which the company can replicate NIJ tests in-house and rate it according to those standards, but you're taking a company's word for it at that point and that's not a great way to keep yourself alive and in good health if you ask me. That said, armour can easily be built to above NIJ standards, but until it meets a threshold for the next level of armour, it has to be left rated at what the previous level of armour is. So an overbuilt IIIa vest that can stop a 7.62x39 at 100m but not 10m would still be a IIIa. Hence how ballistic helmets are rated, even though they can/will stop rifle threats at extended ranges. But there's no oversight on that. It could be overbuilt by having a single extra layer of kevlar or other aramid, or it could have another 10 layers.
Isn't it amazing how they have so much information (that they expect us to believe), but they don't know anything at all about how guns work??? Not even the basics!
i like the way, in the aimation at 19.38, somehow, the entire round- the bullet, along with the case with and primer, and even the writing on the bottom, has all somehow been fired at the target. remarkable.
No mention of modern AR500/600 coated steel plates? Multi-strike rated before frag (not spalling) ever becomes a concern. There's considerably more to modern armor than this covers. Hell, yall forgot about whacky failed concepts like Dragon Skin
Dragon skin still exists under the ownership of Stealth Armor Systems. The reason why Dragon Skin failed was because the design was immature but was bought out by Pinnacle, who would eventually try to push it into military trials. The problem was the original design was never meant for military usage (on top of flexible rifle armor being basically a very new concept) and it didn’t even fit the requirements set by the DOD but Pinnacle still insisted on it all while also cut corners with the test samples so bad as far as using the wrong materials and poor assembly, it was purely incomplete from Pinnacle all around. Obviously Pinnacle failed, and Dragon Skin got the bad rap and controversy it didn’t deserve through the years. Pinnacle would go out of business and the Dragon Skin design would pass through the hands of a few companies who produced it until relatively recently a company called Stealth Armor Systems acquired the design and made updates/revisions to the design including the use of newer modern materials and stronger bonding agents. Here’s the thing though, Stealth Armor Systems is owned and run by the original designer of Dragon Skin and also one of the first or few companies that have a NIJ **certified** flexible rifle armor called Hexar. Now the Dragon Skin design and Stealth Armor Systems is legit and the tech has matured and works, but the issue is whether people actually need such a product because solid multicurve plates have served the world absolutely fine for decades.
Wait... what?? AR500 steel is really used as armor? when i worked on a metal cutting company, i was tasked to improve as much as possible the quality of plasma cutting when this material first appeared on our company, cutting with plasma wasnt a problem, but the machining boys had a very hard time, it was insanely tough.
@@brianfhunter AR500 was popular in the civilian sector because dealer options for ceramic/composite plates were very limited up to the mid-late 2010s and AR500 was advertised as a cheaper and widely accessible alternative. However a few whistle blowers later, AR500 steel gradually became seen as a risk rather than life saving. The turbulent climate in the US also raised up demand for body armor among civilians which at the same time also raised more dealers providing access to ceramic/composite plates. These days you don’t really see much people talking about steel plates but more demand for ceramic/composite plates.
@@Riname-K - that makes a lot of sense, our company was producing some sacrificial parts to a concrete mixing machine for a concrete company... 3/4" of normal steel completely sanded of in 3 days, with AR500, the parts would stand at least 1 month of work. What i learned is, Concrete is abrasive as F and AR500 is hard as F.
Hey ya team . I saw a clip a few years ago about body armour that could actually float on water . It was in the development stage so there was no information on test results or pricing . You guys do produce some of the best content on your various channels on RUclips & I try to watch as much of it as I can . Keep up the good work . Cheers 🍻 , Woody NZ 🇳🇿 .
That would be UHMWPE(Ultra High Molecular Weight PolyEthylene) and yes, it's neutrally buoyant and thus doesn't weigh you down in water. HOWEVER, it will not make YOU float. The carrier it's in, however, is not neutrally buoyant and will add effectively weigh more in the water. Stuff is great. I personally love it. Almost as good as ceramic all positives and negatives included. Biggest downside is the bulk, but I'm a lean enough guy that it doesn't make much difference to me.
Rifle proof plate was used in WW1 and WW2, it was just too expensive. Italian WW1 Farina armor could stop rifle projectiles as close as 100m and weighed only about 20lbs for the chest and pauldrons with a 6lb helmet. Keep in mind these were full power cartridges we'd currently refer to as battle rifle cartridges, something used mainly by snipers/DMRs. The pistol rated Russian armor in WW2 were by comparison only about 7lbs which makes sense since they were given primarily to city fighting troops for building clearing. Modern IBAs and IOTVs with plates weigh near 30lbs. We've never stopped using armor plate, it just got easier to produce. Even today we still use rifle proof steel plates or titanium. It works, with some caveats like spalling and deflected bullets still being hazards. Modern PE plate does good at surviving multiple hits, but it is not as effective as ceramic plate which uses ablation to disperse energy. Most quality plates rated for 3+ are actually ceramic strike faces backed with layers of PE.
At 16:25 you say a company made a plate capable of stopping 7.62 x 39, "Fired by AK style rifles" before kevlar was invented, then later at 20:00 you insist that Doc from back to the future would have been killed by the same round. Furthermore, depicting an entire cartridge striking a cloth and falling down without being misshapen or the cloth being damaged demonstrates the writer's lack of firearms knowledge. Finally the fact that AR500 steel plate, the most common type of ballistic armor, was omitted from this video shows that this was just a superficial dive into the historical record on body armor and not deep or comprehensive.
Hmm, wonder which country you could be referring too?. Could it be the one that had the borders set in 1948, wad happy with it, and then for the next 20 years was attacked again and again by it's much larger neighbors? The neighbors that have said, outright that they want all the people of "that type" world wide dead? The country that has taken land in wars started by their neighbors? Please tell me?
Funny the one "wild west' figure you mentioned Wyatt Earp was famously never shot, even after several documented shootouts like the one at the OK Corral he was never so much as grazed throughout his life.
18:36 who the hell made this graphic? A full cartridge shown in flight hitting kevlar? Tell me you know nothing about firearms and ammunition without saying you know nothing about firearms and ammunition. The bullet is the only thing that is fired and leaves the barrel. The casing and fired primer remains behind and is ejected from the firearm.
I also note how many of these take Casimir Zeglen and Jan Szczepanik's ideas and update them to more effective modern materials. Zeglen would probably recognize the Kevlar vest as a modern version of his invention.
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How could you do a vid about body armour without talking about Ned Kelly the famous Australian bush ranger and og of body armour ?
@@robot336 Nothing about Dragonskin???
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂@@robot336
This time baby I'll be bulletproof :) :) ruclips.net/video/Kk8eJh4i8Lo/видео.html
"This time baby I'll be bulletproof!" :) :) ruclips.net/video/Kk8eJh4i8Lo/видео.html
showing the entire cartridge (instead of just the bullet) hitting the Kevlar (animation) is hilarious
Was looking for this comment lmao
@@lucianolago2871 Me too! LOL
Same!
Yeah, I chuckled at that.
I burst out laughing. Tell me you know nothing about gun without telling me you know nothing about guns :)
18:34 "We fire the whole bullet! That's 60 percent more bullet per bullet!"
is that a portal 2 reference i see?
It is indeed!
@@semajniomet981 men of culture
So, you noticed too, how in the cgi scenes they were shooting the whole bullet too, seriously you look at it you can see the jacket and percussion cap on the bottom of it.
Now you're thinking with portals!
As a young Marine in Vietnam, i was issued body armor, a thick fabric vest with inserted plates that (to me) appeared to be some type of ceramic. That thing is why one day I collected a bruise on my upper left chest instead of a hole.
🤞🏽💚🙏🏽 thank you sir
Thank you for your service and thank God for that vest/plate🇺🇸
I made Kevlar (The material, not the vests) for about 30 years. We always said "There is no such thing as "Bulletproof." Only "Bullet Resistant."
When I got hit, it broke two ribs and collapsed my left lung.
@@intrinsicimageryThat’s very unfortunate, but I’m glad you were wearing armor. It’s awful but decidedly better than the alternative.
Even Earth itself is only Bullet Resistant!
@@Idiotdragon8 Right?
@intrinsicimagery
I believe you, but that also means that your body armor worked and bullet was stopped. I've heard from multiple people who've been shot (especially some decades ago), and all describe the experience similar to being hit by a truck and most had ribs broken. Of course depends on the energy, weapon and munition used. I doubt even Zeglend himself was really "completely unharmed" after that famous public test.
Love how animators just think the whole cartridge gets fired out of a gun, and I'm an animator
And then doesn't deform when it impacts a target. Yeah, I noticed.
“Cave Johnson here. Introducing the consumer version of our most popular military-grade product: the turret. N/A
How do we get so many bullets in them? Like this! Plus, we fire the whole bullet. That's 65% more bullet per bullet. This is the same technology we've been using on robots for decades. Scares the hell out of them. They come in hundreds of designer colors including forest, desert, table, evening at the improv... what idiot picked the...” ~ Cave Johnson
Just about to comment on that 😂
65% more bullet per bullet you say...
could this be combined this with square cartridges for square barrels allowing perfectly square magazines as well?
@@ForestX77thank you
The best bulletproof vest to have in a movie is plot armor, nothing defeats plot armor.
❤🤣👍
Plot armor can still get you shot, just not dead from it. 😂
True. However, that tired trope of the girl who’s the “key to everything” or some random girl boss seem to be even above plot armor these days.
that's why I'm the main character
@@mysticxiiiiPlot armor turns even the most grievous bullet wound into a light graze 😂
"How do you want your suit, Mr Wick?"
"Tactical."
"This time baby I'll be bulletproof!" :) :) ruclips.net/video/Kk8eJh4i8Lo/видео.html
Atleast John Wick seems to get pushed and suffer from some blunt force of the bullets too when he was shot directly (John Wick 2 Violinist stumbled him down temporarily by the bullet on the back of his Bulletsuit, and it seems to hurt that bad enough to make him fell down
The term "Tactical" has become so cringe. It might as well be tactiqueer
@@Mr2greys "Wick-tical?"
Tacticool more like it
Lmao I love how the animation at 18:40 shows the bullet having been fired WITH the shell still around it!
That’s 60% more bullet.
I heard Cave Johnson when I read that last line
My father is a retired federal agent who lead and participated in raids. One time in my childhood, I saw his kevlar vest. I asked if I could put it on to see what it feels like. He allowed it. I was i awe at how thin and light it was. He inserted a reinforced plate in that goes over the heart. I looked at him in wonder. "And this stops bullets?"
"Yep. But it's still going to hurt. A lot. Like getting hit with a 16 lbs sledgehammer in the chest."
"That sounds horrible!" I cried.
He looked me straight in the eye and said very simply "It's better than being dead."
That conversation has stuck with me over the next 35 years.
People would ask me about the steel plates I had (at the time) "isn't that heavy and uncomfortable"- yes but so is being shot Ive heard.
You can't predict crazy. It just happens, and ya hope to God it ain't you that it finds.
We had the plates at the front and rear, they were ceramic for us. The rest of the body armour was a Kevlar material. On a break you could upzip the front plates at the sides and it would fall down to make a decent table for your coffee. Of course you wouldn’t do this out in the open.
@@somnambulist7705perhaps some kind of helmet mounted coffee dispenser?
Except that is directly hooked into your brain and it takes a 95%< complete snapshot of your mind every day whilst deployed and every 5mins during combat. Incase you get irreparably injured you can just be mostly recreated from either a brainless clone (unethical) or a complete organ carrier of your choice: criminal,
democrat or republican*depends party in power
drug user
pacifist
*person of whatever faith you're not
You could be a good son and wash time to time your pop klevar vest without telling him :)
These days federal agents are conducting no knock kill not catch raids on American citizens like in Arkansas. An arrest that could have been a simple standard traffic stop with a box in. Then again, what's better than feds putting tape over your cameras in the morning darkness to kick in your door to say we're not here to kill you...
This was in the 1980s and '90s. A flack vest is as heavy as the rest of the field uniform, and awkward to move in. We wore them when ordered to, but most of the time, we chose not to wear them because of the limitations in maneuverability. During the war, however, we wore them. They don't protect much against a direct shot, but they do help with flack -- shrapnel.
At 17:55 your animation shows an entire cartridge impacting the target instead of just the bullet
I'm starting to think channels do it just to piss people off enough to leave a comment about it :P
Its a Justified reference... i hope😅
Or they are just European or a model of just a bullet was harder to snag
@@collinblatchford We Europeans have guns too.
@@CaptainComatose I'm only counting EU and England civilians. Also I get some areas allow them for hunting or skeet but that's not 9mm.
17:52 Wow!!!! Some seriously deep technical understanding to place that animation in your video! :D
Doc Brown probably invented an improved vest, but forgot to tell Marty. Just supposing...
I'd have to agree. Doc knew who he was battling, and would have 'upgraded' his protection as it became clear what weaponry was likely to be used. Doc lives!
Great Scot!
Guy built a time machine out of a used car. That he could come up with improved body armor that could be "concealed" under an over sized jumpsuit is hardly a stretch.
He probably used spider silk which is the strongest natural fiber known to man.
Nerds 😂
Lol at 18:35. Of course the bullet would be stopped when they throw the whole damn cartridge at you 😂😂
My brother was Force Recon in the Marines. He served 33 years. He saw alot of action and was hit in his armor many times. He said it felt like someone hit him with a baseball bat. It would hurt for days after and even broke ribs one time. It never went through though and was much better than the alternative. He had a round go through his calf. He said he didn't feel it until the fire fight was over. I wish i could get him to let me do a video with him sharing his experiences.
I feel he should have learnt to duck faster... 😉
@MostlyPennyCat
Ironically thats what he said as a joke 🤣🤣
Sounds like he wasn't smart enough to get a real job lol
Please, I keep asking until he caves 🤣
Can't wait to hear him narrate his experiences
@@jeffdroog
...said the representative from Macdonald's.
That was a far more thorough history of bullet resistant armor than I was expecting, but well worth it.
Also, your bonus facts here were the best summarization of what caused WWI that I've ever heard.
I still believe that the summarization from "Blackadder Goes Forth" still is the better version...
@@carloshenriquezimmer7543 As I haven't seen or heard that one I can't comment.
Demolition Ranch has a lot of body armor tests.
Buffman Range does a lot of body armor testing
Kentucky Ballistics likewise
They also sold stuff saying make politicians afraid again. And then feigned being a victim when someone tried to assassinate Trump and was wearing demolition ranch merch.
@Nevyn515 Kentucky Ballistics has succeeded in forcing the vest through the dummy while still catching the round. The 4 Bore could not penetrative the ballistic fabric but that did not make much difference to the ribcage and spine behind it, lol.
Its not speed that kills you, its the sudden stop@@RLKmedic0315
The animation of a whole round case and all hitting kevlar... lol
For me, the best part was the explanation on the actual cause of the first Great war.
Thank you so very much Simon.
Same here. I came for the bullet proof vest info, but left being more pleased to have found out how WW1 started ☺
Someone called Archie Duke shot an ostrich because he was hungry?
@@bob_the_bomb4508 Yes Baldrick
Ned Kelly and the Kelly Gang deserve a shout in the history of the bullet proof vest.
An Australian gang of Outlaws made their own bullet proof vests and helmets out of old boiler plate.
This was the late 1800s by the way...
Our hero.
glad im not the only one who noticed the Ned Kelly looking armor
"Such is life"
Did the cops not get Kelly by shooting at his unarmored legs?
@douglasclerk2764 yes that is how they eventually took him down
I was a ghetto security in Toronto. The vest company would replace our vests if we got shot... and survived. We used to keep 3-4 thick magazines in our plate carriers because an ice pick or syringe will go through Kevlar, but paper stops it.
Traditionally it would be your bible. Or in TR's case, a copy of your speech.
Good lord. Magazines.
I mean, they would work, I can't fault you there. But seriously, a stab and ballistic rated vest is only gonna run you a few hundred to few thousand depending on quality and other features.
Plus, living in Ontario, you have no restrictions on owning or wearing body armour. Get yourself some quality equipment, bro! Especially if you're still living in the GTA. Even as a civvie, I wear a concealed IIIa when I'm going out for awhile, and I have an oversized UHMWPE lvl III+ SP plate in my pack at all times. Light enough not to bother me, and big enough that if shit goes down, I can put my son(until he gets a bit bigger) between me and the plate which covers almost all his vitals while I GTFO. His diaper bag has a IIIa panel in it as well.
It's inevitable to become a statistic. But you don't have to be THAT statistic.
Every time I watch a video on body armor, I am inevitably reminded of the bullet proof cup from Super Troopers. Good video.
Real thing!
Well, not sure about the one from Super Troopers, but there are ballistic rated cups on the market.
Genuinely not sure whether I'd rather my nuts blown off and bleed out, or take the world's worst nut shot and have them splattered against my pelvis lol. Aim higher or lower, please.
The animation showing a full cartridge impacting on a piece of Kevlar!🤣🤣🤣
Also, an AK-47 is not a "full power" rifle round. It is actually an intermediate round.
Man unwed to get a life
Brass core ?
@@ellwoodwolfyou're asking what the core of the bullet is made of? Typically lead, with a copper "jacket" or coating to help keep the gun clean and engage with the barrel's rifling for more consistent accuracy. Now, there are more specialized ammunition types that have other materials, but that's going to be your "basic" bullets. Armo(u)r piercing rounds will typically have a small diameter penetrator made of steel, or tungsten, or a similarly dense material that is pushed into and through armor by the rest of the bullet and its own inertia.
At 16:25 he talks about ballistic armor capable of stopping 7.62x 39 before kevlar was invented
Good point 7.62 X 51 is a Full rifle cartridge 7.62 X 39 ( AK 47) is an intermediate cartridge
In the early 2000s Second Chance (a body armor company) started marketing a vest made out of a material called Zylon which was manufactured by a Japanese company called Toyobo. The weight of the vest was nearly half of what the standard issue level 2 soft body armor vest was and was much more flexible. I, along with several of my fellow officers, paid extra to upgrade to these vests from our standard department issue vests. About 1-2 years later we were getting reports that officers were suffering penetrating gunshot wounds, including an Oceanside PD officer being killed, while wearing this new vest. Apparently the material would start to degrade after about a year of sweat and body heat. It resulted in numerous lawsuits for injuries and replacement of the vests, and the company Second Chance filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. When I retired the body armor being issued was just as stiff as the stuff I was first issued in 1996...but at least it worked.
This was a big scandal at the time, right? I think I remember this. Had forgotten all about it.
@@bsadewitz Yes. I think it ended up with a couple of officers being killed while wearing the vests. The feds had also bought a bunch of them. I was fortunate because my department reissued us their stock vest made of kevlar, reimbursed us the extra we paid for the zylon vest, then sued Second Chance for the money we paid out. Second Chance was bought out by another company, probably as a result of the millions lost on this vest.
@@Cgopatglad you were in a department that actually cared for your officers. Thanks for helping keep law and order in the land. It's a role not many of us have the capacity for.
Yes, that whole situation sucked. But I think it would be fair to mention that the founder of Second Chance Body Armor, Richard Davis, was granted a handful of patents in 1969 (‘70?-‘71?) and was the first to develop a successful concealable Kevlar vest that saved the lives of many cops for decades to come. The only way he could create sales (no concealable garment yet had been effective enough to trust the concept) he built that trust by shooting himself in the chest in front of an audience of cops. The first time with a .38 special and immediately turned and engaged targets to confirm that the impact didn’t take him out of the fight. He continued this demonstration about 150 times, and for most of them he used a .44 magnum (but added a thick phone book under the vest to dissipate the .44 shock, the bullet never penetrated the vest).
Last time I checked, which was years ago, he can be found during those early days, right here on RUclips. The first time was on what appears to be 8mm film.
17:53 i love how these animations always show the whole casting fly with the bullet. Jez
Bullets is as bullets does.
"was literally a man of the cloth..." Puns like that should be illegal.
I thought it was awesome. 😂
Illegal? They should be celebrated!
Thinking they should be illegal clearly means you fell pray to the priest pun.
1. Level IIA: Stops low-velocity handgun rounds.
2. Level II: Blocks higher-velocity handgun rounds.
3. Level IIIA: Protects against most handguns, including magnums.
4. Level III: Stops rifle rounds like 7.62mm FMJ.
5. Level IV: Blocks armor-piercing rifle rounds.
13:00 The best thing about these videos is the ridiculous amount of random facts, like Flieger Abwehr Kanone.
17:55
"Test 57: Throwing unfired ammuntion at kevlar"
I have a tattoo covering up a compression scar that was left after my vest stopped a round in the Army. I found it was easier to explain the tattoo to my fiance and mother, than the scar.😅
Wait, your fiancee doesn't know you got shot?
@@rienkhoek4169 I told her after the deployment was done and she didn't have to worry as much.
@@Nipplator99999999999I'm glad you're home, bro. Welcome back.
Take the day easy. You deserve it.
In defense of “Back to the Future”, Doc Brown was a genius who would have known about the limitations of normal bullet-proof vests and would have invented armor that was effective enough to stop rifle rounds.
What's with the bullet with shell casing and primer hitting the cloth?😂
Simplifies the ejection process.
Kevlar, in the tire market, was also known as Aramid. I was working at a Sears tire center, in New York, in 1974 when Aramid belted tires first came out. They didn't last long but I don't know why.
Jesus Christ, to people of this era, seeing the inventor at survive two point blank shots with no visible injuries must have seemed like magic, a real life sorcerer.
Something about that saying that goes something like "technology sufficiently advanced enough will seem like magic"
I don't remember the exact quote, someone will eventually chime in with it I'm sure
@goosenotmaverick1156 Isaac Asimov.
Just like with AI today, there is no magic, only good engineering. Misuse tech and you open the curtain.
I think the "no visible" is the key part, unless there were medical examination stright afterwards. Getting shot at point-blank range in any soft bodyarmor is like getting hit with a truck or a bat to this day, depending on munition. I bet Zegelend had to hide a bunch of pain for public, after having air knocked out of him.
@@dannydetonator an injury vs a reaction feel like two different things. Especially given that in that era a gunshot would way more certainly cause death than any other outcome. Anything less than bleeding out on the ground feels like an injury that isn't visible.
He may have reacted, but who doesn't when they get shot? Hurting like hell beats dying any day.
Also for the sake of this, being impacted heavily vs being injured are also different.
I think it really comes down to how specifically you want to define the word "injury" more than anything.
24:30 I'm an actor who worked on a mobster movie earlier this year and part of the story had the Arizona mob getting bullet proof suits from an arms dealer and I had no clue it was a real thing.
Bonus facts: I think that’s the best description of why WWI became WWI. I remember them teaching that the world war was because of treaties, it makes more “sense” now.
Except they got the cause of the US entry slightly wrong.
It was the Zimmerman telegram that pushed the US into joining WW1.
Germany was trying to get Mexico top attack the US to ensure it stayed out of WW1. Except this was sent from the Foreign Minister, Arthur Zimmerman, by telegram and it had been intercepted by the UK as the telegraph cables passed through UK territory. Being canny, the British held off passing this to the US, only doing so after Germany restarted unrestricted submarine warfare and sinking American shipping.
The sinking of US ships might have tipped things eventually, but the UK 'suddenly breaking' a coded telegram, offering German support for a Mexican invasion of the US to retake Texas, Arizona and New Mexico, was the straw that broke US isolationism.
Well, it was, more or less, why the war broke out. If they hadn't had the treaties, the Sarajevo assassination would not have had such a big effect.
The one thing Simon didn't explain in that appendix at the end was why Franz Josef was mad at his grandnephew, so much that he was relieved by his assassination. The answer is that Franz Ferdinand was supposed to marry in order to produce an heir for the Austro-Hungarian throne. The Austro-Hungarians were an *Empire*, not a Kingdom. It seems like hair-splitting to us, but Emperors are supposed to have royalty (the families of Kings and Emperors) as spouses, not mere nobility (the families of Dukes, Earls, and the like). The former Sophie Chotek, Franz Ferdinand's wife, was a mere Countess and therefor an unsuitable consort for Franz Ferdinand. His children with her would have been deemed ineligible for the Austro-Hungarian throne, because they weren't descended from royalty on both sides of their families. Franz Ferdinand's (I think) brother, the Archduke Karl (who became Kaiser Karl on Franz Josef's death in 1916) married a Belgian princess. This absurd series of rules regarding Imperial succession is similar to Imperial Russia's; it's why there's no legitimate heir to the Russian throne alive, and why the last German Czar was almost 100% German in nationality. The Imperial Russian house typically looked for wives for their Princes among the German city-states, because many of them were ruled by what was considered royalty.
I said the last German Czar and clearly meant Russian. He was Czar of all the Russians, but German by heritage--almost completely, depending on who got Catherine the Great pregnant...a mystery lost to history...
I used to play escape from Tarkov, and it is a surprisingly realistic representation of body armor. You have all the different levels and materials they are made of. The different areas they cover. And the different types of rounds and bullets in the game, have varying odds of penetrating specific armor based on distance too. Not only that, but repeated hits on armor degrade it, depending on the round that hits it, and how far it was fired from.
Then you really see that in a fast paced realistic sim shooter, with a variety of different equipment levels that different combatants have... Strong bodyarmor really makes a difference. It does not make you invincible. But in a scenario where you get ambushed and hit multiple times by an enemy, it is preferable to be knocked out by the first 2-3 rounds hitting your armor, then left bleeding from the next couple that manage to hit your legs or arms, but be able to stop the bleeding and evacuate. When wielding no armor, or just level 1-2 armor, you get penetrated in the body and that's really not good.
Also when shooting at an armored target, even if the plate leaves a lot of areas open, those are usually hidden by good firing positions that hide the thighs and feet. And you tend to aim for center mass anyway, in hectic combat. They also train infantry to shoot for center mass, not for the head or other spots. And those center mass hits are usually the most lethal apart from head wounds. So stopping them from happening, increases the chances of you returning home, or even returning to the fight.
Broken ribs? Frankly I'd rather rest and recuperate than rest forever
- someone with a broken rib rn
I am pretty sure that it isnt broken rips mostly, but dislocated cartilage. This hurts and happens very easily. I did this to myself by pushing my bicycle seat against my breast because the chain was stuck in between the gears.
I guess it depends on the size of the plate and the wearer. A bigger plate could just extend over the bony end part of the rips so the whole rip acts as a lever so it breaks at your side as rips typically do.
Google a picture of a ribcage and you see where the rips actually are.
I really can't believe that hard body armor breaks rips since it dissipates the force very, very evenly.
Maybe it only happens if you get hit at the outer edges of a plate just overlapping a bit rip.
Sorry for the novel and oversciencing this lol. 😅
@@AllisterCaine Soft body armour doesn't spread the energy as much a you might hope and keeps leaving people shot with small guns with broken ribs. Same's true for plates. If you get shot with something like 7.62x39 or 7.62x54 as many a marine has, they still got broken ribs and collapsed lungs.
Those people how ever made it home alive instead of in a pine box.
Bulletproof vest in movies be like :
If no one mentions it's bulletproof vest. It won't stop bullet.
If one of the characters say it's bulletproof. Even kevlar will stop 50bmg.
Also, bullets kill bad guys instantly almost every time regardless of shot placement, but good guys have a good minute or two to say their goodbyes or whatever BS they need to do for the plot before they drop lol
I joined the British Army in 1995, and unfortunately / fortunately depending on point of view, I never saw active service. I was occasionally required to do gate guard duty and during those occasions, I was issued 'body armour' consisting of a Flak Jacket. This item was a heavy green waistcoat about 1 1/2 inches thick with a high collar, very similar to the type used by American Armed Forces during the Vietnam War. It DIDN'T contain any hard ceramic plates, and I was told very clearly that it wouldn't stop a high velocity round. IF I was lucky, it might stop a 9mm handgun, or submachine gun, but anything from a rifle would go right through. The main purpose I was told was to hold my remains together in the event of someone throwing a 'blast bomb' at the gatehouse. Really great for inspiring confidence. At least my helmet offered some ballistic protection as it was the relatively new Mk6 helmet!
I remember those things from the 80’s. We knew them as Flak jackets (from the German word for anti-aircraft jackets) & we generally wore them as a protection against Schrapnell.
That was the M65 if I remember rightly, or a version of it. There were several with minor differences.
Correction the M69. My memory isn't as good as it was
A couple of years later and you’d have got the significantly better CBA/ECBA. Much ore comfortable and with pockets for trauma plates.
@awmperry we did get the American Pasgt vests later, but their fairly similar to the M69 protection level., at least they didn't lace up the side.
17:55 & 18:35 - who ever created the animation of the 9mm round impacting the kevlar fabric apparently has never fired a firearm because the animation shows the entire cartridge (casing, primer, and bullet) going down range and hitting a target. Only the bullet is fired while the casing and primer is ejected once fired.
It was probably fired by an Aperture Science turret. They fire the whole bullet. That's 60% more bullet per bullet!
As a Navy Corpsman of Marines, wearing full body armor with SAPI plates is physically stressful being over 40 lbs in weigh of armor, but it was so important for deployment I would feel naked without it if I happen to be in our vehicle sleeping when we had to camp out on long missions between bases
Interesting Medieval plate armour was about the same weight. Likely weight has always been the limiting factor.
IIRC the weight carried by soldiers in a professional army hasn't changed much since Roman times.
Mmm. Size L IPTV with all the trimmings, eh?
Get yourself a spinal decompression chair, bro. Works wonders.
@@markevans2294depends on the plate armor in question. Later, full coverage battle plate and it's foundation layers could easily weigh in the realm of 80ish libres. Sorry, had to use the old word since we're bringing up Romans. That's the word that gives us "lbs" for pounds.
But yes, the typical weight carried by infantry has stayed fairly consistent. As our gear weighs less, we carry more of it and carry the same amount of weight overall.
Weight is most certainly the limiting factor. Or at least a major one. There's some others.
@@markevans2294plate of the olden days covered the whole body and left the wearer very maneuverable because it dispersed the weight very evenly instead of dumping it all on your shoulders. Knights were very mobile...
@@ensign926 Hey "Doc": as a Marine, THANK YOU and all other Corpsmen who volunteer to serve with us Jarheads in combat!
Vietnam, 1969-1970
@17:50 hilarious bullet with shellcasing hitting the vest!
19:50 The "Back to the Future" scene where Doc Brown survives shows how he used some kind of fore knowledge, maybe some message to himself sent back after the reveal on the placement of thick metal round plates where the bullets were to impact. That was how he survived.
This Bonus Fact is feeling _awfully_ familiar at this point!! 😂
What's with the bullet animation? Bullet not the entire cartridge.
AI is dumb
They're not experts pretending to be experts...
Best summary of WWI I have ever heard. I was trying to explain the very thing just a week ago
The argument I would make for back to the future is that doc brown created his own best (and the one for Einstein) since he is a scientist…😉
2:20 I have the gorget that my Mom wore while walking out of Warsaw when the uprising fell. It has the Polish Eagle and Virgin Mary with baby Jesus engraved on it. She was 5 years old. It's a great honour to keep it.
In 1538, Duke Francesco Maria della Rovere, a condottiero, commissioned Filippo Negroli to create a bulletproof vest. In 1561, Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor is recorded as testing his armour against gun-fire. Similarly, in 1590 Henry Lee of Ditchley expected his Greenwich armour to be "pistol proof". Its actual effectiveness was controversial at the time.
Even back then they could always make the armor bullet resistant, but it got damned heavy in the process.
@@kenofken9458 No, that's just wrong. Top plate armors provided reasonable protection against bullets, and that's why cuirassiers kept wearing breastplates well into 18th century.
Yes, the video perpetuates common myths, because the writer did not do proper research.
Simon thank you for the interesting video on the actual history of bullet proof/bullet resistant vests.
And the short history lesson on what actually lead to WW1.
20:07 this in incorrect. Hard plates are not the only way to stop rifle caliber rounds. A brand called SafeLife has FRAS armor. its a flexible armor made of multiple parts. Rated to stop most rifle calibers. its a US NIJ level 3 rating.
This video was higher quality than the usual good stuff. I learned a lot, it was interesting and the WW1 footnote was fascinating. Only lack I felt was it could have gone more in depth on the vest technology but I get that would have gotten boring to most viewers. Also great job with all the difficult pronunciations and acronyms!
0:50 - Common myth, well made plate armors were actually able to withstand a shot from pistols and muskets, and the indentation left by a test shot was used as a proof of quality left by the armorer.
Exactly. Heavy armor was never that common other than breastplates, and generally the biggest issue was that they were expensive. Plus, significantly limited army mobility. Plus, these things called cannons happened and, while they would protect against musket rounds, cannon shot was another matter.
The "and some kinds of arrows" line is also silly.
The ESAPI (enhanced small arms protective insert) boron carbide plates I was issued in 06 were rated for up to 10 hits of steel core armor piercing 7.62x51mm. Had a buddy take a 7.62x54R round from 100 meters right on the edge of his plate and minus some frag that ended up in his forearm and a sore chest he was fine. They were heavy though. Each front and back plate weighed 8lbs. The side plates weighed 4 and all the extra Kevlar side, groin, and neck collar came to around 13lbs. I see why the guys running dismount patrols in Afghanistan went with plate carriers. You felt safe, but with even a basic combat load you felt the weight quickly. Luckily we were mech infantry so we always had a ride everywhere.
I read a story in Newsweek or some such back during Iraqi Freedom about the protection offered by armor.
There was one anecdote where apparently some guy got hit by a 30mm cannon round that went off for whatever reason (obviously not fired out of the barrel) and while it smashed the vest and some ribs and some internal injuries, the guy survived. Insane.
@@alexyoon-sungcucina7895I mean, I believe it possible at the least, whether or not it actually happened or the way it's said to have, I don't know.
But I do know that men have jumped on and survived full contact frag grenade blasts. Very, very rare, but possible with modern armor and medical treatments.
18:34 errm, you Dont fire the whole cartridge out of the gun lol
Omg how many people can make the same comment?
@@Daniel-rp7nb mission accomplished!
@@Daniel-rp7nb how can a channel like this fuck that up? Like seriously how the fuck did no one notice/care?
I read the comments while simon does his intro and sponsors.
Always entertaining.
Half the time I get so carried away in the comments that I have to rewatch the video lol
Doc Brown traveled to the future and bought a light vest capable of stopping any rifle rounds.
Or somewhere between 1955 and 1985, he invented a prototype while working in armor development whilst contracting out his services with black ops.
Don't you just love when the animations include the bullet casing😅
the best part was the bonus fact ngl
17:52 "Next one's coming faster"
If only Archduke Ferdinand had one of those early silk vests.
He had one, but he decided not to use it because of wardrobe choices. He had used it in the way to Serbia, it looked just like a fancy suit vest of the era, but it did not matched his military dress uniform that he was wearing in the parades.
It also would not have made any difference, because he was shot in the neck, just above the end of the neck protection, and because the military doctors were not able to undo his jacket buttons in time to stop the bleeding, given that it happened just outside of an army barracks were he had visited some of the injured soldires from the previous assasination attemps, on that same day.
I’m disappointed that your research did not uncover the story of Rich Davis, founder of the company “Second Chance.” It was Rich, and his firm, that popularized modern soft body armor.
Rich owned a pizza shop and was injured in a shoot-out. Inspired, he invented the Kevlar vest. The rest is history.
Thank you, John Kevlar, for your invention. You just forgot the face.
You mean Stephanie Keolek? She is the one that invented it
Let us also give due regard to Sir Amic.
@18:34 that vest can withstand the impact of the entire cartridge!
10/10
How is this video not mentioning Richard Davis? The pizza guy who supposedly invented the bullet proof vest.
Firearms and armour existed together for several hundred years
Many layered cloth as protection was known before guns
Silk as protection was well known before guns
Yes, the principle of laminated cloth or metal is centuries old.
There are actually three common levels of soft armour with two more for military or special threat purposes only: NIJ IIA, II, IIIA, and III, IV, with STP (special threat plates) providing some odd-round protection or in-conjunction-with ratings. Ratings do not take into account soft or hard armour, as you can have level III soft (which protects against 7.62x39 (AK47)), but, yes, level IV is only hard, to the best of my personal experience. I will argue that II or IIA is the most common as that is what almost all of law enforcement uses, and I am fairly confident that police employment numbers surpass that of the military (at least in North America). NIJ is manufacturer independent and must certify all body armour for sale in North America. NIJ has also switched over to a more readable HF and RF (handgun and rifle, respectively) rating. VPAM is the EU rating authority with a lot of different levels, and again does not leave the standard up to the manufacturer. It is NOT manufacturer specific. Plate carriers also are usually made of ballistic nylon, NOT soft body armour. Carriers are by definition just that: carriers. They may have hangers or sleeves for soft armour as well as hard armour, a carrier is just the outer, wearable shell (with attachment points such as MOLLE or Velcro) as sewing on attachment points to soft armour would greatly reduce its effectiveness. Side note: there are also hybrid soft armours that have spike/stab resistance in addition to ballistic. Simon, thank you for the video-it was enjoyed as always. But, for a channel that does so well, and got so much history, how did you miss the present standards and current implementations? Coming from one who wears armour every day.
nij.ojp.gov/specification-nij-ballistic-protection-levels-and-associated-test-threats-nij-standard-012300
mehler-protection.com/blog/ballistic-protection-levels-explained-vpam/
Another thing to make note of.
There is NIJ *Certified* armour, that is samples have been sent to the NIJ for their industry testing standards. It is rather expensive unless you're a large and profitable business, or you're new to the game and wanting to make sure that people will reliably purchase your products and depend on them.
Then there's NIJ *compliant* armour, which the company can replicate NIJ tests in-house and rate it according to those standards, but you're taking a company's word for it at that point and that's not a great way to keep yourself alive and in good health if you ask me.
That said, armour can easily be built to above NIJ standards, but until it meets a threshold for the next level of armour, it has to be left rated at what the previous level of armour is. So an overbuilt IIIa vest that can stop a 7.62x39 at 100m but not 10m would still be a IIIa. Hence how ballistic helmets are rated, even though they can/will stop rifle threats at extended ranges. But there's no oversight on that. It could be overbuilt by having a single extra layer of kevlar or other aramid, or it could have another 10 layers.
Thank you for the links.
17:54 Come on Simon. Your graphics team needs to do better than this. 😂
That’s not a bullet, that’s an entire cartridge.
But it's 65% MORE bullet... 😮
Isn't it amazing how they have so much information (that they expect us to believe), but they don't know anything at all about how guns work??? Not even the basics!
i like the way, in the aimation at 19.38, somehow, the entire round- the bullet, along with the case with and primer, and even the writing on the bottom, has all somehow been fired at the target. remarkable.
No mention of modern AR500/600 coated steel plates? Multi-strike rated before frag (not spalling) ever becomes a concern.
There's considerably more to modern armor than this covers. Hell, yall forgot about whacky failed concepts like Dragon Skin
Dragon skin still exists under the ownership of Stealth Armor Systems.
The reason why Dragon Skin failed was because the design was immature but was bought out by Pinnacle, who would eventually try to push it into military trials. The problem was the original design was never meant for military usage (on top of flexible rifle armor being basically a very new concept) and it didn’t even fit the requirements set by the DOD but Pinnacle still insisted on it all while also cut corners with the test samples so bad as far as using the wrong materials and poor assembly, it was purely incomplete from Pinnacle all around. Obviously Pinnacle failed, and Dragon Skin got the bad rap and controversy it didn’t deserve through the years.
Pinnacle would go out of business and the Dragon Skin design would pass through the hands of a few companies who produced it until relatively recently a company called Stealth Armor Systems acquired the design and made updates/revisions to the design including the use of newer modern materials and stronger bonding agents. Here’s the thing though, Stealth Armor Systems is owned and run by the original designer of Dragon Skin and also one of the first or few companies that have a NIJ **certified** flexible rifle armor called Hexar.
Now the Dragon Skin design and Stealth Armor Systems is legit and the tech has matured and works, but the issue is whether people actually need such a product because solid multicurve plates have served the world absolutely fine for decades.
Wait... what?? AR500 steel is really used as armor? when i worked on a metal cutting company, i was tasked to improve as much as possible the quality of plasma cutting when this material first appeared on our company, cutting with plasma wasnt a problem, but the machining boys had a very hard time, it was insanely tough.
@@brianfhunter AR500 was popular in the civilian sector because dealer options for ceramic/composite plates were very limited up to the mid-late 2010s and AR500 was advertised as a cheaper and widely accessible alternative. However a few whistle blowers later, AR500 steel gradually became seen as a risk rather than life saving. The turbulent climate in the US also raised up demand for body armor among civilians which at the same time also raised more dealers providing access to ceramic/composite plates.
These days you don’t really see much people talking about steel plates but more demand for ceramic/composite plates.
@@Riname-K - that makes a lot of sense, our company was producing some sacrificial parts to a concrete mixing machine for a concrete company... 3/4" of normal steel completely sanded of in 3 days, with AR500, the parts would stand at least 1 month of work.
What i learned is, Concrete is abrasive as F and AR500 is hard as F.
@@Riname-Kwhoa. Certified.
You probably know a thing or two more than the average Joe.
All checks out from my knowledge though.
I like how it shows an intact 9mm cartridge slamming into a kevlar vest as if they had just thrown it at the vest
Hey ya team .
I saw a clip a few years ago about body armour that could actually float on water . It was in the development stage so there was no information on test results or pricing .
You guys do produce some of the best content on your various channels on RUclips & I try to watch as much of it as I can .
Keep up the good work .
Cheers 🍻 , Woody NZ 🇳🇿 .
That would be UHMWPE(Ultra High Molecular Weight PolyEthylene) and yes, it's neutrally buoyant and thus doesn't weigh you down in water.
HOWEVER, it will not make YOU float. The carrier it's in, however, is not neutrally buoyant and will add effectively weigh more in the water.
Stuff is great. I personally love it. Almost as good as ceramic all positives and negatives included. Biggest downside is the bulk, but I'm a lean enough guy that it doesn't make much difference to me.
30 ought 6. 30 O 6 hurts my ears.
I was gonna make the same comment lol
Especially since "ought" referring to zero is very much a UK thing.
Rifle proof plate was used in WW1 and WW2, it was just too expensive. Italian WW1 Farina armor could stop rifle projectiles as close as 100m and weighed only about 20lbs for the chest and pauldrons with a 6lb helmet. Keep in mind these were full power cartridges we'd currently refer to as battle rifle cartridges, something used mainly by snipers/DMRs. The pistol rated Russian armor in WW2 were by comparison only about 7lbs which makes sense since they were given primarily to city fighting troops for building clearing. Modern IBAs and IOTVs with plates weigh near 30lbs. We've never stopped using armor plate, it just got easier to produce. Even today we still use rifle proof steel plates or titanium. It works, with some caveats like spalling and deflected bullets still being hazards. Modern PE plate does good at surviving multiple hits, but it is not as effective as ceramic plate which uses ablation to disperse energy. Most quality plates rated for 3+ are actually ceramic strike faces backed with layers of PE.
What about a bullet proof ear?
😂
Wear earmuffs 😂
🤣or a "piece of glass"
It’s a new ear piercing technique for the ultra rich.
@@ferociousfil5747 Dude 😆
Oh my!. The addendum about the Great War, has been just amazing. Wow.
That's what I tell people, There is no such thing as bulletproof body armor, just varying degrees of bullet resistance.
it is carbon fiber in the animation. Kevlar is yellow and carbon is black if not painted.
Wyatt Earp never got shot. All those gunfights, never even grazed.
At 16:25 you say a company made a plate capable of stopping 7.62 x 39, "Fired by AK style rifles" before kevlar was invented, then later at 20:00 you insist that Doc from back to the future would have been killed by the same round. Furthermore, depicting an entire cartridge striking a cloth and falling down without being misshapen or the cloth being damaged demonstrates the writer's lack of firearms knowledge. Finally the fact that AR500 steel plate, the most common type of ballistic armor, was omitted from this video shows that this was just a superficial dive into the historical record on body armor and not deep or comprehensive.
I'd wager, not a single manufacturer calls their product 'bullet proof', its as idiotic as calling a suppressor a 'silencer', things that don't exist.
Bullet resistance is the industry term.
Silencer is a name, not a description...
The original name and the only one the government accepts, I might add.
Maxim's original patent did call them silencers. 🤦
28:22
This could be its own video….
I have never had the rational behind WW1 explained so directly 💪
Italian Cuirassiers STILL wear their steel breastplates, at least during part of their service as honor guard.
I love the images where you're talking about the energy of a 5.56 round but show a magazine being loaded into an FN 7.62 NATO rifle.
Here we are in 2024 with the threat of a major war in the middle east because a very small country wasn't satisfied with it's 1948 borders.
Hmm, wonder which country you could be referring too?. Could it be the one that had the borders set in 1948, wad happy with it, and then for the next 20 years was attacked again and again by it's much larger neighbors? The neighbors that have said, outright that they want all the people of "that type" world wide dead?
The country that has taken land in wars started by their neighbors? Please tell me?
Kevlar is light and comfortable. Plates are heavy, awkward and less concealable
trump just ordered some bullet proof ear muffs
Trump needs to wear a MAGA ear ring in his newly pieced ear.
Great doc, very nice quick concise WW1 break down.
Thank you.
FIRRRSSSST
Damn I'll have to settle for second lol.
LassTTTTT
Some of your best written content.
Funny the one "wild west' figure you mentioned Wyatt Earp was famously never shot, even after several documented shootouts like the one at the OK Corral he was never so much as grazed throughout his life.
Taofledermaus has pretty much proven that neither time nor multiple hits matters much in kevlar plates.
THANKYOU. I’m 71 with a lifetime love of military history.I never conversed with an adult who understood the silly reasoning behind ‘The Great War’.😢
Kentucky ballistics has good video about 4 bore against body armor.
The armor becomes part of the bullet tho...
18:36 who the hell made this graphic? A full cartridge shown in flight hitting kevlar? Tell me you know nothing about firearms and ammunition without saying you know nothing about firearms and ammunition. The bullet is the only thing that is fired and leaves the barrel. The casing and fired primer remains behind and is ejected from the firearm.
The multiple layers of silk approach was originally developed to stop troops from being skewered by arrows. Not surprised it got adapted to bullets.
Multiple layers of cotton would help, but the denser weave of silk was better.
I also note how many of these take Casimir Zeglen and Jan Szczepanik's ideas and update them to more effective modern materials. Zeglen would probably recognize the Kevlar vest as a modern version of his invention.
One of the best descriptions of why WWI happened I've ever heard, well done!