Message no. 1

From:	Gurth <jweste%smtp@******.HZEELAND.NL>
Subject:	Re: Armor in SR.. (SMTP Id#: 363) - Reply
Date:	Wed, 6 Apr 1994 15:22:45 +0200

> It helps, but only if you're able to get hit in the torso.

Trouble is, SR doesn't use hit locations.

>And I don't think anyone makes body armor today that can stop a .50
>cal slug. Maybe after its been through the side of a helicopter, but
>not in direct fire. They just have *way* too much kinetic energy.

I was not talking about armor-piercing hard-core incendiary rounds, just
every-day ball. Helicopter crews (those of the US Army and Marine Corps)
are issued with the "Chickenplate" (I don't know the official
designation) vest, which has aluminum-oxide ceramic plates to stop
high-velocity rounds. And, according to an Osprey Men-At-Arms book, it
"has been known to stop even 12.7mm rounds on occasion"

>(And most police body armor doesn't have a hope of stopping any rifle,
>including assault rifles... And most military armor is designed to stop
>fragmentation weapons, or so I've been told, not direct fire.)

True. I'm the proud owner of an American Vietnam-era body armor, which
bears the official name of "Armor, Body Fragmentation Protective, with
3/4 Collar"