Designing military body armor is like racing without a finish line: Weaponry will always advance, so armor must constantly evolve. But races without ends still require leaders and trailers, and those who build armor are about to come out ahead, according to some experts.
As body armor advances, it provides improved protection and a more lightweight, better fit. Armor that weighs less makes soldiers more mobile, and it helps designers redistribute that weight to other parts of the armor so it can provide increased security. But there's only so far that a product can advance using the same materials. Every so often, engineers experiment with a new way to protect soldiers — and this time, it's with diamonds.
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"There's technology that's about to be released that will reduce the weight of [a soldier’s body armor] by 15%,” Samuel White, executive vice president of sales, marketing, research and development at Point Blank Solutions, a company that manufactures protective technologies, told Mashable. “That's a huge performance enhancement. That's more than I've seen in my 30 years of work."
This technology, called the Soldier Protection System, is a joint project between the U.S. Army and the Marines that allows soldiers to build their own body armor with new parts that weigh less.
“The primary goal in designing a new armor article is to adequately meet [the user’s] requirements at the minimum weight possible,” Mark Colin, vice president and general manager for 3M’s Advanced Ceramics Platform, told Mashable.
The tasks associated with each military job vary greatly depending on the day. Sometimes a soldier needs lighter armor that allows them to be more mobile. Other times, it's best to have better protection at the cost of agility. Either way, this protection system allows a soldier to strap on different breastplates and other add-ons that best suit the dangers he will face that day.
The obvious advantage of the Soldier Protection System is the DIY aspect, but the less noticeable one comes from its assembly.
Scientists at DSM Dyneema, a materials science company, manipulated the molecules of diamonds to build better protection. Though representatives did not respond to our request for comment, White said that Dyneema employees have engineered diamond particles to grow so they form a flat shape that resembles a breastplate more than a diamond you may imagine on a wedding ring. The armor is light, wearable, up to 10 times stronger than steel, better able to blunt the sharp points of bullets and will supposedly soon begin to replace kevlar, the material the military has used in its helmets and uniforms for years.
The armed forces did not respond to our request for comment, either, but White, who is helping soldiers get their hands on the new armor, said U.S. Special Forces already use the Soldier Protection System. He expects other military members to begin using it within six months, pending government approval. White's company is also working on the first military body armor designed for women, and he hopes to see that in action soon.
"The evolution [of body armor] is always a constant battle between the guy who is making the product to kill someone and the guy who is making products to save these people's lives,” White said.
For now, he thinks his side has the upper hand.
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