BlondieBC
Banned
http://flashbak.com/world-war-1-body-armor-1914-1918-32670/
Too long to quote, but it shows what was used IOTL. Evidently, the Germans issue 500K sets of body armor in WW1. The armor was generally not effective against rifle rounds, and was so heavy it was mostly useful on the defensive. But since some are talking about writing a TL, here are my thoughts. Instead of doing some radical new technology, start with where the Germans were in 1916, and move the funding up. We know the ideas that got used. So have the Germans fund it prewar, say 1904 or so. You have time to test alloys, figure out some of the concepts. Or you could have any other power do it.
https://www.theatlantic.com/interna...or-have-saved-millions-in-world-war-i/275417/
So now you have something that is achievable. It protects from roughly 1250 FPS bullet. A 30-06 round is a little below 3000 fps. Things tend to develop slower in peace time, mostly due to funding. But given 10 years of peace, you should easily be able to get 3 years of wartime research. It is probably a little much to get it into mass production, but you could have it develop, and deployed in a few regiments. Then ramp up in wartime. I tend to think more from a German perspective, so I would deploy it where a more static defense was expected, A-L.
Too long to quote, but it shows what was used IOTL. Evidently, the Germans issue 500K sets of body armor in WW1. The armor was generally not effective against rifle rounds, and was so heavy it was mostly useful on the defensive. But since some are talking about writing a TL, here are my thoughts. Instead of doing some radical new technology, start with where the Germans were in 1916, and move the funding up. We know the ideas that got used. So have the Germans fund it prewar, say 1904 or so. You have time to test alloys, figure out some of the concepts. Or you could have any other power do it.
https://www.theatlantic.com/interna...or-have-saved-millions-in-world-war-i/275417/
Enter Bashford Dean and his team. Met armorers crafted a battle harness with complete torso protection, front and back, for about 8.5 pounds With pauldrons (shoulder guards), couters (elbow) and vambraces (forearm), add another 4 pounds With helmet -- and Dean offered the two finest battle helmets of modern times -- it all came to just over 15 pounds Quite wearable, you would think, given that U.S. soldiers' full panoply today can reach 40pounds, close to 15th century full-body plate armor.
Moreover, Dean's panoply was fully cushioned with "vulcanized sponge-rubber," and with the latest alloys, could stop a .45 ACP at 1000 ft. per second (and a rifle ball at 1250 ft. per second). In terms of coverage, ease and comfort, and raw protection, this was as close as anyone in the war came to the Holy Grail of personal body armor. Deployed in the big American Expeditionary Force (AEF) offensive at the Meuse-Argonne, it could have cut 26,000 battle deaths by one third or more.
So now you have something that is achievable. It protects from roughly 1250 FPS bullet. A 30-06 round is a little below 3000 fps. Things tend to develop slower in peace time, mostly due to funding. But given 10 years of peace, you should easily be able to get 3 years of wartime research. It is probably a little much to get it into mass production, but you could have it develop, and deployed in a few regiments. Then ramp up in wartime. I tend to think more from a German perspective, so I would deploy it where a more static defense was expected, A-L.