Body Armor History

By: Alex De Mostafa

During the World War II the US made many designs of Body Armor for use bits army but all of these were found to be too heavy and restricted mobility of the soldiers. Most of these new designs were also not liked and put to use as they were found to be incompatible with most of the existing equipment in use by the army men. Together with the Americans the Japanese army was also conducting its own research on Body Armor. The Russian Red Army had an array of Body Armor ready numbered as SN-38, SN 39, SN 40, SN 40A and the SN 42A where the number denoted the year of designing. All these Body Armor were combat ready but only SN42 was put in actual production. These armors were made of two steel plates presses together to protect the groin and the torso. These used steel plates of 2mm thickness and weighed a mere 3.5 kgs. The Body Armor SN-42 was quite impressive due to its low weight and was used by the Russian tank brigades.

The Korean War and then the Vietnam War so the Unites States develop Body Armor made of nylon with fiberglass and steel reinforcements. 1968 saw the invention of a quilted nylon faced vest reinforced with multiple steel plates. The US law enforcement agencies were impressed with its capabilities and were widely used by the police in some high threat and dangerous operations.
The mid 1070s saw the birth of the modern Body Armor. DuPont Corporation of the Unites States invented and introduced the a synthetic fiber named as Kevlar which was very tightly woven into fabric and then using layers of this fabric the new high quality, light weight Body Armor was produced. This was a lightweight Body Armor and was immediately accepted by the US security forces and the development of Kevlar based Body Armor has been going on since then to make it more effective.

Landon Weir writes on topics such as Body Armor and Body Armor for Tactical Gears Visit Body Armor History.