Speaking of individual protective equipment, the powerful U.S. military has always maintained the world’s leading position and took the lead in putting bulletproof armored clothing into practical use.
After the United States, Russia and other countries are also equipped with body armor on a large scale in actual combat. During the recent Syrian conflict, we saw that even the infantries of the Turkish and Syrian Army were generally equipped with body armors.
But the Chinese army has not been equipped with large-scale bulletproof armors before. Recently, the Chinese Army issued two bidding requirements on the Army’s Equipment Procurement Information Network, purchasing 930,000 sets of ordinary-grade bulletproof vests and 467,000 sets of high-grade bulletproof vests respectively, with a total of about 1.4 million sets. Judging from this information, the Chinese Army is about to install military bulletproof plates on a large scale, and thus the Chinese army’s individual protection level will reach the world’s leading level.
At the parade for the 70th anniversary of China’s National Day on October 1, 2019, Chinese Army soldiers paraded with new-generation military camouflages, new-generation individual equipment and new-generation bulletproof armor.
China has made rapid progress in the development of silicon carbide and boron carbide bullet-proof materials, and currently has the capacity for large-scale mass production. So what exactly is the performance of this new generation of bulletproof materials? According to Ordnance Industry Science Technology, China’s new generation of bulletproof inserts are even more advanced than main bulletproof inserts of overseas forces in current service. This new generation of domestic bulletproof inserts can withstand the continuous blow of multiple 5.8mm steel core bullets.
China’s domestically produced 5.8 mm steel core bullet can effectively penetrate the current mainstream bulletproof vests in the world, but in the test, it was unable to penetrate the new generation of domestic bulletproof plates, which will greatly improve the survivability and safety factor of Chinese infantry in future combats.
At present, the U.S. military is already developing a new generation of 6.5 mm individual weapons and it requires that the pressure of the new guns reach the “tank level”, in order to break through the “hard shield” represented by silicon carbide and boron carbide material bulletproof armor. Obviously, this new generation of bulletproof plates will bring a huge impact and change to the infantry combat mode and light weapon technology.