Over the last few centuries, body protection has undergone noticeable changes: from already-lightened metal cuirasses to modern body armor with ceramic plates. The evolution of gear happened together with the development of defense manufacturing: the appearance of new types of weapons demanded the creation of better equipment.

From steel armor to modern body armor

The first "developments" of personal protection appeared at the same time as the first "tools" — stones and sticks. And the process of their development was inseparable: new weapons demanded new protection. The first steel armor began to appear around the 5th–4th centuries BC — the ancient Greeks used bronze for these purposes in particular. Around the same period in Rome, troops wore chain mail — an iron shirt. Undoubtedly, at that time this was an effective and, in a certain sense, technological solution.

From the first steel personal-protection devices to the appearance of the first (if it can be called that) military body armor, more than 25 centuries passed! And so, at the end of the 19th century, the American doctor George Goodfellow discovered that a silk handkerchief folded several times could stop a pistol bullet. Refining the system, the priest of Ukrainian origin Casimir Zeglen patented his silk body armor a few years later.

Later, at the beginning of the 20th century, taking Zeglen's product as a basis, his colleague, the inventor Jan Szczepanik, improved the technology by adding thin steel sheets to the silk. It is said that this invention saved the life of the King of Spain, Alfonso XII himself, protecting him from grenade fragments during an assassination attempt. 

A revolution in protective materials: Kevlar, polyethylene, ceramics

Attempts to use composites for making body armor were made as far back as the First World War, but the first ceramic armor system appeared only in 1963. Richard Cook, on behalf of the aerospace corporation Goodyear, patented a ceramic armor system made of aluminum oxide on a fiberglass backing.

And in the early 1970s, the DuPont company patented the ballistic fabric Kevlar. And within a few years the company Second Chance Body Armor launched the industry of manufacturing light body armor, creating the first fully Kevlar body armor.

And by the beginning of the 1990s, the HONEYWELL company developed a new material — ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene (UHMWPE). Light, flexible, extremely strong and resistant to external influences. Its use made it possible to significantly reduce the weight of anti-fragmentation panels. Body armor with such armored elements was first used in 1996 during the fighting in Yugoslavia.

How the military's approach to protection has changed in recent decades

One of the most important factors that influenced the process of the creation and development of domestic personal body-armor equipment in that period was historical experience. In particular, the experience of the wars of the mid- and late 19th century contributed to an understanding of the need to equip infantry with anti-fragmentation protective means.

Today the requirements for ballistic protection are higher, and the resources for creating it are greater. Now manufacturers, including us, are able to develop and manufacture gear that has both a high protection class and a low weight at the same time. UHMWPE and ceramic composites have already almost displaced steel, and ballistic fabrics such as Cordura or Oxford have made it possible to manufacture strong and durable body armor. Modern manufacturing has also made it possible to change the configuration of body armor: it can be anatomical, concealed-wear, modular, lightened, and so on. 

A forecast for the future: what technologies may emerge?

Throughout the entire period of the industry's development, a trend can be traced — reducing weight and strengthening protective properties. The first is necessary for the effectiveness of those who will use this armor, since remaining combat-capable in 50-kilogram armor is, to put it mildly, difficult. The second is essentially the main function of personal protection. After all, the development of weapons forces humanity to look for ways to defend against them.

And while the design of armored products stayed more or less constant, the breakthroughs came from the materials used to make the armor. 

The concepts and developments that already exist today cannot fail to impress! For example, the University of Kent recently developed the revolutionary material TSAM (Talin Shock Absorbing Materials). It was tested with supersonic impacts at a speed of over 1.5 km/s. TSAM not only absorbed the impact of the fragments but also preserved the projectiles after impact! So it is quite likely that the newest bulletproof armor will appear very soon.

Meanwhile,expertsat the University of North Carolina (USA) developed a steel foam metal with a steel matrix, placed between an upper ceramic layer and a thin lower layer of aluminum. This foam metal, less than 2.5 cm thick, stops 7.62 mm armor-piercing bullets, leaving a dent of less than 8 mm on the back surface.

Rice University and New York University are conducting joint experiments firing at sheets of graphene. It is expected that armored products made of this material will be significantly stronger than Kevlar ones and, in combination with ceramic elements, will give a truly stunning result.