Sword of Light: Humanoid Self-Propelled Artillery

Chapter 274 The Ridiculous Theory of the Uselessness of Bulletproof Vests

As the signal flare soared into the sky, the US troops along the Chosin Reservoir route were attacked by the Ninth Army Corps.

This is especially true for the Polar Bears, who are the leading team in the front line.

At this moment, large numbers of reinforcements from Chaozhou appeared around the Polar Bear Regiment's encampment and rushed towards it.

Wang Gensheng led his Marines to attack the U.S. Army's elite Polar Bear Regiment from the rear.

The leader of the polar bear group also made a very clever choice in selecting the location for their camp.

They not only chose a flat, open space, but more importantly, they also built defensive fortifications.

For example, machine gun emplacements and trenches. It's hard to imagine that the US military would go to such great lengths to build such defensive fortifications just for the rest of 10,000 troops.

This also reflects the cautious nature of the leader of the polar bear regiment.

But no matter how careful you are, it's useless; if you're going to get destroyed, you'll still get destroyed.

After all, digging a trench around the temporary encampment in just a few hours was already the limit.

As for building some kind of bunker, that's just a waste of time; don't the soldiers need to rest?

Led by Wang Gensheng, they quickly approached the American trenches. Wang Gensheng took the lead and shot down the M2 heavy machine gunner on the American machine gun position.

This is because it is most lethal to Wang Gensheng's Marine Corps.

Apart from Wang Gensheng, none of the Marine Corps' bulletproof plates could withstand 12.6mm machine gun fire from the M2 heavy machine gun.

It wasn't that Wang Gensheng didn't want to thicken the bulletproof plates for them.

However, the materials available now are limited. Without silicon carbide ceramics, Kevlar, or alumina, it's simply impossible to build level 6 armor. Adding any more would double the weight, and apart from a few individuals like Wang Gensheng, Wei Dayong, and Duan Peng, no one else could maintain agility while wearing such heavy bulletproof plates.

Yes! The ballistic protection capability of a Level 6 armor plate is required to withstand 12.7mm heavy machine gun bullets, which are the bullets used by Barrett and M2 heavy machine guns.

Of course, this requirement only applies to withstanding ordinary 12.7mm bullets.

As for 12.7mm tungsten-core armor-piercing projectiles, or even tungsten-core discarding sabot armor-piercing projectiles, that's asking too much.

As for the claims that wearing bulletproof vests is useless on the battlefield, that it's better to carry more bullets to maintain continuous firepower than to wear heavy bulletproof vests, and even that you can still be killed by shockwaves even if you wear bulletproof vests, Wang Gensheng could only remain speechless.

Before Wang Gensheng transmigrated, he watched a physics teacher's explanation of bulletproof vests on Douyin (TikTok). The teacher's explanation was that many soldiers, even wearing bulletproof vests, would still be injured or die, not because the bullets penetrated their armor, but because their internal organs were shattered by the shockwave. Regarding this explanation, although Wang Gensheng hadn't attended university and didn't have a deep understanding of physics, he disagreed with the teacher's interpretation that a punch with only two or three hundred joules of kinetic energy could knock someone back several steps, even causing internal bleeding or death, while a rifle bullet easily possessed two or three thousand joules of kinetic energy. Therefore, even without penetrating the bulletproof vest, the shockwave could still kill the person.

After all, although Wang Gensheng had not conducted a real-world test, he had watched some videos and learned about the situation of soldiers wearing bulletproof vests being hit.

Therefore, Wang Gensheng naturally realized that this so-called physics teacher was talking nonsense and misleading people.

It's worth noting that the rumor that bulletproof vests can stop bullets and then shatter ribs and internal organs has been around for a long time. Of course, there have been many debunkings, but Wang Gensheng still can't understand why this rumor can still spread!
Take the US standard as an example. US law enforcement has a ballistic drag standard for body armor, NIJ. In the NIJ 0101.06 version of the standard, body armor was divided into five levels: Level IIA, Level II, Level IIIA, Level III, and Level IV. In the NIJ 0101.04 version, there were originally six levels, including multiple Level I. This level could only stop small bullets like .22lr or .380 ACP. Later, the US removed this level, probably because they thought that this level did not deserve to be called body armor, and directly raised the minimum standard.

Level IIA, Level II, and Level IIIA body armor are all soft body armor. Level IIA is designed to stop 9mm full metal jacket round-nosed rounds and .40 full metal jacket rounds. Level II, in addition to stopping IIA, must also stop .357 semi-jacketed soft-point rounds. Level IIIA is required to stop .357S full metal jacket rounds, making it the thickest soft body armor. Basically, these three levels of body armor can withstand direct fire from most handguns, except for the Desert Eagle and pistols like the M500.

Above these three levels are hard body armor, specifically Level III and Level IV body armor according to the NIJ standard. These two levels of body armor are essentially soft body armor with a thick ballistic plate added inside. Level III body armor can stop 7.62x51mm full metal jacket rounds, while Level IV body armor is required to stop 7.62x63mm full metal jacket rounds.

The NIJ standard is the standard used by US law enforcement, who tend to favor pistol ammunition. In the eyes of the US military, the NIJ standard is simply inadequate. After all, going into battle wearing a soft body armor and fighting with rifles is practically suicidal.

Therefore, the minimum standard for soft body armor set by the U.S. military is that it must be able to stop a 9mm full metal jacket bullet, and then plates are added inside on top of that.

As for whether this bulletproof vest can actually stop bullets without damaging internal organs, just like that physics teacher said, bulletproof vests are just decorations and completely useless.

It depends on what kind of bulletproof vest you're wearing and whether the bullet is within its protective range.

For example, when a soft body armor comes into contact with a high-energy pistol bullet, such as a Desert Eagle or M500 pistol, the bullet will cause significant deformation and could potentially break a rib.

However, this does not mean that body armor is useless or just for show. It means that if the bullet does not hit the corresponding level of body armor, there will be no problem if you wear a bulletproof plate.

Although body armor will deform after being hit by a bullet, the standard for body armor allows for a certain degree of deformation after being hit.

The maximum required deformation depth for rice is 44 millimeters, because 44 millimeters is a depth that could potentially cause harm to a person.

Other countries, including the United States, have a deformation of around 25 millimeters. This deformation is unlikely to cause any harm to the human body.

After all, CPR involves pressing 50 to 60 millimeters deep, and at a rate of 100 to 120 compressions per minute.

However, this is basically not the case with hard-surface bulletproof vests. Wang Gensheng once saw a video of a bulletproof vest company owner personally wearing a bulletproof vest to test its effectiveness in order to promote the vest's performance. This bulletproof vest company owner remained completely still when facing AK fire, and showed no signs of pain on his face.

This confirms that the bulletproof plate was not penetrated, and he himself did not suffer any broken bones or internal organ damage. If he had such injuries, he would not have been so calm. It was precisely because of these similar videos that Wang Gensheng was able to determine that the physics formula explanation brought by the physics teacher was wrong.

(End of this chapter)