[TW 2013] Body armor and Trama plates

[Degrath]

When I deployed in 2011 with the US Army. I was issued as part of my basic kit an IOTV (Improved outer Tactical Vest) with 4 SAPI plates (front, back, 2 sides). The IOTV had removable front and rear ballistic throat protection, groin, lower back/ kidney and shoulder guards called DAPs. Without the plates it was the equivalent to a flak jacket.

After about 2 months in country I had removed all the optional components from the IOTV to lighten it up. After about another month or 2 I got rid of it all together and wore only a Plate carrier with my 4 sapi plates in it.

I saw many people take multiple 7.62 hits on the plates and they were almost never fatal. Though in nearly every case they lost consciousness and or had minor to severe internal injuries from the impact.

We were told a single plate could stop 3 rounds near point blank, though after one hit the plates would need to be replaced.
I would think for game play mechanics each hit should reduce the armor value of a plate and anything over 3-4 hits would negate it completely.

[CDAT]

Originally Posted by Degrath

When I deployed in 2011 with the US Army. I was issued as part of my basic kit an IOTV (Improved outer Tactical Vest) with 4 SAPI plates (front, back, 2 sides). The IOTV had removable front and rear ballistic throat protection, groin, lower back/ kidney and shoulder guards called DAPs. Without the plates it was the equivalent to a flak jacket.

After about 2 months in country I had removed all the optional components from the IOTV to lighten it up. After about another month or 2 I got rid of it all together and wore only a Plate carrier with my 4 sapi plates in it.

I saw many people take multiple 7.62 hits on the plates and they were almost never fatal. Though in nearly every case they lost consciousness and or had minor to severe internal injuries from the impact.

We were told a single plate could stop 3 rounds near point blank, though after one hit the plates would need to be replaced.
I would think for game play mechanics each hit should reduce the armor value of a plate and anything over 3-4 hits would negate it completely.

When I deployed in 2003 for the ground war we got flack jackets, later in Bagdad we got Interceptors with out plates. At about the year mark we got front/back plates. For my second deployment in 2008 we got vest with front/back plates before we shipped out, in 2009 got front/back and side plates before we shipped out. They did not have enough plates to let us keep then when we got home. So you could go with any of the above I would think depending on the priority of what your players were before. I was EOD so not a t1 unit, and for ground war not high priorty, from 2004/5 on we were high priorty. I am now a Police officer and have had the opertunity to go to some body armor shoots. The sapi is rated to take two hits from a .30-06 AP. After the shoot we took the vest and shoot it some more all said and done it did not fail tell about ten rounds of AP and even then still had lots of spaces that would stop the rounds. The second thing about Sapi plates is they are NOT a stand alone plate, for them to work correctly they need the soft armor. That is a cost saving system as my work plates do not need it but they are more expensive than the sapi. The other thing there have been different types of vest that could hold plates, the Rangers had them in 1993 in Black Hawk Down, in 2003 some of the bases that we took over had Iraqi plates, some of my guys used them tell we got our own. The first plates that I know of were steel and used in Vitnam with helo crews, to heavy for people on the ground. As they got the tech better they made stronger/lighter steel plates and that is what the rangers used in 93', some police still use them as they work and are "cheep" they are heavy is the main issue, but can take multi-hits better than the current. There is also a new polymier plate out there that can take multi-hits better and is lighter but is last time I looked almost 10X the cost.