During the battle, bullets and fragments of shells pose a serious threat to the health and life of soldiers. In order to protect personnel already in the years of the First World War, attempts were made to create effective means of protection. During the Great Patriotic War, the elite units of the Red Army were equipped with armored cuirasses that possessed insignificant protective properties. Due to its heavy weight, the armored car was too constrained by the fighter's movements. Soon the first bulletproof vests appeared. Over the past decades, this protective agent has evolved intensively. However, as practice has shown, metal, Kevlar and combined body armor have flaws that should be further developed. Today, in Russia, the United States and Great Britain, scientists are working to create such a substance? like liquid armor. What it is? What is it for? Find the answers to these questions will help this article.
A bit of history
Armored suits were replaced by body armor. These protective agents were created on the basis of lead plates. Compared with previous products, the “armor”, as the military often called them, had better protective properties, but weighed 20 kg, which was their significant drawback. The gunsmiths have repeatedly made attempts to create body armor based on ancient developments. However, with lamellar armor, the protective properties were not fully ensured. With the advent of Kevlar, the problem with weight was partially solved. In addition, judging by the reviews, Kevlar body armor is very convenient to use. It would seem that the problem has been solved and one can stop there. However, scientists went further and decided to use nanotechnology in the production of protective agents. Liquid armor, according to experts, is today considered the substance that they plan to replace lead and Kevlar in the near future.
Tasks assigned to military scientists
According to experts, strength, even Kevlar bronics, is directly proportional to mass and has its own limit. The fighter will be reliably protected from the bullet, no matter how much penetrative power it would possess if it is clad in heavy armor. In the production of conventional bulletproof vests, multilayer Kevlar is used. Also in protective equipment there are additional metal and ceramic inlays. The mass of Kevlar bronik from 20 kg, as it was in lead, is reduced to 11 kg, which also significantly restricts movement. With ammunition, weapons and food, the fighter in the 11-kilogram armor is a big load. Therefore, the task of "weight-strength" is one of the most relevant for military scientists in some countries. The invention of liquid armor was a breakthrough in the creation of personal protective equipment.
Introducing New Material
Liquid armor is a special substance, namely a colloidal solution, which contains solid nanoparticles. This concept, which allows replacing armor plates and protective tissues with liquid, is the same for countries such as Russia, the USA and England. The differences affected only its implementation.
What is the point?
As military experts are convinced, liquid armor for body armor suits perfectly. In creating new means of protection, it was decided to use the feature of the colloidal substance, which consists in the ability of the gel to quickly harden.
Thus, if a bullet enters this liquid, an impulse is formed that will transfer its energy to the gel. As a result, liquid armor will harden. A similar effect is observed if energy is generated not from a bullet, but from a sharp blow. How quickly hardening will occur depends on how hard it was applied.
About Russian development
Liquid armor, as the new body armor is still unofficially called, has been developed in Russia by the Yekaterinburg Venture Fund of the military industrial complex since 2006. According to military experts, in the near future a new type of body armor will appear on the market. Liquid armor is represented by a protective gel, which contains a liquid filler and solid nanoparticles. If a bullet hits the armor, they will quickly seize. As a result, the formation of a solid composite material will occur. This feature of the gel is possible only if it interacts with a special tissue. Information about what kind of material and what structure has it has not been disclosed by Russian developers.
About the advantages of a protective gel
If you compare standard body armor with liquid armor, the latter has one significant advantage - when you hit it, there is no concentration of energy at one point, but, on the contrary, it is distributed over the entire surface of the fabric. As a result, in addition to pleasing significantly improved protective characteristics, bruises and bruises on the fighter’s body are excluded with new body armor. The very opposite effect was observed with conventional lead and Kevlar body armor.
On the weaknesses of protective equipment
Despite the undeniable advantages, liquid armor is not without some drawbacks. According to experts, several samples have already been created, but they showed themselves positively only with a small-caliber bullet. A new type of body armor will not stand sniper rifle or machine gun. In addition, scientists noted that if water gets on the bronick, it will lose about 40% of its protective properties. Initially, this fact was a problem for Russian developers. But then they decided to use a moisture-proof film, which contains a new body armor. Additionally, a special water-repellent composition, previously invented, is provided for liquid armor. It covers the protective equipment before being placed in the film.
