chill my man
i reserve my comments on this. i said it was interesting. i
didnt say it was definitive. and if you read the last bit of the
article, The manufacturer of Dragonskin had nothing to lose, and
everything to gain.
i am looking solely and let me stress that, solely in the case
some others dont get it and blame me for it, the whole dragonskin
saga, is the possibility of vested interests manipulating the
results.
i agree with you. totally no issues. give me a choice between
dragonskin and plate armour, ild take whichever i feel most
comfortable with. but since i have no experience with either BPV i
cant say which. but from what i have read, Marines serving in iraq
got scalar armour (not dragonskin) but they preferred the added
protection of plate armour but they didnt want the weight
if i m not mistaken, one thing
the futureweapons and NBC documentaries dont cover as well is,
scalar stops bullets. plate stops bullets too. but with scalar once
u get shot, your body takes the impact (IIRC). for interceptor type
armour with HARD plate and BP material (flexi) the BP material
stops the bullet and the hard plate takes the impact.
hard-soft type BPV may be weaker than scalar type for repeated
firings. the ceramite shatters once broken. the thinner layer of BP
becomes more weaker. but the hard plate means u can get back up and
fight again. the scale type means you are KOed out of action for
awhile. Your body absorbs the impact of the bullet instead of the
plate. this can mean something from a bad bruise to something like
a broken rib (worst case punctured lung or internal organ. ouch!
)
in summary ild throw the question back at you. having superior
protection but your trooper on the ground incapicitated and with a
probability of internal organ damage. or inferior protection from
an unlikely scenario (one soldier getting shot at multiple times at
a particular spot) but if he he does get shot, chances are, he wont
be incapicitated.
which one would you pick then ?
there's this article i read about USMC troopers being issued
with both, but the feedback from the troops using it was they
wanted something that had the light weight and the added protection
from plate.
i dont think the dragonskin saga is so simple. its probably some
jockying or lobbying going on.
at the same time, SAF dosent print money. lets do some 3rd
degree aproximations ok ? say each BPV with molles system will cost
about 1,200 dollars (thats on the cheap end). that alone,
multiplied by 20,000 troopers per annum intake. how much will that
cost you ? thats 240 million alone for body armour per year
assuming a situation where everyone gets a personal set and they
get to keep it.
add in maintainence, wear and tear and replacements. we'd bump
that figure up to 250 million thereabouts ?
its expensive. its adding to the per soldier procurement costs.
the US army spends 17,000 (according to pop mechanics so can take
it with a pinch of salt) on per trooper with all the comms and
standard personal equipment.
if we were to do that with all our conscripts and reservists,
how much are we going to spend ?
i totally agree with you on the
impact of morale and how the SAF cannot afford to lose people. but
at what cost ? everything comes at a cost. we probably can afford
to have everything like the US army has, NVG's for everyone and
different kits of gear. but at who's expense ? increase of GST to
10% ? increase ERP ?
i think its cost effective procurement that makes sense. going
by head not heart.
and the bit about commandos. what i meant about commandos having
dragonskin was about the commandos having totally seperate
supply/procurement chains. they have access to money and stuff the
ordinary grunts dont have.
its not about spec ops deserving better. its just that the gear
they have and the budgets they have to acquire and the freedom to
use whatever suits them. simply dosent exist for your average joe
grunt in a combat unit
and if i'm not too sure if youve heard about the rumours on
other forums of spec ops recruiting heavily to top up losses in
both iraq and afghanistan. things like pat tillman happened because
of the compressed training and recruitment. and the training and
qualties of a spec ops troopers as well as the financial
expenditure to train one. maybe thats why they get more funding and
leeway ?
ild like to think that the concept of egalitarianism isnt dead
in the army. that every trooper should have equal access to the
best fighting equipment that money can buy. but unfortunately,
reality often falls short of that. lan lan suck thumb lor. bite the
bullet (figuratively and not literally in this context)
Refer to quotes in bold.
First one being a faulty premise that the scalar armor would not
absorb the impact as well. I'm no physicists so I can't
really explain the physics of why that is faulty. Independent
testings done by various interest groups that are questioning the
US Army why Dragonskin was not chosen instead of IBA, showed that
the Dragonskin was better by far in absorbing the impact of
bullets.
If you have a very dense material like a plate in IBA, when the
bullet hits, where is the force gonna go? Dense materials do not
deal with shock well, I figure thats why knocking on wood is more
resounding than knocking on kevlar. If you knock on kevlar,
your knuckles will hurt because the force is being shot back at
you. If your hand was a bullet, where does the force go? Into
the plate, either fracturing it, and surplus energy through the
fracture area into the body. At least, thats what I figure it's
like to get shot in IBA... again, im no physicist.
When you have scalar armor, with flexible dense pieces of
material interlinked. The bullet's force will be diffused
around the entire span of the armor make up. What happens?
The bullet is met by dense material (a definition requirement
as protection goes), but the force is also diffused across a larger
surface area due to flexibility of the interlinked pieces. The
advantage now is two fold. Not only does the diffusion of
energy prevent internal injuries, it drastically reduces the
bullet's ability to penetrate or damage the scale.
Second: I'm not talking about NVGs and ACOG sights. I'm
talking about armor protection that is used to save lives. If you
are a soldier (if you are Singaporean, you will or have been at
some point), you will appreciate the fact that you have a body
armor system that is proven to be the best there is. If the
SAF suddenly downgrades from Kevlar helmet to the old Tin-helmet
cos its cheaper though slightly heavier and offers less protection,
how would you feel?
If you go to a widow or a mother who lost her husband or son in
war because his body armor failed, and asked her if she minds
paying more taxes in exchange for her loved one's life, what do you
think the answer will be? When it comes to purchasing
equipment that would enhance safety and save lives, money is no
object as it won't be a splurge of resources. But of course,
at USD$5,000 a piece, its quite bullsh!t if the SAF tries to
justify spending $30Billion to purchase 600,000pcs of Dragonskin.
$3-6 Billion for 600,000 pieces, I don't think thats pretty
bad.
Ballistic Armor is a controlled equipment here. Not every
reservist is gonna bring it home and keep as Personal issue. Buy a
bulk quantity of it, and issue to whoever when needed, I don't see
how we'd end up raising ERP or GST over it. Besides, if good
ol Temasek has been "earning" as claimed, its about time they
contributed to our national defence.
I hope I don't sound too mean. Some issues are best laid
out in the most direct manner to avoid mis-interpretation.
