Total weapons noob and nogunz here, but really important question to ask and figured you guys would be the people to ask because I don't know anyone else who can answer.
So, I understand the problem with steel plates is that they spall and kill you, would a kevlar sleeve keep this from happening? I see people mentioning kevlar sleeves as preventing the spall and saying stuff about how in the 80s and 90s dudes usually wore kevlars with their steels and thus prevented their armor being turned into shrapnel, is this true?
No it would not solve this problem and it would make other problems worse.
Steel lives and dies by the fact that it is cheap. "Cheap" to manufacture, not necessarily to buy as an end user, because of the moronic amounts they spend marketing it to you and the upcharges.
Start complicating manufacture by adding ballistic kevlar and your actual costs increase considerably AND you've got even more weight on what is typically a 9+ lb level 3+ bare plate - probably equal to or more than the 1 lb of truck bed lining used normally
What other problems would it make worse? Just the weight?
You put anti spall coats in quotes, I assume that means it doesn't work?
>anti spall coats in quotes
Because I don't know what it's made of
it's truck bed liner. Seriously. They call it "Line-X" it's fricking rubber rhino liner meant for truck beds. It is not a dedicated spall catcher and it does come flying off from a local impact
>truck bed liner
Still better than asphalt rubber ;(
You can ventilate UHWMPE with M855, 7n6, or any mild steel travelling 2,500 FPS
Tell that to Level IV UHMPWE.
>Level IV UHMPWE
I've heard the rumors but where's the evidence?
I want to believe
>You can ventilate UHWMPE with M855
A1 maybe, but those $35 surplus Italian plates that are so popular in /pfg/ right now seem to disagree with you.
Please go on, I've never heard of uhmwpe standing up to steel.
>spall and kill you
Modern plates have "anti spall coats"
>the problem with steel plates
Is their weight
>dudes usually wore kevlars with their steels
To cushion the plate and compensate for body armor piercing ammunition
I know some late Soviet armor (maybe 6b3? It's one of the 6b's) had overlapping titanium plates in aramid pockets to catch spall. I don't see any reason why it wouldn't work, though that doesn't mean spall wouldn't get through the kevlar 100% of the time.
bro this is fricking russia we're talking about, same country that decided against blowout panels on its tanks because it wanted to build their shitty tanks slightly cheaper and with a smaller profile at the cost of everything else
No they don't wear IOTVs for that reason moron. You don't wear your kevlar inserts INFRONT of your plates, you wear them behind your ESAPI inserts to help with BFD.
Stop being a fricking moron and buy ANY composite plate instead of abrasion resistant steel.
In the 80s and 90s, at least in America, dudes using plates usually wore level III in-conjunction ceramics.
The frag won't kill you.
Steel is better placed inside a soft armor vest like an IOTV or something else with a big kevlar collar. The Soviets and their successor states use/used steel and titantium plates since the 80's and they have the big old collar on their vests for a reason.
As a stand-alone, frag is better than getting .308 to the heart. Just get ceramics.
"Spalling" as it's commonly called (it's not spalling it's fragmentation but whatever) is the smallest problem. No one's been recorded killed by it. Yes, a Kevlar Pouch or whatever would solve this problem, at the same time making the steel armor more expensive.
The big problem is that steel is heavier and protects less despite weighing more. A Kevlar pouch would not solve this problem, it would weigh even more now, and the increase in AP protection would be basically nil, as 99% of rounds that go through steel plates will go through a steel plate +IIIA armor.
Steel spalling was solved long ago with coatings and a soft panel behind it. The biggest problem with steel is weight, and UHWMPE solved the 'Ceramics are light but fragile' problem.
>solved
no one tell him