(ASK) PLA body armour

Dragon Skin Although A Cool name and It also sounds like the name an Asian Military man would dream up for there body armor. IT is not a type of armor but a Trademarked System Name owned by the Pinnacle Corporation of Fresno, California USA And is there for not open for use by Non US Military forces without DOD and State Department Export Approval. that stated The Proper Classification is Flexible or so called "scalar" armor is based on the concept of Scales in place of a single large plate large numbers of smaller one would allow a range of motion.

I know this for a fact when I visited an aunt who is a coloniel at beijing military region last yr, they dont have body armour for most normal ground troops even the most elite 38th group army/ Lets be honest here, they cant afford all that many body armours for everyone when money are needed at much more important places and PLA those of you who didnt grow up in China dont know that the Chinese education teaches all of their kids to not care about themselves and only care about the nation. however all special police units and special forces wear uniquely chinese designed body armour that is stronger and lighter than normal body armour

it has more to do with PLA's combat doctrine than anything. in the near future the PLA is still focusing on carrying out major field operations where artillery, missiles and armour plays the main role. for infantry the emphasis is on speed and agility. i am pretty damn sure that a unit of lightly equipped PLA soldiers can cross a mountain range much faster than a unit of US soldiers carrying 100lb of stuff. in the combat environment in which US forces operates in afghanistan and iraq, body armour is crucial to reduce casualty against an enemy that is mostly armed with small arms. in the combat environment that PLA is getting ready for, you are more likely to die falling behind than gettin hit by enemy bullets, and if you do get hit by something, chances are its not something mere body armour can stop

PAP in Xinjiang. It seems body armour is optional.

pla101prc said:

it has more to do with PLA's combat doctrine than anything. in the near future the PLA is still focusing on carrying out major field operations where artillery, missiles and armour plays the main role. for infantry the emphasis is on speed and agility. i am pretty damn sure that a unit of lightly equipped PLA soldiers can cross a mountain range much faster than a unit of US soldiers carrying 100lb of stuff. in the combat environment in which US forces operates in afghanistan and iraq, body armour is crucial to reduce casualty against an enemy that is mostly armed with small arms. in the combat environment that PLA is getting ready for, you are more likely to die falling behind than gettin hit by enemy bullets, and if you do get hit by something, chances are its not something mere body armour can stop

Click to expand...

Indeed. Though I'm not sure about this, I think the general doctrine during the Cold War was to not equip the conventional armies of Europe with body armor (I've never seen Norwegian soldiers use it at least, and it's never been an issue) for use on the battlefield of Germany for the exact reasons you state. Body armor in a highly mechanized battlefield is useless and is mostly in the way, as mobility is everything in such a high-intensity environment. The use of body-armor today is more justified as the only warzones we have are low-intensity, often urban and against lightly equipped adversairies. That goes for vehicles as well, as you see most western military vehicles in Afghanistan and Iraq being butched up with as much armor as they can fit. Such weight would never survive in a high-tech war between two matched adversairies.

I think just watching TV, or pictures, while the subjective understanding of the PLA's bady armour, it is not comprehensive, and now, China did not participate in war, and we can see is that the PLA exercise, they do not need to wear bady armour, if the armed forces in time of peace are all wearing bady armour, it is a huge waste, I believe that China, as the world's industrial center, manufacturing a large number of bady armour is easy, in fact, China exports a large number of bady armour, Therefore, I believe that China also stock a sufficient number of soldiers in body protective equipment, if war comes, they can immediately distribute a variety of protective equipment to the armed forces.

Hey guys here's an article on Chinese Body Armour by Timothy Yan he's written for a couple magazines like Small Arms Review on the the Chinese military.



There are also some pics

excuse me, how is thinking both strategically and economically "just silly"? China is currently not engaged in armed conflict with any other nation or militia group, why bother employing body armor to troops training? protection against rubber bullets? i don't think so.
take the USMC for example, they've been deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan, both battlefields which requires bodyarmor to almost an daily extent. thus, the US DoD must provide funding for body armor.
however, in china's case. there are no military deployments overseas (excluding peace keeping missions), why waste your money on body armor that's just going to sit on the shelves? why not spend it on weapons or rather, armor development?

senbonzakura said:

excuse me, how is thinking both strategically and economically "just silly"? China is currently not engaged in armed conflict with any other nation or militia group, why bother employing body armor to troops training? protection against rubber bullets? i don't think so.
take the USMC for example, they've been deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan, both battlefields which requires bodyarmor to almost an daily extent. thus, the US DoD must provide funding for body armor.
however, in china's case. there are no military deployments overseas (excluding peace keeping missions), why waste your money on body armor that's just going to sit on the shelves? why not spend it on weapons or rather, armor development?

Click to expand...

Well, training with the armor is also a little bit of armor development. They'll get feedback from the troops, maybe some suggestions, and a better understanding of whether or not the armor is working the way they intended. I'm just referring to feedback about comfort and usability of course. .

Click the pic, then click again for a larger version..

New Chinese Body Armor
It is based on their Protector line of body armor vest that had been around over a decade but this new version had probably borrowed many design features from US Interceptor design including the overlapping front, side adjustment strips, detachable throat and groin protector, more importantly, the hard plate pockets and MOLLE.

A note on the Chinese hard plate, since they don't have access to the material to make boron carbide ceramic, their higher-end plates use aluminum oxide ceramic but because the Chinese military is typically cheap-stick, most of their hard plates use ballistic steel, which is up to 3 times heavier than the ceramic plates.

Timothy Yan

Click to expand...