Bullet proof vests in the Chinese military

Following up on my post, the latest vest the Army uses (at least limitedly) is the SPCS (the Soldier Plate Carrier System). It's essentially a lighter weight IOTV, and has stand-alone protective capabilities against your Mk. 1 shrapnels and 9 mm bullets (not entirely sure about that, but I know the IOTV does at least). Allows for the inserting of 2 plates, front and rear, and to my surprise, I didn't notice the U.S. Army had rolled out a new plate (the XSAPI). The XSAPI plate is 'slightly' heavier than the ESAPI, but is more protective (the info is still secretive, but 'open source documents' state that the XSAPI can shrug off a M993 round which could penetrate an ESAPI). For reference, the various penetration figures I got for it were: 7 mm of High Hardness Armor at 500 m, 16 mm of Rolled Homogenous Armor at 300 m, and this: So it's a pretty hot round!

Anywhoot, this new SPCS vest weighs some 2.65 kg for a size medium and a SPCS vest with front and back XSAPI plates along with Side XSAPI plates would weigh 10.63 kg (23.45 lb for us Americans).

This lightweight system is light in comparison to somewhat older (as in, not even a decade ago, we were using these) systems such as the Interceptor Body Armor, which weighed 15 kg (33.1 lb) total.

Of course, if you're curious, that massive weight savings do not come from new technologies, so much as removing additional armoring. The Interceptor Body Armor, in comparison to the "Modular Vest" that our Special Forces use, covers 5.71 sq. m of the body in comparison to the 1.49 sq. m of the body from wearing that modular vest. The Interceptor Body Armor, which, now that I think of it, resembles the intensive armoring practices of European Knights in the Medieval ages, though, it did not take some centuries for the Army to start to phase out overly bulky armoring schemes in preference for lighter ones like the SPCS. In any case, until lighter armoring technologies become realized, this'll be where armoring might stall.

But on the topic though, it seems I am blind. The weight of the Chinese ballistic vest system shown here includes everything it lists (This system consists of two parts, the individual combat comprehensive support system and the individual life comprehensive support system, and serves the functions of defense and protection, self-help and mutual aids, eating and drinking, camping and bivouacking, and many others. Its total weight is only 15 kilograms.) So, it's relatively light, though, it does not make mention specifically of ballistic plates, so that may be where the weight savings come from.

The vest system shown in that news is nothing but the ZTCD06/Type-06 personal armour system, that has been known for years. Only now, as typical of PLA public policy, it has been disclosed.



The ZTCD06 itself, is proof against 1.1g shrapnels with the V50 of 530m/s from within 5 meters.
It covers no less than 0.36m² (probably only for the frontal chest-area), weights stand-alone 3.7kg and has a shelf-life of at least 6 years, which means that the first produced copies should run out by this year, which would make a follow on design all more propable (as shown in my previous posts).

The entire system, on the other hand, is named Type 07 OTV, which encompasses the non-armored tactical vest (mostly worn stand-alone without the equally MOLLE-capable armour beneath it) and those different accessoires like pouches, canteen etc.

delft said:

I understood that the heavy armor with which a knight couldn't raise himself without help was only used during jousting, because being immobile on a battle field was just too dangerous. Any angry peon with a knife could find an opening to dispatch the knight.

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I think jousting might actually have battlefield purpose.

The lance used for jousting were usually made of different wood and empty in the middle to allow easier breakage, the tips were not sharp and and saddles don't have a back barrier to allow easier to fall backwards (minimize impact I injury think). The lances used in war were different and sharp-tipped.

I think Chinese also developed heavy knight like cavalry following the three kingdom period. They used polearms.

no_name said:

I think jousting might actually have battlefield purpose.

The lance used for jousting were usually made of different wood and empty in the middle to allow easier breakage, the tips were not sharp and and saddles don't have a back barrier to allow easier to fall backwards (minimize impact I injury think). The lances used in war were different and sharp-tipped.

I think Chinese also developed heavy knight like cavalry following the three kingdom period. They used polearms.

Click to expand...

From my short study of Ancient Chinese warfare, that'd seem to be the case. Chinese heavy cavalry were akin to Roman knights, but not on the armoring scale as the Cataphracts.

Jousting is for fighting between heavy cavalry; and the stereotype of heavy armor was in part the result of jousting tournament armor, where the armor emphasized protective capability at all costs. Heavy cavalry armor in general was intended as heavy cavalry armor, not the armor worn by foot soldiers who would have to drag the armor around, whereas knights could use their horse to carry their armor.

My point is that the armor system described in the Chinese news report seemed to only consist of the vest in itself, which was why the 33 pound weight raised eyebrows.

Inst said:

Jousting is for fighting between heavy cavalry; and the stereotype of heavy armor was in part the result of jousting tournament armor, where the armor emphasized protective capability at all costs. Heavy cavalry armor in general was intended as heavy cavalry armor, not the armor worn by foot soldiers who would have to drag the armor around, whereas knights could use their horse to carry their armor.

My point is that the armor system described in the Chinese news report seemed to only consist of the vest in itself, which was why the 33 pound weight raised eyebrows.

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Upon furthering reading of that article, that would not seem to be the case as they seem to have included all the other "equipment" along with the vest for that weight figure. Assuming it's a 'heavy' kevlar vest (as in capable of obtaining NIJ Level IIIA status) it'd weigh some 3 kg by itself, which is rather normal.

It says system, not just the weights, so I would say that 33 pounds is everything that you see worn in that example picture with the soldier.

the PAP look like all wear bullet proof vest

Dang, this thread blew up! I'm the OP of many successful threads on this forum.

GO CHINA.