Infantry Combat Equipment (non-firearm): Vests, Body Armor, NVGs, etc.

TerraN_EmpirE

Tyrant King
Inserts are either heavy (steel) or liable to degrade (ceramics), so you would not expect soldiers to be busting those out unless on active deployment.

Creating a space to allow inserts is just a bit of basic tailor work, meaning the costs of having that is minimal, so all military vests are capable of taking inserts. The big question is whether the vest also have Kevlar, or it it’s just purely a plate carrier
Each type has advantages and disadvantages. Steel plate has a disadvantages of weight, spalling and causing fragments of defeated projectiles to deflect up into the neck and face.
Ceramic can be lighter but as you said tends to have a shelf life and be more sensitive to smaller abrasions.

Kevlar is a material that have proven protection against low velocity fragmentation like explosive debris, yet it adds a lot of bulk getting in the wearers way it also has a disadvantage in hot weather or high activities as the Kevlar or other soft synthetic doesn't breathe meaning excess heat is trapped and in hot sunny weather the Kevlar vest is a personal oven.
This is why you have Plate carriers getting more popular. A ceramic stand alone plate will protect to a degree against fragmentation and will stop bullets, as it doesn't wrap the wearer in layers of synthetic materials it also reduces bulk and allows for the wearers body to manage heat.
understand that a large part of helmets is the stop debris, shrapnel and blunt injury.
The main function of a combat helmet in the post world war era is to protect debris not bullets. Bullets is a secondary function that evolved with advanced materials. That is why in The world wars they adopted steel helmets on all sides and those remained until the 1980s with the replacement by Kevlar and other synthetic materials.
The combat helmet came about as troops in fighting positions started taking artillery shells, now no matter what if the shell was inside the fighting position it was game over but it was rare for that to happen more often a shell would fall long or short and explode launching fragmentation and kicking up debris like wood and stones the helmet was designed to try and prevent that from impacting the least protected part of a soldier in a fighting hole. His head.
 

TerraN_EmpirE

Tyrant King
The main disappointment for me is the continued lack of helmet mounts for NODs. Not even for just one or two guys per squad/ platoon.

That means not only are these troops not issued with NODs, they are not expecting to be issued with them anytime soon.

That is the biggest obvious weakness with the PLA’s standard frontline forces, with NODs and other high tech kit apparently almost exclusively reserved for the special forces.
I agree, although there are caveats on that NOD need not be limited to helmet mounted rifle mounted is a option if you are more worried about fighting at night. Nod on helmets is more maneuver and secondary task. It's a hard task to sight through a helmet mounted NOD on a rifle. Where a rifle mounted NOD is easy.
Also mounts have to be well made and mounting has to be considered carefully. Remember the mount often involves penetration of the helmet by drilling holes weakening the whole of the shell.
It could be that in the event of a major war, the regulars will work the day shift, while the PLA special forces take over for the night shift
Reminds me of the old night fighter squadrons from the second world war. But seems a flawed way of fighting.
 

LawLeadsToPeace

Senior Member
Staff member
Moderator - World Affairs
Registered Member
I agree, although there are caveats on that NOD need not be limited to helmet mounted rifle mounted is a option if you are more worried about fighting at night. Nod on helmets is more maneuver and secondary task. It's a hard task to sight through a helmet mounted NOD on a rifle. Where a rifle mounted NOD is easy.
Also mounts have to be well made and mounting has to be considered carefully. Remember the mount often involves penetration of the helmet by drilling holes weakening the whole of the shell.

Reminds me of the old night fighter squadrons from the second world war. But seems a flawed way of fighting.

For the NOD mounts, they could have just used the ones with straps and clips that don't require holes in the helmet in order to be installed.
 

TerraN_EmpirE

Tyrant King
For the NOD mounts, they could have just used the ones with straps and clips that don't require holes in the helmet in order to be installed.
Straps are not that great as you have the helmet and NOD moving against each other. clips have there own issues as they can also damage the helmet.. The Helmet is already on the head and a good anchor point for mounting it's just getting the right set up.
 

taxiya

Brigadier
Registered Member
Inserts are either heavy (steel) or liable to degrade (ceramics), so you would not expect soldiers to be busting those out unless on active deployment.

Creating a space to allow inserts is just a bit of basic tailor work, meaning the costs of having that is minimal, so all military vests are capable of taking inserts. The big question is whether the vest also have Kevlar, or it it’s just purely a plate carrier.

These vests looks like they have Kevlar.

The main disappointment for me is the continued lack of helmet mounts for NODs. Not even for just one or two guys per squad/ platoon.

That means not only are these troops not issued with NODs, they are not expecting to be issued with them anytime soon.

That is the biggest obvious weakness with the PLA’s standard frontline forces, with NODs and other high tech kit apparently almost exclusively reserved for the special forces.

Although with the PLA sporting more special forces than most countries have regular troops, the PLA may well be playing by different rules.

It could be that in the event of a major war, the regulars will work the day shift, while the PLA special forces take over for the night shift.
These troops are boarder patrols along the Sino-Sikkim boarder. A high intensive fight that require more sophisticated gears will only happen after days or weeks or even months of rock-throwing, club fighting and manhandling, by then anything like NOD would have been put up if needed.

Also, if we take a look at the terrain of the post, I don't think more sophisticated gears are needed.
From the Chinese side
捕获.JPG
捕获.JPG
Looking towards the Sikkim side.
捕获.JPG
 

Dfangsaur

Junior Member
Registered Member
Meanwhile back in 1949
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Johnson 1941 Rifle
Iz-Z-hfhfwmu7077088.jpg

Arisaka!
wj40-hfhfwmu7077311.jpg

Grease Gun plus Mauser (Type 24 Chiang Kai-shek)
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Damn that Johnson 1941 can probably be sold for quite a pretty penny these days.
 

AZaz09dude

Junior Member
Registered Member
According to the Weibo user who posted these high-resolution photos, the official name of this vest is Type-15, presumably named after the year of introduction.

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41752288480_26eb24ed95_k.jpg

Can definitely see heavy influence in design from the previous gen vest

24503987_1000_1000.jpg

24503989_1000_1000.jpg
 
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