Some questions about armor and combat

[LafayetteCCurtis]

Interesting. So to train them to fight in formation like that is probably a similar amount of time to train them to simply be good general fighters?

That'd be a huge over-generalisation. It doesn't help that the term "good general fighters" is quite nebulous--is it supposed to mean people with merely good individual fighting skills, or competent soldiers with a balance between group and individual skills, or something else entirely?

The best we can say is that a minimal-but-adequate level of proficiency in both individual fighting and formation tactics could be achieved in just a few months of intensive practice, but this will be far from the end of the soldier's training since, this way, most of that "training" will be on-the-job with a rather high attrition rate from both combat and noncombat losses.

It would be... strange if solid metal armor came back in use amongst infantry.

It's not that strange, really. World War I trench raiders sometimes wore steel breastplates to protect themselves from fragments and hand-to-hand weapons. Soviet combat engineers in World War II also made use of pistol-proof (or nearly so) steel cuirasses in urban fighting. And of course, while the solid ballistic plate inserts provided to 21st-century infantry in the most industrialized nations are more often made of ceramics rather than metal, they nevertheless represent a large-scale return of solid-plate armour to the battlefield.

[CalebChow]

And of course, while the solid ballistic plate inserts provided to 21st-century infantry in the most industrialized nations are more often made of ceramics rather than metal, they nevertheless represent a large-scale return of solid-plate armour to the battlefield.

Yeah, next thing is gonna be power armor "full plate"

Steel plate inserts were used by military in the 90s (at latest...dunno when they started using it) and still are in use to some extent today, but man--that stuff is HEAVY. If I recall it was like 12 pounds for a single 10x12 inch plate. That means just to cover your front chest and back you'll be hauling 24 pounds of steel in addition to the rig that goes with it.

It's no wonder the lighter ceramic was developed, even if multi-hit capability is a little less.

That being said, it's kinda neat to think about how armor made of steel can still deflect ak47 rounds.