Future of Combat Helmets - Can it Stop Rifle Rounds?
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- Опубліковано 15 жов 2024
- Can the new Polymer Helmets actually stop rifle rounds? I want to know if the next generation combat helmets are a giant step forward or a big ol’ hype train to absolutely nowhere. For the first time ever my brain bucket claims to be able to protect me from incoming rifle rounds which is crazy if that’s true. So apparently there’s a giant misconception floating around out there that soldiers wear helmets to mainly protect against bullets when that has never been the case before.
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The fact is helmets are mostly worn to prevent non combat related injuries that us lower enlisted are famous for. Since the inception of the ballistic helmet in the year 2000 they’ve only really been rated to stop small pistol calibers and tiny pieces of metal shrapnel from explosives, which statistically is actually the biggest threat to your head on the battlefield. And yes, It's true there are some isolated stories where the old ACH did successfully deflect a rifle round if the stars aligned just right and the angle of impact was perfect - but to be clear - stopping a direct hit was never in the cards, that is until now with the Integrated Head Protection System or IHPS for everyone who can’t resist a good military acronym.
So what changed in the past ten years that allowed for this major advancement where head gear can finally stop rifle calibers? Are the biggest advancements with this headgear possibly not even related to ballistic protection? And is this new tech still unrealistically expensive to be used in any meaningful way?
#HELMET #TECHNOLOGY #MILITARY
The development of the Future Assault Shell Technology or FAST helmet began In the year 2007 when the US Army’s Natick Soldier Center started researching ways to improve the old last generation ACH. This was born partly out of the fact that when the Army tracked all the casualty data from 2005 to 2009 in Iraq and Afghanistan and they discovered that 28% of injuries were to the head and neck. The army gave 8 million bucks to five different defense companies to try to create a new helmet all of which failed their initial prototype tests. According to the Navy, those initial tests were actually flawed though. If the military actually wanted to get those tests correct they should have just consulted Matt from Demolition ranch.
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What do you think is the right role for helmets in the regular infantry?
should we all go soft caps and check out comfortably or wear full face protective ballistic football gear?
Also correction**: The PASGT was made in the 1980s I was thinking of ballistic body armor when I said 2000 like a dummy.
You keep on showing things that will go on the face but which one will go on the face? You have those insane goggles that you shown you shown some new night vision goggles as well and then this
Nice
Pretty sick. But why not just put floor tiles on the outside of your ACH
They look like Old BMX Helmets . . .
The bullet might not crack your skull, which is a good thing, but how much force is now transferred to the neck?
Even simple active earpro could be a godsend. When I finally bought mine, I was amazed at how much I could hear around me, yet be protected from the noise of shooting. This can be a lifesaver, by allowing a soldier to hear small noises that could give away an enemy, as well as communicating with teammates.
I have a civilian peltor active ear pro headset, and it feels like a super power every time I use it. Gunshots gets blunted, but I can hear someone walk around me. I've even heard insects buzz past me.
@@Synergy7Studios I can just about listen to conversations in adjacent apartments.
Where do I buy them?
@@lonanderson5740 If you're asking me about the active hearing protection, and decent sporting goods store should have them. I have the Walker's Razor. They were about $70 at Academy Sports. There are much more expensive sets, even Bose if you want to go upscale. There are a number of comparative reviews on UA-cam.
@@petesheppard1709 appreciate it brother wish we had these when I was a 12 bravo probably wouldn't be near deaf in my early 20s 😆
I can't wait for the inevitable conclusion of helmet development: the armor piercing headbutt
we used to do head butting contests with our ACH , used them to play baseball with rocks pretty often, thats how I got a nice little scar on my head
@@Taskandpurpose the big scar is from being dropped on your head, right? 😂
They tried that - look up the German Pickelhaube…
Pickelhelm when
You mean plasma shield breaking headbutt right?
Ok, so I went my entire time in the Marines thinking my helmet could stop a 7.62 round.... would have acted a little differently on deployments had I known otherwise.
@@paulbarclay4114 bro this was 2008 to 2016. I'm pretty sure my helmet had been around since the Revolutionary War.
I think it was either ACH, or something that the USMC acquires during similar times as when the Army acquires.
It wasn't that old tho - on 2008 PASGT (the pre-MARPAT, post Vietnam helmet) aren't used in combat anymore.
Your helmet was rated to stop pistol rounds but not rifles. If they can stop rifles it's just being lucky. It was NIJ Level IIIA equivalent rated.
(This is the same with the groin protector too. Only your SAPI plates can actually stop rifle rounds).
You're a certified badass even if you didnt know the stakes bro
ECH was new. Dude was in on 2008 - 2016.
It was either ACH or something post PASGT but pre ECH.
At the Infantry Museum at Ft Benning there is a helmet from Panama that stopped a 7.62 round. I wouldnt have wated to test it but it worked.
You think the ACH was bad then, you must have missed out on the “fun times” with the Kaiser Kevlar helmet. ACH felt like high speed engineering in 2004.
I dont doubt that at all haha sounds like the worst
I find it crazy that the helmets never were able to stop bullets. Also, it's genuinely hilarious that the $850 cost difference between the old helmet and the new one is even an issue seeing that money is being pumped into all sorts of unnecessary projects
In terms of weight and technology it just wasn’t viable up until late. No one aims for the head regardless since a well placed torso shot can be just as effective, and much more accurate. Just a waste of weight to have the helmets do anything more than stopping stray shrapnel
@@4skintim962 exactly. I see helmets more of an extension for nods and communication than I do for true rifle threat protection. I bought a FAST sf recently because its a pound and a half. Its a host for the opscore amp (communication) and for NVGs. I have no interest in a 4+lb helmet that can stop a rifle round from hundreds of yards away. I have no intention on hanging around long enough for that to happen. Im with you, on the battlefield a centermass hit is what everyone shoots for because they necessarily don't have to kill you, just getting you off the battlefield is almost as effective. Killing you is just a bonus.
Pff, 850 you say? I'd say most of that 850 is the various electronics, not the helmet itself. Also, why do you think its weird? Headshots where pretty rare in wars, and historically, the vast majority of deaths and injuries (like 90%+) where from shrapnel, which is what helmets where made to handle.
Yes, but THOSE projects have more lobbyists and contractors rooting for them. Helmets are boring and low-profit-margin items by comparison.
@@4skintim962 Bullshit. I've seen a lot of combat footage. A lot of times the shooter aims for the head, especially up close (10-20 meters) or very far away if he's a sniper (300+ meters)
And it's hilarious that you can think a well placed torso shot can be just as deadly. It's physiologically impossible for both torso shots and head shots to be on par in terms of stopping power and lethality. And that's not even with taking body armor into consideration.
I'm really happy to see the military investing in large improvements to body armor like this. While they've been looking at advancements in small arms and HUDs, armor seemed like it was getting ignored. If they could make a vest system with higher coverage and rifle-rated protection, along with this helmet, that would be a massive upgrade in protection for our troops.
Demolition Ranch tested some home made, and improvised material armor, and made some interesting discoveries.
The concept of flexible, heat shedding, rifle rated body armor with far greater coverage than just chest vitals is an interesting one.
Don't forget being lighter as well.
Today coverage equals weight - Armor coverage actually was way higher during Iraq but SF, Afghanistan etc REDUCE it for the sake of weight.
I personally believe UHMWPE plates should be used (even if it's only NIJ Level III or III+), for the sake of making it lighter (the UHMWPE should be neutrally buoyant as well).
I'm paranoid about having a stoma (regardless of the reason), belly protection would be a game changer and I'm willing to destroy my shoulder health to prevent it ><
Full neck coverage will unfortunately probably not be a thing (maybe some sort of gorget but that won't work much when prone), polish troops in Afghan wore those horrible carriers with ballistic collars to protect from shrapnel and it was the worst thing ever according to every single person I talked to.
The weight carried during deployments is still way beyond sustainable range according to medical findings released to the public, depending on the specific contect a slight increase in weight might be worth it imo (motorized patrols, qr and other insurgent baiting activities)
My question is when you have the full head protection is if your even able to use the optics on your rifle. From using paintball masks you’d have to get a rail riser in order to be able to see the reticle or red dot.
Room clearing you aren't always using your sights. Sometimes if someone is close enough you just look over your sight and it’s easy to hit center mess. Not everyone has an rmr on their acogs to help. Situational.
Just need to modify the stock: there are stocks that allow eyes on the optic without risers
They seem to be doing alot with augmenteted reality. Maybe the sights will be a built in function of your visor.
With the new night vision goggles and the attachment for them on your rifle, you can shoot around corners and hold the rifle in your armpit to aim. You don't need the classic cheek weld or scope eye relief. Add in a filter for daylight operation, and you just need batteries.
@Elijah Ellington I think I do considering I did it in the army. Yes some times you use your sights but Have you had to room clear with nods on? As I said situational on when you want to ads and what not but shooting someone 2 feet away I don’t need to look threw my acog to hit center mass.
As a forward observer we were told that the helmets main purpose is actually to stop fragments from smaller caliber guns and mortars.
that was definitely the case between WWI and today
@@Taskandpurpose yeah no helmet is going to stop a direct hit from a 15inch fragment from 155mm shell but smaller and especially glansing fragments get deflected quite easily.
Btw Amazing content my dude 👍👍
The ECH can stop 7.62 at 100 yards
Why were you not observing looters in your own country?
I caught a bullet on the finish flight. Neck sick for more than a week. Helmet will withstand the hitting bullet. Your neck is not. Middle battle - helmet more load than help.
I knew a few guys who were shot the head between my deployments and all of them survived be it with some TBI. They got what we called getting "halo'd" because the round spun around inside their helmets between their head and the helmet leaving a halo like injury. They were minor and back in the fight after a few days leave.
Same here there was a guy on my deployment who took a round in the front of the ACH then it when around his head and out the back just grazing his head.
I know multiple guys as well that had the same injury, in the front, scar on their head and out the back. One also got shot in the back of his helmet in training with 556 and survived. So when people say it doesn't protect from bullets is non-sense.
It just reminded me of that scene in Saving Private Ryan when the round ricochets off the soldiers helmet at the beginning of the film and he takes it off to look at for a second and consider how lucky he was! Even those old steel helmets are better than having nothing on your head and the false sense of security is worth a lot, especially when you're just a dumb, expendable infantryman!
First off, I voted for task and purpose in the gundies! Hope you win!
Second, I’m curious if you could elaborate more on the “need” for ballistic head protection vs bump helmet protection? As a firefighter I almost feel neked sometimes without a helmet. However a buddy of mine (medic- two tours both with 2nd B, 75th) constantly 💩s on helmets saying you’re better off without one. I’d be very interested in a more thorough dive in on the topic.
Thanks for the vote I really appreciate it ! Bump helmet vs ballistic ? Wearing a ballistic helmet definitely sucks it’s heavy , hot , not worth it if you can get away with a bump helmet for a second . That said, I’m guessing the helmets he wore when he was in were way worse than the options available today
@@Taskandpurpose not to mention that he’s a fire fighter so that suckage will probably kick in the second an environment for the helmet appears.
Also I like what you said about the turret gunners cause they don’t get enough credit for their job. Like is someone came up to me and said that I’d have to shoot a 50 cal ontop of a moving vehicle while snipers and really anybody could shoot me once in the head and then boom your dead. I’d probably tell them they are crazy
@@echo3568 Imagine being a tanker, sent to Viet Nam, and viola, you're a door gunner for a chopper. Full armor to no armor. Friend of mine did that. He said most door gunners were from tank units, since the tank was of limited use in a jungle or delta.
@@echo3568 they're also most likely to sustain damage in case of a crash (especially a rollover) and on par with the driver when it comes to IEDs (although their placement and time of detonation makes a huge difference, of course, we're talking averages)
@@Krieghandt I'm gonna remember that whenever I feel like I drew a shit hand
Designers: "This is Spartan Mjolnir Power Armor, it will literally stop any size-caliber bullet that gets shot at you."
Soldiers: "No thanks, it's too uncomfortable." *Picks up crappy lightweight Cold War Helmet*
They probably would wear it despite discomfort if that sales pitch was realistically anywhere near true.
Nah, no one wants to carry the batteries needed to power the thing. I do think the next major upgrade would be built-in AC/NBC protection.
Soldier: But does it come in Drab & Olive Green?
@@ClayinSWVA "batteries"
I knew someone was gonna say something about halo lol
I did 26 years in the US Army, Combat Arms and I fight as an armoured knight on the weekends, so I have been asking theses same questions myself. My answer is: the Soldier needs heavy armour in close combat and less when unlikely to be engaged. A look at medieval and later steel armor shows helmets in light, medium, heavy and Ultra Heavy all in use at the same time and who wore what depended on where they were in the order of battle. The modularity discussed here is the key.
that's a really interesting tidbit about the medieval armor. I wonder why the army isn't more adaptable like that
Yup. I think heavy armor has its place in urban combat especially. The Soviets showed just how effective heavy armor can be when they stormed the Afghan Presidential Palace.
@@Scroolewse Because every soldier is a rifleman first and foremost. Doesnt matter what your MOS is, in war, theres always a chance youll find yourself in combat.
@Michael Lee not true actually. Guns came and they still could not go through tempered steel at that time. However warfare warped into something new, where shifting huge swathes of men farther quicker became the goal. Folks think the battles in the Middle Ages and Dark Ages had thousands of men whereas often times it was maybe a couple hundred at most, sometimes even less than 50. With the world getting bigger and the might of governments getting stronger, more and more men were being called up to fight, leading to what I said above about speed.
It seems that speed is always favorable to shielding or protection, and only when you don’t have the chance to move quickly is armor added as a buffer. At least that’s what I think.
i think armor was more of a symbol of the status and wealth of its wearer, knights were champions of kings and owned land and people, thus they could afford heavier and more expensive armor
I'm in the business and own one of these. For those asking about cost must be WITH electronics, I paid $1,100 to get a new factory sealed unit. It has really nice pads included- which can be upgraded, and a rail system around each ear as seen in the video, but NOTHING else. I had to add my own PVS14 mount. After seeing this video, I definitely want to get some upgrades. FYI purchasing a helmet is about as fun as buying insurance.
I had watched a few of Yr videos. I pretty like most of them. Not so boring yet very informative and some nice footages of items discussed. It’s a thumb up from me. Good job man!
That’s an awesome helmet. As for who wears what, I think previous wars provide some insight. In WWII, everyone wore a helmet, with the reason being that the M1 cut down the number of injuries from shrapnel and occasionally saved a guy from a bullet. Vietnam had Flak jackets which were available and issued to troops. But the guys on patrol in the jungles didn’t wear them due to weight and heat, so the guys at Fire bases and airfields wore them. It boils down to what the situation is in the field. The point Chris made amount vehicle gunners wearing the jaw piece is spot on, they would benefit while the guys on foot might benefit from greater visibility and lower weight.
yeah you have to think of the threat too. Guys at the air base were much more likely to receive mortar fire (shrapnel) than dudes running around in the jungle. You'd have to be psychic to drop a mortar on a recon team. So the flack jacket was probably about useless for them.
Why does everyone think the M1 helmet was bulletproof?
I was in Iraq during 2004. One of my squad had a little weather gauge that read 152 in the shade.
oh boy , I think the hottest it got when I was there was like 125
With what idiot officers made you wear, I'm sure it felt like it.
Geeze how much water would you have to chug to keep hydrated?
It was 131 in the shade in Afghanistan in the summer
@@Garthbrooks4756 That sounds like a nightmare. No escape from the heat.
I never thought that helmets made soldiers look more intimidating until you showed it. A cap does make you look more like a casual, normal person, it never occurred to me.
A big problem in the battle for “hearts and minds” is having your guys walking around looking like robocop on steroids. If you’re trying to convince people to trust you - especially people from less technologically advanced cultures - it helps *a lot* if they can see you smile and most crucially, look you in the eye.
@@MrOtistetrax it's actually the reason only a few countries use ballistic masks for their police (and even then only special units of riot and assault teams). Oh, have I mentioned those countries also don't exactly score high on the freedom index?
@@Sk0lzky Are you talking about Wyoming?
@@ls200076 lmao do they wear them there too? Chasing church service attendants I imagine?
@@MrOtistetrax The emphasis on everything needs to be modular and everybody needs to have a one size fits absolutely everyone under every single circumstance solution, drives expensive solutions that never fill all of the requirements. Just issue the ass kickers something intimidating looking, and give the guidance counselor tasked to win the hearts and minds something that looks less intimidating… Or just do like the British did and don’t have the recon guys talking to the locals wear their helmets In the green zone
I love all the gaps and openings for bullets to get through smart
The whole seeing each squad members biosigns is literally straight out of the movie Aliens, scifi once again giving ideas to industry and with greater digital integration throughout the military it will be brought in. Not to dampen anyone's enthusiasm, but it's likely in the future all troops will have a subdermal chip only activated when on deployment that monitors lifesigns and acts also as a locator.
Well, at least future commanders will be ready to see their men blip out as the xenomorphs show up in numbers.
Would be awesome if only the technological advancement wasn't slowing down exponentially. While the whole monitoring thing isn't improbable* it takes a bit of power for the GPS/radio tracking.
Next part is a wall of text that looks like an ad. It's not, I'd rather buy a cool new gun myself.
*Small FDA approved chest strapped biomonitors are a thing already (I think dr D. Sinclair recently mentioned Pentagon received some to test in a more demanding environment but I might have misremembered) and new AI supported options are being tested as we speak (including voice and activity patterns supposed to help predict major depressive disorder and send you to a doctor, atm it can predict a stroke risk about a week in advance, notify of sleep apnea - useful for soldiers because of neck deformations, differentiate between viral infection like flu and standard cold, and marketing folks claim the rona but I don't trust that part since even plasma tests have like 90% accuracy).
Right now most models I've seen record temperature, pulse, heart activity, movement, sound (snorring, heavy breathing, speech) and can be synced with that subdermal glucometer thing which lets diabetics save money (the "chip" is like 200 bucks, the device used to read it costs as much as that fancy chest strapped multitool of a tracker).
Best thing? It's completely offline (although I've read something about a Bluetooth connected smartphone app) you take the memory cart, slot it into a PC or give it to your doctor, and you/he can see all the relevant graphs. You can also choose not to track specific things if you don't want to.
this could be integrated with AI in the future to get a big picture overview of battles and how they are progressing so the AI / people can make new decisions depending on losses and such.
Agreed, and then the worry is the enemy hacking or remotely disrupting such digital tech.
Half Life 2 combine death sound flashback
My son has a significant hearing loss from a training incident where a soldier fired a burst from a 249 SAW without issuing a warning, inside a room.
@@MZ95 Boo hoo you got hearing loss
Wow sounds like he never deployed where you actually shoot people inside buildings with no earplugs
@@matthewbrown1093 I don't know about the US but that is exactly why the British get issued hearing protection
@Noel Villaseñor no, that isn't why solders don't ask for help and it isn't the main cause of hearing loss. The main cause is because regardless of what troops get told they don't use hearing protection. The reason solders don't ask is because nobody wants to look week. I'm former infantry btw.
I had no idea the inception of the ballistic helmet wasn't until 2000. I knew it wasn't for rifle rounds, but I had no idea it had come along so late. Great video, as always.
PASGT came along in 1982, I don't know why he said 2000
@@JinKee no. NIJ standards have been the same.
The pasgt is a level 3a helmet at that
technically the Germans had ballistic helmets in WW1, but they weighed about 12 pounds. If you didn't mind wearing a giant steel plate on your head though....
@@kirillholt2329 Well actually not until mid 80' I believe. I used the Orlit in '83 and the Marines I talked to were still using the metal helmets. It's good to see that protection is taking a priority. But all those comunication must be power hungry.
Helmet were very useful at stopping early bullets of the 14th century
Something about the sound reconstruction headphones that will probably be overlooked by anyone who hasnt used anything similar is the importance of direction.
I've used a simpler model and having only 1 microphone is far more debilitating than it seems, since direction isnt just used for knowing where a sound came from but even subconscious orientation. The body is very used to having sound behave as it normally does or will throw it out if there is no sound, but sound without direction can cause a breakdown in situational awareness if there is too much at once.
We also use direction for filtering, like knowing the voice of your friend from a crowd, it is much more effective to focus on the direction of a person's voice rather than the tone.
To be able to boost the hearing of a soldier AND keep directionality would be an amazing boost to situational awareness. Even with a cheap model I could hear the keys being fiddled with in a truck far behind me with the windows closed, but without direction I couldn't separate my father's words from another group 10 ft in the other direction.
(and by sound reconstruction I mean the earmuffs with an added mic on the outside and speaker on the inside, definitely recommend, dont let my rant dissuade you)
They block out even more sound than earplugs & the speaker is an automatic mediator since anything too loud simply peaks the microphone and the speakers cant output a dangerous volume, yet small sounds can be amplified as much as you want as long as the mic was sensitive enough to pick it up. There is no "active sound dampening" and its not needed.
Non Newtonian fluid isn't quite to a point where it can stop a bullet but I would imagine it'd be perfect for preventing neck snap.
Put it under the ballistic vest. You now have a flexible trauma plate
@@torg2126 non Newtonian fluid is too heavy and it flows downward, has very little give when given a lot of force, it just shatters like glass.
might as well just design the mech suits and get it over with
As I remember Non Newtonian Fluids are used as a backing on ship armour in the Halo games to dissipate heat and seal hull breaches...hmm ideas.
I've been thinking about an articulating neck harness, with non-newtonian fluidic bearings which allow regular head movement at the speeds of your neck musculature, but if impacted by higher speeds it would dampen the whiplashing of your neck, as well as reduce some of the vertical force on your weaker cervical vertebrae. I initially thought it would be great to reduce pilot neck injury during helicopter crashes, but it would work here as well.
Actually there were tests of nonnewton fluids in armor (polish universotoes did tjat) amd they reduced deformation of armor greatly. They were eother testing them "in a bag" or inside specially formed silicone to dumper tue force as much as possible
The old round British helmet at the time of that pic 2003 - 2008 was heavy AF and uncomfortable AF.
And needed a load of extra padding, usually a field dressing. We have had personalised noise cancelling ear pieces for ages though.
If only we'd had something like the master chief 💪😃🇬🇧🇺🇲
👍🇬🇧
Suggestion for next clip: An update on those combat frames that helps infantry carry more stuff during forced marches to their next bivouac site. The Infantry Renaissance is underway…. And what additional stuff will they have to carry for future combat load outs? (At squad/platoon level-light infantry on up to mechanized infantry: airborne to line to mechanized infantry) Will these tech advancements and threats require an overall increase or decrease in personnel per unit?
I notice that still the sides of the head are largely still vulnerable and that between the goggles and face-shield there's still a considerable gap. Granted these designs have proven effective and that the up-armoring is a major improvement, Protecting as much of the head and vital organs as possible should be a priority and it's good to see that our troops are receiving these upgrades.
that's sacrificing some protection for the sake of situational awareness. The removal of the ears is to make way for active hearing protection, and the gap between the faceshield and helmet is I believe to make it more comfortable and easier to see out of.
Sir! I should admit, this is a very adequate and informative channel, plus the sparkling sense of humor, great job! Cheers from Russia🇷🇺.
In my limited experience those wired in ear earplugs break down due to the constant insertion and removal stress on the wires both at the ear canal plug and at the connection to the headset. To me that looks like a very glaring failure point. it would be better just to have the over ear cups do that job and over the long run less costly due to less replacement parts needed.
Right. I hate ear buds anyway. Little wires in combat? Not sustainable. Blue tooth for connection to worn electronics passed to the ear cups.
The ear plugs might work for short time periods, but wearing them for hours would be extremely uncomfortable. When I wear ear protection at work the ear plug type is painful after 4-5 hours of continuous wear.
@Stabbi Chan I hear you. But it’s “modular” as Cappy’s always making fun of. With or w o ear cups. Or with or w o mouth covering. Guess the improvements are better than a ball cap. Minimizing TBI needs to be a priority. Just being part of a mortar team causes brain injury. Wonder if anything from pro football TBI mitigation helmet research would help.
Maybe a system like the OpsCore AMP could be used. The earbuds there produce sound without needing any electricity or wires, since they work via magnetic induction.
cheap earbud wires compared to anything halfway built is not a comparison, although the rough environments and even rougher handling will probably make that moot anyways
I lost it when Cappy hit the table.
thank god my helmet was rated for a wood table hooah ?
@@Taskandpurpose Cappy, that's not what SSG meant when he said knock on wood.
If our soldiers have to be "advisors" in future battles then I want them to look like Mjolnir armored Spartan II soldiers. Unless we're at a world war the volunteer army should get the best protection regardless of material and building cost. That doesn't mean over price the items, but make it affordable to protect the troops.
Facts. Effective, and All-Around Armour. Our Military should look like absolute badasses.
What a lot people forget is the blunt force post initial impact. A helmet might be rated for and stop a direct impact from rifle calibers, but the blunt force is only partially mitigated. BABT(Behind armor blunt trauma) from the blunt force and the back face deformation, is no joke and will still likely result in TBI or in worse case, death.
imagine the kick from a bolt action .308 rifle with no muzzle break. now distribute that across your forehead. it'll hurt, you might have a nasty concussion, maybe even broken or cracked skull, but I kinda doubt it. armor is all about spreading the force out as much as possible, if that can be fairly evenly distributed, then it's not too big of a deal, survivable, and probably full recovery being quite possible, especially since helmets have suspension/full padding, unlike vests
@@crimmy838 Appears my original reply was removed :/ Trauma padding for both helmets and body armor only can disperse so much energy/force. The bullet concentrates all the energy on a small surface area(the tip) which is very hard to disperse. My last deployment, buddy of mine had a 5.45 zip through his goggles and through the side of his helmet, wasn't a direct impact - But he still had a minor concussion and was quite dazed, had some reddening of the skin surface too. Another buddy caught a 7.62x54r to his front plate, ended in severe blue/purple bruising and stress fractures on a few ribs. A lot of blunt force gets through.
Just watching ballistic tests of shooting helmets and body armor with clay underneath, shows how deep backface deformation goes with blunt force that makes it through. Safe to say from what I've seen/experienced and what I've seen from testing - A 7.62x51(.308) Directly impacting III+/IV Helmet would not be pretty and if you're not a dribbling mess or dead from the impact, you will have quite the concussion and possibility of long term TBI.
@DeadEyeKiwi rather be concussed than dead
@@JazzerciseJustice Depending on the caliber and angle of impact, a variety of injuries can occur. Fractured skull, brain bleeds/hematoma, brain damage, loss of motor skills, as well as loss of vision, hearing ability and taste. Paralysis can occur as well, if the shock fractures or damages the spine from impact - All can occur from a severe head impact. That's if you do not outright die from the head impact before medical care can be provided.
A lot of these can be either short or long term and even permanent. Quite a few can lead to fatal outcomes, even under the best medical care.
A concussion is the utmost best case scenario of a direct impact, but typically an impact to the head that is not fatal on impact, comes with more than just a concussion, unless it's a small caliber or a glancing blow.
What will be a game changer is the protection of senses when SHTF. Not being confused (and mildly concussed) by nearby "bangs" will make it far easier to focus, it may make it that you're not overwhelmed by noise and perhaps even flashes (the next big leap), or at least debris and particles.
And as for street fighting and room clearing the situational awareness may be better than helmet free, being able to not be stunned by nearby flash bangs when storming a room will give a huge advantage (… except against near peer adversaries), imagine if you could withstand a noise loud enough to stun any irregular around you…
But as with all things, the ergonomics will be the make or break, will it be comfortable enough to wear constantly?
A nice option would be some sort of electric cooling, but that would add to cost and perhaps weight (and would only be relevant in "certain" regions of the Planet).
But if it kept your nogin cool while it was boiling outside that would really help keep you sharp.
A mate of mine used to put cooling packs in his motorcycle helmet in the summer (and then remove them just before putting it on), so that it was nice and cool while we were in the early crawling traffic part of a ride before we got to the freeways and got air cooling.
Love seeing someone finally talk about the advancments in helmet technology! Little disappointed the mandalorian helmet look didnt catch on though.
There's always the Iraqi Vader helmet.
I'm getting halo vibes bro, before long they'll have full odst kit🤣
Once cooling mechanisms can be one with the helmet I’ll take it. Armor like that is cool to look at not wear
They should make a ballistic version of the East German helmet. The only helmet I've seen that has a true ballistic shape.
@@DeltaEchoGolf Ive heard the reason why they don't design it off of that helmet shape is because it reminds them of Germany during WW2. I don't understand why they're worried more about looking "evil" instead of keeping peoples heads intact, but ya know, guess I'll never know.
I misconception is that people think that the helmet stopping the round from penetrating will save them. People forget that the energy and deformation aren’t the same as a plate that is spread out across your chest. While yes you might be lucky to survive a 5.56 or .308 at a distance, most of the time if the penetration from the round doesn’t kill you the energy from it will.
True, but even if you don't make it, your buddies are gonna have an easier time without cleaning you off the vehicle. Couldn't imagine the trauma caused by something like this.
@@steven_003 Yeah you would be lucky to even make it out with a severe concussion, even though cases of survival are rare.
Yeah but without full penetration we’ll probably see a higher percentage of headshot survivors even if headshots remain generally incapacitating. Which makes it worth it
The helmet would have to have a neck brace of some kind to transfer the energy down into the torso without putting all the strain on the neck.
It's better to try than not.
0:30 Ballistic helmets have been around for many decades earlier than the year 2000. The PASGT helmet (listed on the screen, as you mentioned them) were invented just after the Vietnam war, in the late '70s. They were the first anti-ballistic helmets to use the new aramid fibre we know as Kevlar. Prior to PASGT helmets were steel M1 helmets being used, that were also anti-ballistic.
When the British military started issuing metal helmets, administrators noticed a dramatic increase in head injuries. They promptly began efforts to remove helmets from field couture. They didn’t notice the dramatic decline in deaths from dead injuries. Thankfully, this mistake was killed before release.
Just thought you’d find it interesting.
20 years ago there were "special" kevlar/titanium based combat helmets available if your government could afford the $9000 USD per item. About $17,000 USD in todays money. Apparently they were rated NATO 5.56 at 100m. I dont have a reference number not model number, but thats what I was told and was shown a real model.... We trained with no helmets unless live fire.
Really u trained with no helmets ? We trained as we would fight even going to the range just to zero was done in full combat load
any idea how much they weighed about?
Sounds like a hell to wear
That sounds like a Russian spetznaz helmet. Not the big Altyn with the face shield, but the other one that kinda looks spherical.
@@Cavemanner wrong team.
I think you should make a video on the Imbel IA2 assault rifle from Brazil. It would be nice to see a high quality video on it
thanks for the heads up on that weapon it looks dope AF, I'll make a video on that one right after the Indian army video !
@@Taskandpurpose thank you for your answer. Surely will be nice to see you talk about a gun from my country. Your content is on such a high quality level please never change
Famoso fall da imbel
I took a look at the IA2, is the (for lack of a better word) dust cover polymer? Will that thing hold zero on an optic? The irons are super low, what happens if the optic goes down? With the iron sights so low you definitely can’t use a C-clamp grip, right?. Is the charging handle is non reciprocating, can it be used as forward assist? The forgrip is also plastic and all it’s rails are polymer right? The cam pin has a right side up (because it forms part of a rail) but it’s not PVT proof since it can be inserted wrong side in.
Cappy, i second the request, there’s things here that need answering!!!!!
Verrrry nice. Talking about the brain bucket from a grunt's perspective, where somebody is finally asking the question about whether or not it even makes sense to wear the durn thing at all, and under what mission parameters. Nicely done. Oh, and the tech talk is okay, too. Woot.
It seems excessive for conventional infantry but there is absolutely no reason sf should invest heavily in systems such as these
I just think well integrated hearing protection is a sweet idea. Things get loud out there.
6:28
Even through the camera, it wigs me out to see you waving the rifle around like that. You make a great point and bring forth some new information about this helmet just fine without LARPing!
Interesting. What percent of TBIs are related to helmet penetration? I had thought they where mostly from concussion due to blasts or getting flung against something like the interior of a vehicle.
thats a good quesiton I have a feeling a lot of them are non combat related TBI's though
TBIs are generally caused by head's movement so getting shot in the head with a rifle bullet at a reasonable engagement range is a huge threat regardless of protection. A lot less than having it lodged in your brain, obviously, but I don't think that's their main objective
Mine was mixed between that since round went through the Kevlar but the force really jacked up my system.
Mine was from bouncing around the inside of the hmmwv when we hit an IED. I was pretty happy I was actually wearing my Kevlar that time.
@@Taskandpurpose Based on a small amount of brief research, near enough half of all Iraq/Afghanistan conflict US military TBIs are the result of transportation crashes/accidents (incl. aircraft). About 20% are due to falls. But IED's and hits on vehicles account for a good number too; not sure how many of these get counted as transport crashes. Objects (other than fired ordnance) hitting the head seems to be a prevalent cause too. Damage from actual rifle/pistol rounds hitting the individual in the head/above the shoulder seems to be somewhere around 15%-20%. Surprising to note that some TBIs are caused by assaults, presumably mostly from fellow soldiers O_o
I have learnt from other channels that the headset you talked about can lower explosive sounds, background noise cancelling but at the same time enhance certain sounds like foot steps and people talking. And of course the general noise level drops you get even better situational awareness plus you can hear more clearly when your team mates talk on the radio. It was basically a cheat
I found it online after watching a few videos and it's not as expensive as they said, even for me as an Eastern European! It's a shame import duty and tax would cost me a kidney and a half
What about incoming noise of T-72 engine.
Then you have to remember each ear is connected to a different radio. One radio per ear, while someones telling you something with the hearing amps feel like a schizophrenia simulator
@@Ramon.Santiago there's no delay though, it's just that the difference in volume between ears is a lot higher than we're used to. I obviously haven't used the latest cutting edge classified tech, but regular hearing amplifiers I've played with as a kid weren't too bad to get used to. Maybe it was because I was a kid though, they have more plastic brains
@@Sk0lzky I'm talking from experience lol. I'm aware there's no delay, it's just imagine listening to a podcast in one ear, and a different one in the other. Now imagine talking to someone who isn't listening to anything at all. Now make sure you know everything that's going on at once. That's all I'm trying to say
looks like an MX helmet, tbh. And I am gonna voice the other coments, it will be really strange how they will setup it with scopes, night vision and stuff
I have a set of one of those legacy headsets that was sold as hunting gear on Amazon and I use it for airsoft, it is both useful because I have that three times sound amplification but it’s also a detriment when someone’s gas blowback hits above 80 making me lose all sound to the foam of the muffs for a second. I’ve messed around with the radio communication abilities because it has the port for it. I can appreciate how knocking out the loud noises while keeping the quiet ones would be a huge advantage in a real fire situation, especially if everyone is as trigger-happy as they are in Airsoft.
I just have to wonder if with modern technology we can rig up a mechanized system for neck strain as well as assisting back support. We already have kevlar turtlenecks for the engineers that could help the average grunt that is willing to put up with the sweat with neck injuries.
Another thing is with being able to have this lighter more effective hard type armor, EXO suit development, digital integration and the Boston dynamics robots. I wonder if future special forces or heavy armor infantry would be a walking mix of human and robotic soldiers and/or a human soldier wearing a robot. In the human soldier wearing a robot situation you can have the machine take the night shift and the soldier sleep in his armor as it walks. Then there’s the psychological warfare of even if you kill the person inside the robot is still there to take revenge. The wise thing to do with any AI in a system like that is learn from example training, so pretty much the the AI will try to act like it’s pilot and possibly while it will never actually be turning into them, If it survives and they don’t, you’ve got a bot with a good portion of your buddies personality.
One of the more interesting videos I've stumbled on. To the point and packed with information. Thanks for the effort! Subscribed.
Hey man, great work, love the video. I know you're US based, but did you check out the British Virtus kit by Source/Revision? It's a lot like the Ops-Core kit and definitely worth a look
thanks for the heads up I'll check that out !
“Do you know how expensive this gear is, son?”
very? haha
Tell that to the Covenant.
A grunt speaking truth to power. This is why UA-cam is great. More power to you!
8:32 😆 watch the 2 guys chucking in the flashbangs. About to become a black & white Laurel & Hardy sketch📺
I have a headset similar to the one they showed, I bought it on Amazon for about 80 bucks and hooked it up to my HAM radio. Now when I walk in the woods I can hear whats going on around me and it dampens the noise when I shoot, and I can use the push to talk button for comms. The Army is so far ahead of everybody. Oh yeah, by cheap setup also fits under a ACH.
Seen a kid take a .50 caliber round to the ACH in Sadr City, the Gunner turrent armor slowed it just enough that it got stuck in the helmets Kevlar. Lucky dude.
holy. fing. crap. thats nuts man , god bless glad you're both safe now.
Damn, Carl finally got his specialist rank🤧
only so he could get demoted to PFC again haha
I always thought helmets from WW1 & beyond were intended to help against air burst injuries ? But on saying that I can imagine a two can beer hemet with drinking siphon for tropical or desert use.😀
4:43 I love the Chris Crappy field test LOL 😂😂😂😂
I'll have to do more Crappy field tests out there for the hooahs
I fucking love your field tests dude, it's the perfect amount of humor holy shit
All through the clip I was wondering how much force the neck would have to take when the helmet got hit from a rifle round. Keep in mind I am ancient and lived in a world of 7.62/50 rounds.
My family joke that I lost my neck "in the war" but that was from humping huge packs over long distances. Love from Australia.
Some IDF dude (Israel Army) was hit with a rifle round (sometime in 2015-2021) and the helmet stopped the projectile and he survived but his head was thrown back quite a bit, this could of course be solved with exoskeletons or something that support the head or even better, make the energy dissipate in the exoskeleton instead of the human body.
I heard Carl volunteered for testing duty. He was heard to say, ow ow ow hey ow ow stop ow ow. They've added a straw so Carl can now eat easily.
f**king carl always talking smack
Good clip! I liked that last bit about research figuring out how much g-force neck and brains can handle from bullet impacts. It may turn out that the new helmets provide too much protection compared to what the brittle, jello brains Hummies can withstand an over pressure event (boom boom too close).
Now a good secondary use for these helmets would be protecting combat robot sensors. I mean, since the helmets are more than adequate for humans, they might prove to be just barely useful for close combat robots.
I wish our armor could be advanced enough to stop or slow the g-force of incoming impacts. Technology isn't that far yet sadly, I think that we've got the materials advanced enough to stop the rounds (idk about weight) and at this point research should be done in figuring out how to protect from other forms of trauma other than bullets and bobs actually entering through the armor.
I like the cues taken from the motorcycle market saving jaws and related impact injuries using slip plates. My biggest concerns would be breathability in hot weather and reduction in situational awareness by blocking natural hearing.
I can't imagine the headache you'd get afterwards tho. Also, the whiplash.
Thanks for featuring our battalion photo 👏🏽
As a wise clone trooper once said
"AGH I can't see out of this helmet!"
The catch is that the kinetic energy of the impact might still do damage to the neck.
I use old Nokia 3210 phones they can stop a .50
They don’t stop anything. Watch demo ranch
7:10 I love that communication system; glad something like that exists already with those capabilities because it saves me having to learn a fuckload about audio engineering and microphones to figure out those issues.
Since a kid, have been obsessed with helmets. Great vid with informative content!
"It weighed an entire 2 more pounds."
Call me crazy, but I think I'd be fine with 2 extra pounds if it meant that I didn't get domed by some rando that decided my brain would be a snug new home for his rifle round of choice.
I call you crazy. :D
that sounds okay until you only get shot at once every month, and you have to wear the thing for 17 hours straight in 113 degree weather seven days a week
@@crimmy838 again, I'm completely fine with a bit more discomfort if it means that my brains don't make a surprise appearance in a Jackson Pollock painting.
Those helmets look like airsoft helmets :D
the one I'm wearing is an airsoft replica poor mans props haha
@@Taskandpurpose I have a carbon fast helmet for airsoft. Because if I wear a helmet it have to protect me. And my one have ratings for climbers.
Time to start doing neck curls.
getting my neck swole on is my 2022 resolution
Pretty cool. The only downside is the mandible attachment won’t allow for a proper cheek weld on a shoulder-fired weapon. You would need an active aiming device, like laser, or higher mounts so you can use optics with little to no parallax passively without the need for your head being so low.
That field test @4:44 cracked me up so hard 🤣🤣🤣
I don't know if it's the haircut or what, but it looks like you aged ten years since your last video. In a good way. 😂👍 Happy new year!!
its the stress haha pretty sure this job has aged me 20 years in the last 3 years , happy new year brother !
Imagine CBRN protection
Or a version for helicopter crews
I imagine having a clip in mask part would be pretty rad, if it could guarantee the same seal as a normal gas mask
How much would a full plate suit of the same stuff weigh?
I'm not sure but I believe they do make plate armor out of polymer too now, extremely expensive though
A lot more than it does in The Dark Knight.
Being a lower enlisted in the 82nd airborne I’m so excited to finally get my hands on one of these
I was a 15S in the US Army, scout helicopter repair. I started out as a 67N UH-1H repair in 1993. My ears ring all the time from being around rotor and turbine engine noise. So I can totally relate.
Its kinda of funny that these helmets can stop multiple .50AE, but get easily pierced by a crossbow bolts with 10 times LESS energy.
The good news is, no one uses crossbows in combat anymore.
Cappy, any good airsofter knows a mandible guard totally ruins your cheekweld on rifles- what’s the military doing to address this potentiality?
They’re banking on
A) chinweld and other higher up shooting techniques
B) computerized sight/optics combos that let you shoot through a little window overlaid onto your vision. At some point, soldiers will center rifles in their front plates to absorb recoil better due to these sights
@@alexberkowitz5897 that would be awesome for me im left handed but can't close my right eye by itself
You have to ask yourself would you want to be hit in the head while wearing on of the new helmets if penetration is no longer the problem, but having to deal with the energy transfer that could probably break your neck
The upgrade to hearing protection while upgrading the comm's and situational awareness would be most welcome, not so sure about the digital gear though, more digital gear means more weight to carry in batteries or sacrificing something else with greater utility.
I don't see how this is even a argument. Going from being fully lobotomized with the old helmet to having a much lighter, ergonomic, overall improved helmet with the only catch being that your neck might break seems like a good deal.
Electronic comms/hearing protections have been used in the last 15 years in the military, it’s not new tech, it’s just that with new technologies like the AMP from OpsCore, you get even more situational awareness and hearing protection at the same time.
You make it sound like you need a generator to run them, when you just have to change 2 AAA batteries from time to time. I change mine every month and I use them everyday for hours on end, they have good autonomy.
the energy being transferred from most small arms isn't enough to break your neck. It obviously would still hurt like hell, but as long as the bullet is caught you're much better off than you would've been.
The equipment doesn't need a car battery.
It's never a true Task & Purpose video without Specialist Carl
The weight will always be around the same because weight reduction just makes add ons more available. Electrothermal cooling/heating will eventually be on the list, making it feel like you are in an air conditioned room all the time in extreme heat, or keeping you warm in freezing climates.
Chinese officials taking notes to make copycat models.
I don't know how I came across this channel but it's endlessly fascinating.
Sounds like a combat neck-brace might be in the cards in the near future. Or maybe they could put a sort of pseudo arm that connects the back of your helmet to your plate carrier, so if your head suddenly jerks in an unnatural way, the arm will lock and take the energy to save your neck the trouble.
I imagine two arms with mildly stout springs extending up from the rear plate would do wonders to alleviate neck pressure
This may help saves lives. I would prefer a simple stripped down model as standard issue. Seems to me that the more technical a thing is the more you depend on it, and the more fragile the equipment. Then you have malfunctions or failures due to the environment or wear. All the monitors would lead to poor leadership. Leaders leading by stats, heart rate, gps location, body temp. Sometimes in the heat of combat, your best survival tool is not knowing your dehydrated, overheated, hypothermic, or that you lost too much blood. I could go on and on. Your mind can push your body to survive. Not likely to happen if alarms go off every time your body has to compensate. Just my opinion.
I'd agree with that. Basically, a problem isn't a necessarily problem if you don't think/know it's a problem. In terms of fight or flight survival, it's difficult to compete with the God-given tools already baked into the human meat buggy.
virtus helmet is definitelly a step up very comfortable the chin strap doesnt itch if gets wet then drys light compared to mk6/7 and a huge upgrade personally for me it sits on your head perfectly doesnt make you look like you've two heads if your like me with a big head
2:47 "Better luck next year" will age like milk
Great, love these type of vids cos i love armor and am vastly intrigued by it. Also how about making full body armor now, or maybe extending the coverage of the body armor to cover the biceps n triceps and the groin etc. But making it so as not to prohibit movement.
Not sure what unit that was shooting handguns throughout the video (seen especially towards the end of the video), but they were shooting a euro-spec FN Five-Seven.
My Grandfather and I enjoy your channel and all your episodes.
We watch them together every time I go to visit him.
He was telling me that the new helmets look pretty cool and I agree.
And it's a far cry from the ones the army issued to him 60 plus years ago when he served in Korea, he added that it's about time they done up armoured it with new technologies and figures that it should now make up for the lacking of not being able to heat up water to cook & having hot water to shave & clean themselves with.
Saying that the steel pots they wore were more valued for that than the protection that they were designed for.
Love the shows & we're always looking forward to the next ones.
Thank you for your creative content and my Grampa says;
"Hooah Dog man! Carry on!"
And I say; "Thank you for your service, & God bless you and your family!"
8:32 lol the dude almost pushed his buddy in the doorway 🤣🤣🤣
great idea behind the mandibles HOWEVER i was part of a unit fielding these mandible pieces in 2009 and there was SO MUCH wrong with these. for instance drinking is damn near impossible, they are super uncomfortable while restricting motion. you mentioned mobility wasnt an issue but when wearing body armor trying to look down was also damn near impossible. being in a gun turret with this made it TOO hard to protect the direct surroundings of my vehicle. using this on foot patrols was so hindering, trying to see your footing or make sure there isnt an ied where youre about to step. now for the worst part. getting a cheek weld or ANY type of sight picture was IMPOSSIBLE. Also the temp specs are absolute BS. We had SEVERAL mandible pieces warp and become MUSHY due to heat. ambient temp might be 120 but in a shipping container or baking in the sun would destroy the efficacy of these. i could go on and on about how mandible pieces are just not an option.
I absolutely hated the ACH. It broke my nose once while I was a JAFO in a truck and we got hooked up with an RPG. The nods mount came down on the bridge of my nose when I fell forward really hard. I’m so glad they upgraded some of them. But I doubt Private Snuffy is going to be getting any upgrade any time soon.
I see the future being a visir that looks like it is see-through, but is a digital screen where you get normal, IR, heat, nightvision, radar detection overlay and battlefield info all joined together.
After we got issued the opscore helmet in the norwegian army,
i suffered only two head injuries!
Once from fumbling and dropping the helmet in my face when getting it off the top of my locker,
and once more when trying to flip it onto my head like a fancy tophat.
I only wish you guys covered weapons handling with the helmet. For example, cheekhold with that faceshield extension.